Plain-English framing: a 'moratorium' is a city or county council voting to stop accepting, reviewing, or approving any new data-center applications for a fixed window (here ranging 30 days to 12 months) while staff study water, power, and noise impacts. It...
WGLT / WAND / CBS Minnesota / KUNR / Seattle City Council ↗
ColoradoIllinoisWashingtonMinnesotaMoratorium
Read why it matters →Why a town of 2,000 people matters to a national platform: Cave City is the cleanest example of the 'pre-emptive' moratorium pattern, where a council pauses data centers before any project has actually been proposed or built. It was triggered by a developer...
WBKO / Spectrum News 1 KY / WKYU / WCLU Radio ↗
ColoradoMoratorium
Read why it matters →Plain-English framing: in the U.S. grid, FERC (the federal regulator) governs interstate transmission, while individual state commissions govern local distribution and retail service. Data centers are so large that they blur the line — a single campus can...
Utility Dive / White & Case / American Bar Association / ENR ↗
PJMFERCMoratoriumInterconnectionHyperscaler
Read why it matters →Denver is the cleanest 'yes' outcome of the four. Unanimous (13-0), one-year duration, immediate three-day window before effect (May 21), and the moratorium is scoped specifically to data center as the 'proposed primary use' — meaning a data center...
Denverite / Denver Gazette / 9news / CBS Colorado ↗
ColoradoNorth CarolinaMoratorium
Read why it matters →Charlotte is the contrast case to Denver: same kind of city-council moratorium proposal, similar developer/anti-developer split, but the mayor's tie-break vote went against the procedural fast-track. The substance question is not actually decided yet — the...
Govtech / WBTV / Axios Charlotte / WFAE / AOL ↗
ColoradoNorth CarolinaMoratorium
Read why it matters →Cheyenne is the weakest of the four outcomes for the pause camp. A motion failing to get a second in committee is the procedural equivalent of zero councilors other than the sponsor being willing to publicly support advancing the proposal. The 'no...
Cap City News / Wyoming News / Cowboy State Daily / Wyoming Public Media ↗
VirginiaColoradoNorth CarolinaArizonaMoratoriumHyperscaler
Read why it matters →Cave City is the smallest jurisdiction of the four (population ~2,000) but the most structurally interesting because it's the first Kentucky moratorium in a small town that has NOT yet seen any data center construction. Discovery (a developer Raymond will...
WBKO / Spectrum News 1 KY / WCLU Radio / Bowling Green Daily News / WKMS ↗
ColoradoNorth CarolinaMoratorium
Read why it matters →Three structurally different state-level outcomes in one week, all in the ratepayer-protection family. Oklahoma is the cleanest version: statute-only, no PUC tariff layer, 75 MW threshold, effective July 1, and the 60-day pre-acquisition notice provision is...
KGOU / OKCFOX / Fox23 / Oklahoma House / Oklahoma Voice / The Gazette CO / Colorado Newsline / Westword / Virginia Mercury / WYDaily / Office of the Governor of Virginia ↗
PJMVirginiaColoradoWisconsinMoratoriumRatepayer protection
Read why it matters →Reno is the second Mountain West city to enact a data-center moratorium this month (after Denver's May 18 vote, which is happening today), and the first in Nevada to do so at any level of government. The 6-1 vote at a 7-hour special meeting is one of the...
The Nevada Independent / Las Vegas Review-Journal / KOLO / Fox Reno / MyNews4 / Govtech / This Is Reno ↗
ColoradoWashingtonMoratorium
Read why it matters →Today is the single highest-density 'moratorium decision day' of 2026 so far. Four municipal-level decisions in geographically distinct markets (Mountain West urban, Sun Belt urban, central Kentucky rural, Mountain West regional capital) plus a structurally...
9news / CBS Colorado / Yellow Scene / Denver Gazette / Cap City News / Wyoming Public Media / WBTV / Axios Charlotte / Govtech / WCLU Radio / Utility Dive ↗
PJMFERCEPATexasMoratoriumInterconnectionBehind-the-meter
Read why it matters →Hyperion is the largest single-site hyperscaler gas-fleet buildout in US history. The 10-gas-plant, 7+ GW figure is roughly 2x the next-largest hyperscaler gas commitment on the public tape (Microsoft's Quincy WA campus, ~3.5 GW gas commitment) and roughly...
Yahoo Finance / The Cool Down / WinBuzzer / EnergyNow / Energy Connects / Utility Dive ↗
ERCOTTexasVirginiaTennesseeMoratoriumInterconnectionBehind-the-meter
Read why it matters →HB 2992 is structurally different from the other four state-level ratepayer-protection actions in the May cluster. Pennsylvania's May 8 PUC model tariff is regulator-issued guidance (binding on the four PA investor-owned utilities only after...
Oklahoma House of Representatives / Oklahoma Senate / KGOU / OKCFOX / Fox23 / Oklahoma Energy Today ↗
PJMFERCWisconsinFloridaMoratoriumInterconnectionRatepayer protection
Read why it matters →Cheyenne is the first city anywhere west of the Mississippi to introduce a data-center moratorium ordinance at the council level in 2026 (the Wisconsin/Michigan/Ohio/Indiana cluster is Midwest; the GA/NC/FL/AL cluster is Sun Belt; Texas has no moratorium tape...
Cowboy State Daily / KGAB / Cap City News / Wyoming News / Casper Star-Tribune ↗
ERCOTTexasVirginiaColoradoMoratoriumHyperscaler
Read why it matters →Three more entries in the local-moratorium tape, each illustrating a different sub-pattern. Penn Township MI: pure preemptive moratorium with no land sold and no developer named. The Diamond Lake Association (the local lake-property-owner organization) drove...
WNDU / WSBT / IPM News / Washington Times-Herald / News4Jax / Seehafer News ↗
North CarolinaWisconsinOhioGeorgiaMoratoriumBehind-the-meterHyperscaler
Read why it matters →Two procedural patterns that materially change how to read the local-moratorium tape and the PJM NCBL timeline. (1) Pennsylvania's 180-day moratorium-by-MPC-invocation: the state Municipalities Planning Code has provisions that allow any municipality to...
Morning-Times / Modo Energy / RTO Insider / PA MPC / Independent Market Monitor for PJM ↗
PJMFERCMoratoriumBehind-the-meterCapacity market
Read why it matters →The North Carolina cluster has reached critical mass through the May 4-10 window in three layered ways. Layer 1 (local moratoria): Harnett County's unanimous 1-year approval on May 4 — driven by Sen. Jim Burgin's disclosure that a developer was 'earnestly...
NC Newsline / Sanford Herald / Axios Charlotte / WBTV / Spring Hope Enterprise / NCleg ↗
VirginiaNorth CarolinaWisconsinMaineMoratoriumRatepayer protection
Read why it matters →Two updates on the local-moratorium tape that fill in the May 11 picture. (1) Kingsland GA: the City Council votes tonight on a 90-day moratorium that City Manager Lee Spell publicly recommended on April 24. The political context shifted last week when...
Georgia Public Broadcasting / The Current GA / Marengo Township / Bridge Michigan / WKAR Public Media ↗
TexasVirginiaWisconsinOhioMoratoriumBallot initiative
Read why it matters →Pending-item resolution for May 11. Colorado SB 102 (Sen. Cathy Kipp, March 18 introduction): the bill would have banned utility economic agreements incentivizing data centers and required 100% new-renewable sourcing by 2031. Per Colorado Politics ('Despite...
Colorado Politics / CPR / Seehafer News / 9News Denver / WBTV / ERCOT ↗
ERCOTPJMFERCColoradoMoratoriumInterconnectionRatepayer protection
Read why it matters →Three regulatory events in the same 24-hour window on May 8 — Pennsylvania PUC's model-tariff vote, PPL Electric's pending rate-case settlement (filed March 13, ALJ recommendation April 17, effective July 1), and Oregon PUC's PGE Schedule 96 directive —...
WHYY / WESA / Utility Dive / KGW / KOIN / Beaver County Radio / RTO Insider ↗
ERCOTPJMFERCWisconsinMoratoriumInterconnectionBehind-the-meter
Read why it matters →Four ongoing local-level developments tracked into May 9-10. (1) Box Elder UT referendum filing: data-center opponents in Box Elder County applied this week (reported by CNN May 9 syndication, KSL May 7 reporting) for a November 2026 ballot referendum to...
CNN / KSL / WVPE / 95.3 MNC / Seehafer News / WBTV ↗
North CarolinaWisconsinOhioGeorgiaMoratoriumRatepayer protectionHyperscaler
Read why it matters →HB 1030 was Colorado's primary 2026 attempt to attract data-center investment via tax incentives — the bill was first introduced in January and modeled loosely on the sales-and-use exemption regimes that Texas, Virginia, Georgia, Ohio, Iowa, Nebraska, and...
KUNC / CPR News / The Colorado Sun / The Durango Herald ↗
ERCOTPJMMISOTexasMoratoriumTax incentiveRatepayer protection
Read why it matters →Four jurisdictions moved on data-center moratoria in the May 4-8 window. (1) Durham NC city council unanimously approved a 60-day moratorium May 4. The 60-day duration is *not* the council's policy preference — Council member Nate Baker explicitly stated 'I...
WRAL / Indy Week / Axios Charlotte / Capitol Hill Seattle News / Lakeland Times / Northwoods River News ↗
North CarolinaWisconsinGeorgiaWashingtonMoratoriumRatepayer protection
Read why it matters →Three distinct state-level instruments and their May status: (1) Ohio Prohibition of Data Center Construction Amendment — a citizen-initiated state constitutional amendment that would write a 25 MW cap into Ohio's constitution. AG Dave Yost certified the...
Ballotpedia / Ohio Capital Journal / 13abc / Indiana General Assembly / Maine Governor's Office ↗
WisconsinOhioFloridaIndianaMoratoriumRatepayer protectionBallot initiative
Read why it matters →EBCI is a federally recognized Native American tribe headquartered in Cherokee, North Carolina, with roughly 57,000 acres of trust land (the Qualla Boundary) primarily in Swain and Jackson Counties in the Great Smoky Mountains region. The ordinance passed...
WUNC / Cherokee One Feather / Smoky Mountain News ↗
North CarolinaOklahomaMoratorium
Read why it matters →Five separate jurisdictions moved on data-center moratoria or rejections in the May 4-8 window. (1) Northampton County NC (rural northeastern NC, ~17,500 population, near the Roanoke-Chowan area) approved a 32-month pause unanimously on May 4 after residents...
NC Health News / Fox Baltimore / The Banner / Post & Courier (Colleton) / First Alert 4 (Ferguson) / KSHB (Gardner) / Tom's Hardware ↗
North CarolinaGeorgiaMarylandKansasMoratoriumTax incentive
Read why it matters →Maricopa County, Arizona supervisors approved a Military Compatibility Permit for Project Baccara, a Takanock-developed campus comprising two 1 million-square-foot data centers plus a 700 MW on-site gas generating station. The site is roughly 1 mile from Luke...
12 News Phoenix / KJZZ / FOX 10 Phoenix ↗
ArizonaMoratoriumBehind-the-meter
Read why it matters →Eight separate municipal / county data-center moratorium or restriction actions in 48 hours. Sedgwick County (Wichita-area) Kansas commissioners voted unanimously to extend their moratorium for an additional 90 days to September 11; this is the second...
KWCH (Sedgwick) / WTOC (Bulloch) / Seattle CHS / Bethesda Magazine (MoCo) / Vindicator (Lordstown) / Strisker daily notes ↗
OhioGeorgiaWashingtonMarylandMoratoriumHyperscaler
Read why it matters →Box Elder County commissioners voted unanimously to approve two resolutions in support of a 40,000-acre data center campus on an unincorporated site in northern Utah. The project, dubbed Stratos and developed by O'Leary Digital, would span 40,000 acres of...
Utah News Dispatch / KSL.com ↗
ERCOTPJMMISONorth CarolinaMoratoriumInterconnectionBehind-the-meter
Read why it matters →Durham City Council on Monday unanimously approved a 60-day moratorium covering data centers, data processing, and cryptocurrency mining development, with more than 30 people speaking during public comment. The council had originally considered a 24-month...
WRAL / Indy Week ↗
North CarolinaMoratorium
Read why it matters →At Monday's contentious Hermantown MN City Council meeting, a Google Technical Infrastructure team representative gave the company's first in-person presentation on the proposed 1.2 million sq ft data-center site. Project disclosures: $650 million for Phase...
MPR News / Northern News Now ↗
North CarolinaMinnesotaMoratoriumTax incentiveHyperscaler
Read why it matters →After a packed Hermantown City Council meeting Monday night with hours of public comment, Councilor John Geissler moved to table both the tax-abatement and the development agreement for Google's 1.2 million sq ft data center, citing the need for clarity on...
Duluth News Tribune ↗
North CarolinaMinnesotaMoratoriumTax incentiveHyperscaler
Read why it matters →Kirk Tovey, the Florida businessman behind a planned data center on a 682-acre tract in Kingsland GA, withdrew his rezoning application (industrial-park rezone + partial annexation by Kingsland) hours before the city's planning and zoning board was set to...
The Current GA ↗
FloridaMoratorium
Read why it matters →WRAL and Data Center Knowledge confirm North Carolina lawmakers have moved HB 1004, the Ratepayer and Resource Protection Act, into the 2025-2026 General Assembly. Filed April 27, 2026. Threshold: facilities with peak electricity demand of ≥40 MW...
Data Center Knowledge ↗
ERCOTPJMFERCTexasMoratoriumInterconnectionBehind-the-meter
Read why it matters →The Sedgwick County KS Board of Commissioners is set to vote tomorrow (May 6) on whether to extend the data-center application moratorium beyond its current June 11 expiration. Current pause sequence: enacted Jan 13, extended unanimously March 4, expiring...
KWCH ↗
SPPFERCKansasMoratoriumInterconnection
Read why it matters →Amazon Web Services filed suit in May 2025 against King George County after the new Board of Supervisors voted to renegotiate the 2023 performance agreement for AWS's 7.5M sq ft / $6B data-center campus. Amazon is seeking enforcement of the original zoning...
Washington Post (paywalled) via DCD ↗
VirginiaMoratoriumHyperscaler
Read why it matters →PJM Interconnection's Critical Issue Fast Path Reliability Backstop Procurement (CIFP-RBP) proposal, released April 10 and detailed in its April 16 stakeholder package, calls for a one-time two-phase backstop procurement of 14.9 GW of new resources to serve...
Utility Dive ↗
ERCOTPJMFERCMoratoriumInterconnectionFERC action
Read why it matters →Fleet Data Centers filed applications with Nevada state energy regulators April 20 to construct more than 350 MW of behind-the-meter natural gas and diesel power for two data center campuses at Tahoe Reno Industrial Center (TRIC) in Storey County, NV. South...
Carson Now ↗
ERCOTTexasUtahKansasMoratoriumAir permitInterconnection
Read why it matters →Two parallel local-opposition lawsuits this past week. Yorkville, IL: Preserve our Yorkville & Community filed against the City of Yorkville to halt the 1,034-acre Project Cardinal data center; April 24 court hearing extended to May 8 with both legal teams...
Shaw Local (Yorkville) ↗
MinnesotaMoratoriumTax incentiveHyperscaler
Read why it matters →Two large hyperscaler footprint moves this past week. AWS: ~$15B planned investment in Northern Indiana for multiple data center campuses adding approximately 2.4 GW of capacity dedicated to cloud computing and AI workloads. Microsoft: the $3.3B Fairwater...
Microsoft / Mount Pleasant village ↗
PJMMISOWisconsinOhioMoratoriumBallot initiativeHyperscaler
Read why it matters →Three Seattle councilmembers (Juarez D5, Lin D2, Hollingsworth President) announced April 30 they will introduce an emergency 365-day data center moratorium with the bill drop targeted for mid-May; a public hearing is required within 60 days of adoption....
Spokesman-Review ↗
WashingtonMoratoriumInterconnection
Read why it matters →The Camden County (GA) Board of Commissioners is set to vote Tuesday May 6 on adopting a 9-month moratorium on data centers. The proposal is driven by speculation that a Florida-based businessman has requested rezoning of land in Kingsland and the county for...
The Current GA ↗
GeorgiaFloridaMaineMoratorium
Read why it matters →Sedgwick County (Wichita, KS) commissioners are set to vote Wednesday May 6 on another 90-day extension of the freeze on new data center applications. The county originally passed a 90-day moratorium on Jan 15, 2026, then unanimously extended it on March 4 to...
KWCH (Wichita) ↗
KansasMoratorium
Read why it matters →Denver City Council scheduled a second reading and public hearing on the proposed data center moratorium for May 18 with an anticipated effective date of May 21 if it passes. The pause would block all new zoning permits and site development plans for data...
9News Denver ↗
ColoradoMoratoriumAir permit
Read why it matters →Joule Capital Partners, Caterpillar, and Wheeler Machinery (the Cat dealer for Utah/Idaho/Nevada/Wyoming/Montana) announced an agreement to power Joule's 'super-compute-ready' campus in Millard County, UT — 4,000 acres, gigawatt-scale operational launch in...
Caterpillar press release ↗
UtahMoratoriumAir permitInterconnection
Read why it matters →Advocates for an Ohio constitutional amendment banning new data center construction with aggregate power demand exceeding 25 MW are working to collect 413,000 valid signatures by July 1 to qualify for the November 3, 2026 statewide ballot. Petitioning was...
Ohio Capital Journal ↗
OhioIllinoisMoratoriumHyperscaler
Read why it matters →Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft all reported Q1 essentially simultaneously this past week. Final guidance: Amazon ~$200B (vs $125B in 2025), Google $175–185B (vs $91B), Meta $115–135B (vs $72B), Microsoft $110–120B (vs $90B). Total Big Four 2026 capex...
Tom's Hardware ↗
PJMMISOVirginiaOhioMoratoriumHyperscaler
Read why it matters →QTS Realty Trust filed an appeal Apr 30 (hours before the deadline) to the Virginia Supreme Court asking it to overturn the Court of Appeals ruling that nullified Prince William County's 2023 zoning amendments authorizing the 22M sqft Digital Gateway...
Washington Post ↗
VirginiaMoratoriumInterconnection
Read why it matters →Maine House voted 72-65 on Apr 29 to override Gov. Janet Mills' Apr 24 veto of LD 307, falling short of the two-thirds needed. LD 307 would have prevented state, local, and quasi-governmental agencies from issuing permits or approvals for new data centers ≥20...
Maine Public ↗
MaineMoratorium
Read why it matters →The Data Center Consumer Ratepayer Protection Act of 2026 cleared the OK Senate unanimously and now returns to the House. Bill defines 'large load customers' as new facilities ≥75 MW grid demand; requires those customers cover their share of electricity +...
Oklahoma Farm Report ↗
ERCOTTexasOklahomaMoratoriumInterconnectionRatepayer protection
Read why it matters →DTE Energy filed a $474.3M rate-increase request, with a conditional commitment to pause subsequent rate-increase requests for two years if the 1.4 GW Oracle/OpenAI 'The Barn' Saline Township campus energizes by 2027 and DTE wins other unspecified data center...
Bridge Detroit ↗
MoratoriumRatepayer protectionHyperscaler
Read why it matters →Mills vetoed the bill Apr 24 (would have imposed 18-month moratorium on data centers ≥20MW until Nov 2027); override attempt Apr 29 failed despite supporters lining the State House halls. Mills said she would have signed if it carved out the Androscoggin Mill...
Maine Morning Star ↗
MaineMoratorium
Read why it matters →Manitowoc County WI passed unanimous 18-month moratorium Apr 21 after a developer approached three towns with land offers. Swain County NC unanimous 12-month Apr 22. Orange County NC unanimous 1-year Apr 22. Weaverville NC reclassified data centers + crypto...
Good Jobs First ↗
TexasMoratoriumInterconnection
Read why it matters →