Plain-English background on why the PJM 2028/29 auction closing today matters more than a routine capacity procurement. PJM Interconnection operates the regional grid across 13 states and DC (roughly PA/NJ/MD/DE/VA/WV/OH/IL/IN/KY/NC/TN/MI and DC) — 65 million...
PJM Inside Lines — PJM Capacity Auction for 2028/2029 Delivery Year Opens (Jun 30 2026) + PJM Inside Lines — The Capacity Auction Is Coming. Here's What We're Doing Now + PA Environment Digest — FERC Approves Extension Of PJM Capacity Auction Price Cap Floor For Next 2 Auctions (Apr 30 2026) + PJM 2027/2028 Base Residual Auction Report (Dec 17 2025) + Enel North America — PJM 2027/2028 Capacity Auction Results + ESAI Power — PJM Capacity Auction Calendar ↗
ERCOTPJMFERCVirginiaMoratoriumInterconnectionCapacity market
Read why it matters →Plain-English background on why the Prince George's vote today matters as more than a local ordinance. Prince George's County is the second-largest county in Maryland by population (~955k residents), immediately east of Washington DC. It sits inside the PJM...
WUSA9 — Prince George's County debates 2-year data center development moratorium + WJLA — Data center protest held in Prince George's County as council considers 2-year moratorium + NBC4 Washington — Local Maryland governments pause data center development + Prince George's Suite — Data Centers On Hold + The Cool Down — Maryland anti-data-center rally draws counterprotesters before moratorium vote + Baltimore Banner — Prince George's County data centers may hinge on Election Day + Maryland Daily Record — Western MD county approves data center moratorium ↗
ERCOTPJMFERCVirginiaMoratoriumAir permitInterconnection
Read why it matters →Plain-English recap of what actually happened at Lakeland City Hall Monday morning. Commissioners were scheduled to hold a first reading and public hearing on a proposed 12-month moratorium covering any data center or 'large load electric customer' using >50...
WFLA — Project Swan debate over Lakeland AI data center moratorium continues + LkldNow — Lakeland Takes First Step Toward Data Center Moratorium + WUSF — Lakeland releases proposed data center moratorium ordinance + Tampa Bay 28 — Lakeland begins drafting one-year moratorium for large-scale data centers + FOX 13 Tampa Bay — Lakeland City Commission to hold first public hearing on proposed data center moratorium + City of Lakeland — Notice of Proposed Moratorium on Data Centers and Large Load Customers ↗
ERCOTPJMFERCGeorgiaMoratoriumInterconnectionHyperscaler
Read why it matters →Plain-English background on why post-operational neighbor tort suits are a structurally new failure mode. The four failure modes Cliff has been tracking this weekend all attach at siting or permitting stages: county moratoriums freeze new applications, state...
Tom's Hardware — Wisconsin residents file class-action lawsuit against Microsoft's 'world's most powerful AI data center' due to data center noise + Digitimes — Microsoft AI data center faces Wisconsin lawsuit over noise and light pollution + WPR — Microsoft sued over noise complaints at new Mount Pleasant data center facility + News From The States — Sturtevant residents file class action suit over Microsoft data center noise + The Center Square Wisconsin — Class-action lawsuit filed against Microsoft AI data center + Futurism — Microsoft's $7.3 Billion AI Data Center Just Caught a Nasty Lawsuit From Furious Neighbors ↗
TexasWisconsinOhioIllinoisMoratoriumHyperscaler
Read why it matters →Plain-English framing of why these two data drops together are the story of the last week. Individual moratorium votes and lawsuits are anecdotes; the macro numbers tell you whether the anecdotes are a scattered pattern or a directional trend. Both data drops...
Data Center Watch — Q1 2026 Report + NBC News — Data center opponents have blocked or delayed projects worth nearly $130 billion in 2026 study finds + Tom's Hardware — More than 75 data center build-outs worth $130 billion have been successfully blocked in Q1 2026 + MLQ News — 75+ US Data Center Projects Worth $130B Blocked in Q1 2026 + WFYI — Nearly a third of Indiana counties have moved to restrict data centers + Indiana Citizen — WFYI Nearly a third of Indiana counties have moved to restrict data centers + Data Center Bans — Indiana ↗
WisconsinOhioGeorgiaIndianaMoratoriumHyperscaler
Read why it matters →Plain-English background on why a bill with no path to passage still matters strategically. The federal AI Data Center Moratorium Act (S.4214 Senate, H.R.9442 House) is unlikely to pass a Republican-controlled Congress. Sanders is an Independent caucusing...
Congress.gov S.4214 — Artificial Intelligence Data Center Moratorium Act + Congress.gov H.R.9442 — Artificial Intelligence Data Center Moratorium Act + Sen. Bernie Sanders Press Release — Sanders Ocasio-Cortez Announce AI Data Center Moratorium Act + Rep. Ocasio-Cortez Press Release — Ocasio-Cortez Introduces House Version of the AI Data Center Moratorium Act + Rep. Andre Carson Press Release — Carson Introduces Data Center Moratorium Bill + Section by Section: Artificial Intelligence Data Center Moratorium Act + Data Center Dynamics — Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders introduce AI Data Center Moratorium Act ↗
IndianaMoratorium
Read why it matters →Plain-English background on why 'statewide' and '1 MW threshold' are the two most important words in this item. Until this week, every US data center moratorium was either a county ordinance (Linn IA, Washington MD, Prince George's MD, Whitley IN, Clark IN,...
Source New Mexico — New Mexico lawmakers announce proposed statewide moratorium on data centers (Jul 3 2026) + Santa Fe New Mexican — Santa Fe County approves 18-month data center moratorium + KRQE — Santa Fe County commissioners approve 18-month moratorium on data centers + KOB — Santa Fe County approves 18-month moratorium on data center development + Albuquerque Journal — Santa Fe County becomes latest New Mexico community to adopt data center moratorium + Los Alamos Daily Post — State Lawmakers To Introduce Data Center Moratorium In Upcoming Legislative Session + Santa Fe New Mexican — Four New Mexico lawmakers plan to propose statewide data center moratorium ↗
ERCOTVirginiaIllinoisMoratoriumInterconnectionBehind-the-meter
Read why it matters →Plain-English background on why ballot-initiative bans are structurally different from council-enacted moratoriums. A city council ordinance can be reversed by a subsequent city council vote (typically 3 of 5 or 4 of 7 depending on the city). A...
Ballotpedia — Monterey Park California Measure NDC Prohibit Data Centers Measure (June 2026) + Broadband Breakfast — Monterey Park Votes to Permanently Ban Data Centers + ABC7 Los Angeles — Monterey Park voters approve Measure NDC banning power-hungry data centers within city limits + Fox Business — California city votes to permanently ban data centers in first-of-its-kind measure + LA Public Press — Monterey Park overwhelmingly votes to ban data centers + City of Monterey Park — June 2 2026 Special Municipal Election page + Data Center Knowledge — California City Approves First Voter-Enacted Data Center Ban ↗
VirginiaColoradoArizonaOregonMoratoriumRatepayer protectionBallot initiative
Read why it matters →Plain-English rollup of what didn't change over the July 4 weekend and what's coming next week.
**ERCOT Batch Zero Form W Part A — T-6 to Thursday July 10.** No change since Thursday. The Interconnecting Large Load Entity (data center operator) must...
ERCOT — Large Load Integration Page + PJM Inside Lines — PJM Capacity Auction for 2028/2029 Delivery Year Opens (Jun 30 2026) + ESAI Power — PJM Capacity Auction Calendar + City of Lakeland — Notice of Proposed Moratorium on Data Centers and Large Load Customers + WUSA9 — Prince George's County debates 2-year data center development moratorium + WJLA — Data center protest held in Prince George's County + Utility Dive — FERC extends comment deadline on PJM data center transmission complaint + Lexington Institute — Gov Hochul's Data Center Moratorium Veto Deliberations ↗
ERCOTPJMFERCTexasMoratoriumInterconnectionCapacity market
Read why it matters →Plain-English background on what got killed and why it matters. Digital Gateway was the planned largest data center campus in the world by every dimension. Location: 2,100 acres of former farmland immediately east of Manassas National Battlefield Park in...
Washington Times — Company kills plan for world's largest data center hub near Manassas National Battlefield Park (Jul 3 2026) + Bloomberg — Blackstone's QTS Abandons Massive Data Center in Virginia (Jul 2 2026) + Potomac Local — QTS Withdraws Supreme Court Appeal, Ending Proposed Digital Gateway Data Center Project (Jul 3 2026) + FOX 5 DC — QTS drops appeal, ending plans for massive Prince William County data center + Tom's Hardware — Blackstone-owned QTS abandons planned world's largest data center campus after years of lawsuits — 2,100-acre Virginia Digital Gateway project dies over a newspaper-notice technicality + National Parks Conservation Association — Victory for Manassas: Proposed Massive Data Center Digital Gateway Threat Ends + InsideNova — Digital Gateway data center project in Prince William dies ↗
VirginiaMoratoriumAir permitRatepayer protection
Read why it matters →Plain-English background on why county moratoriums matter more than they look. A county moratorium is a temporary local ordinance that suspends new development permits or rezoning applications for a specific category of use (in this case, data centers) for a...
Wave3 Louisville — Clark County could consider moratorium on data center zoning (Jul 3 2026) + News and Tribune — Clark County officials considering data center moratorium + Post and Mail — Whitley County putting moratorium on data centers + City of Lakeland — Notice of Proposed Moratorium on Data Centers and Large Load Customers + LkldNow — City Releases Proposed Data Center Moratorium Ordinance + LkldNow — Lakeland Takes First Step Toward Data Center Moratorium + FOX 13 Tampa Bay — Lakeland moves forward with drafting 12-month moratorium on large-scale data centers + WUSF — Zephyrhills City Council puts a one-year moratorium on data centers (Jun 24 2026) ↗
ERCOTPJMMISOOhioMoratoriumInterconnection
Read why it matters →Plain-English background on why the four operational-track deadlines all matter this month. Each of these deadlines drives a specific action by developers, hyperscalers, or state parties, and each represents a concrete moment where Cliff can produce a...
ERCOT — Large Load Integration Page + PJM Inside Lines — PJM Capacity Auction for 2028/2029 Delivery Year Opens (Jun 30 2026) + PJM — 2028/2029 Base Residual Auction Documents (Jun 30 2026) + Utility Dive — Maryland lawmakers back data center transmission cost complaint at FERC + Utility Dive — FERC extends comment deadline on PJM data center transmission complaint + Greenberg Traurig — New York Legislature Passes Data Center Moratorium; Bill Awaits Governor's Approval + Harris Beach Murtha — New York State Legislature Passes First-in-the-Nation Data Center Moratorium ↗
ERCOTPJMMISOCAISOMoratoriumInterconnectionCapacity market
Read why it matters →Plain-English background on ballot initiatives. A statewide ballot initiative is a mechanism in about half of US states where citizens can put a proposed law or constitutional amendment directly on the general-election ballot, bypassing the state legislature....
Ballotpedia — Ohio Prohibition of Data Center Construction Amendment (2026) + WFMJ — Ohio Data Center Ban Ballot Issue Falls Short of Signatures + Ohio Capital Journal — Data Center Ban on the Ohio Ballot? Petitioners Get Approval to Start Gathering Signatures + Linn County IA Board of Supervisors CivicAlert #4488 — Linn County Passes Temporary Data Center Moratorium for Unincorporated Linn County + Corridor Business — Linn County Data Center Moratorium Approved: How the Board Got to 2-1, and What Happens Next + CBS2 Iowa — 2-1 Vote Sets 18-Month Data Center Moratorium for Unincorporated Linn County + KCRG — Despite Putting Ordinance in Place, Linn County Passes Data Center Moratorium + Maryland Daily Record — Western MD County Approves Data Center Moratorium (Jul 1 2026) + WJLA — Data Center Protest Held in Prince George's County as Council Considers 2-Year Moratorium + WUSA9 — Prince George's County Debates 2-Year Data Center Development Moratorium ↗
PJMColoradoOhioArizonaMoratoriumBallot initiative
Read why it matters →Plain-English background. Illinois is a 'blue trifecta' state — Democratic governor, Democratic-majority state Senate, Democratic-majority state House. The Democratic coalition in Illinois has three major internal constituencies: (a) organized labor,...
Capitol News Illinois — Gov. JB Pritzker Suspends Tax Breaks for Data Centers, Urging More Discussion + The Hill — Pritzker Pauses Data Center Tax Incentives in Illinois + E&E News — Pritzker Hits Pause on Illinois Data Center Subsidies + American Public Power Association — Illinois Governor Pauses New Data Center Tax Incentives + Union Bulletin — Gov. JB Pritzker Pauses Tax Incentives for Data Centers After Regulation Efforts Stall in Illinois Legislature + Illinois Governor's Newsroom — Gov. Pritzker Pauses New Data Center Tax Incentives (Jun 30 2026) ↗
ERCOTPJMVirginiaOhioMoratoriumInterconnectionRatepayer protection
Read why it matters →Plain-English background on the operational track. Yesterday's newsletter covered the regulatory calendar (VA tax, IL DCIP freeze, FL SB 484, Trump EO 14318, PJM auction open, ERCOT Batch Zero deadlines, Abbott Texas memo). Today's operational read is about...
ERCOT — Large Load Integration Page + ERCOT Market Notice M-B062326-01 Implementation of the Batch Zero Process + ERCOT Trending Topic New Batch Connection Process for Large Electricity Users (Jun 18 2026 PDF) + EPE Consulting — New Pathway and Deadlines in ERCOT's Large Load Batch Zero PCLR + Willkie Farr & Gallagher — ERCOT Approves Implementing New Batch Zero Process for Large Load Interconnections + Foley & Lardner — ERCOT's Proposed Batch Zero Process What Developers of Large Loads Need to Know + Microsoft Source — Microsoft Completes Construction on First Datacenter Facility in Mount Pleasant Wisconsin (Jun 23 2026) + WEDC — Gov. Evers Microsoft Officials Announce New $4 Billion Investment in Mount Pleasant Datacenter ↗
ERCOTPJMMISOTexasMoratoriumInterconnectionHyperscaler
Read why it matters →Plain-English background. Four separate regulatory clocks all reach 12:01 AM Wednesday July 1, 2026 at the same instant. Three are state-level and point toward friction — they increase cost or reduce access for hyperscalers building in that state. One is...
Greenberg Traurig — Virginia Legislature Approves Tax on Data Center Electricity Consumption (Jun 2026) + Data Center Knowledge — Virginia Approves First-Ever Data Center Power Tax + Illinois Governor's Newsroom — Gov. Pritzker Pauses New Data Center Tax Incentives + Capitol News Illinois — Gov. JB Pritzker to Suspend Tax Breaks for Data Centers, Urging More Discussion + The Hill — Pritzker Pauses Data Center Tax Incentives in Illinois + MultiState — State Data Center Policy Shifts as Governors Impose New Restrictions (Jun 22 2026) + Whitehouse.gov — Executive Order 14318 Promoting Advanced Artificial Intelligence Innovation and Security (Jun 2026) + AI Governance Institute — EO 14318 Accelerating Federal Permitting Data Center Infrastructure 2026 + Henrico Citizen — Virginia Has a New Two-Year Budget. Here's What Lawmakers Now Require of Data Centers + Kiplinger — Virginia Approves First Data Center Power Tax ↗
ERCOTPJMMISOEPAMoratoriumTax incentiveInterconnection
Read why it matters →Plain-English background. Local government data center moratoriums are legally vulnerable in a specific way. Under most state constitutions and common-law doctrine, a moratorium — a temporary halt on all permit applications — is only defensible when the local...
Texas Tribune — Texas Hill County Moratorium Rescinded Data Centers (Jun 5 2026) + KERA — Hill County Drops Data Center Moratorium After Lawsuit, Adopts New Review Requirements (Jun 5 2026) + WBKO — Developer Sues Cave City Over Data Center Zoning Moratorium (Jun 9 2026) + Spectrum News 1 KY — Lawsuit Filed Over Data Center Zoning Moratorium + inewsource — Imperial County Approves Data Center Moratorium (Jun 16 2026) + CalMatters — Imperial County Data Center (Jun 2026) + WFMJ — Ohio Supreme Court Asked to Halt Lordstown Data Center Freeze + Data Center Dynamics — Data Center Developer Sues North Carolina County After It Passes One-Year Moratorium + Greenberg Traurig — New York Legislature Passes Data Center Moratorium Bill Awaits Governor's Approval + WGRZ — New York Bill Pausing Data Centers Awaits Hochul Decision + GovTech — Some Urge Gov. Hochul to Veto New York State Data Center Block + Lexington Institute — Gov. Hochul's Data Center Moratorium Veto Deliberations ↗
TexasNorth CarolinaOhioMoratoriumBallot initiative
Read why it matters →Plain-English background. Virginia has two governors who matter for data centers: the Republican-appointed State Corporation Commission (SCC) that sets utility rates, and the elected governor who signs budgets. Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D) was elected in...
Virginia Mercury — Virginia General Assembly approves Spanberger's budget amendments, ending monthslong impasse (Jun 29 2026) + VPM News — Lawmakers accept Spanberger's budget amendments, averting state funding crisis (Jun 29 2026) + News From The States — Virginia has a new two-year budget. Here's what lawmakers now require of data centers + Canary Media — Virginia slaps data centers with big new tax — but no climate rules + Northern Virginia Daily — General Assembly OKs Spanberger's budget amendments, ending impasse + Virginia Scope — Data center debate spills over into Spanberger bill signing ↗
VirginiaMoratoriumTax incentiveBehind-the-meter
Read why it matters →Plain-English background. There are two ways to legislate a data center moratorium. A 'county zoning moratorium' is local — a single county or city pauses applications in its own boundaries for 6-12 months while it writes rules. A 'state-level moratorium' is...
Greenberg Traurig — New York Legislature Passes Data Center Moratorium; Bill Awaits Governor's Approval (Jun 2026) + Harris Beach Murtha — New York State Legislature Passes First-in-the-Nation Data Center Moratorium + Mintz — New York Legislature Passes First-in-the-Nation Data Center Moratorium, Awaiting Governor's Signature (Jun 12 2026) + DCD — New York state legislature passes data center moratorium, awaits governor Hochul's approval + Earthjustice — NYS Legislature Passes Data Center Moratorium + Thompson Hine — Vetoed, Not Dead: Maine's Data Center Moratorium and What It Means for Developers + Maine Office of the Governor — Veto Message LD 307 (Apr 24 2026) ↗
MaineOregonMoratoriumRatepayer protection
Read why it matters →Plain-English background. Until 2026 the consensus narrative was that US data center capex was supply-constrained — power, transformers, switchgear, GPUs — but demand was effectively unlimited. Hyperscalers (Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Meta, Oracle,...
SemiAnalysis — Microsoft's Datacenter Freeze: 1.5GW Self-Build Slowdown & Lease Cancellation Misconceptions (Apr 2026) + SemiAnalysis X update referencing latest Microsoft 10-K (Microsoft FY26 10-K) + Tech Insider — U.S. AI Data Center Delays: 7 GW Capacity Crisis 2026 + Latitude Media + Sightline Climate 2026 cancellation tracker + ABC7 Los Angeles — Monterey Park voters approve Measure NDC, banning power-hungry data centers within city limits + Fox Business — California city votes to permanently ban data centers in first-of-its-kind measure + Ballotpedia Monterey Park CA Measure NDC + Monterey Park City Council Newsflash ↗
TexasArizonaMoratoriumHyperscaler
Read why it matters →Plain-English background. A 'data center moratorium' is a county or city ordinance that pauses all new data center applications for a fixed period (commonly 6 or 12 months) so the local government can write zoning rules, set impact fees, or just decide...
Fox Carolina — Spartanburg County votes to pause data center applications for one year (Jun 22 2026) + KTIV — Woodbury County passes moratorium on data center projects (Jun 23 2026) + Iowa Public Radio + cityviewnc.com — Cumberland County Enacts 6-Month Data Center Moratorium (Jun 15 2026) + KCTV5 — Legislature advances ordinance extending Jackson County data center moratorium to 180 days (Jun 9 2026) + Engage LexingtonKY — Data Centers in Lexington (Jun 9 2026) + interconnectedcapital.com US Data Center Moratorium Tracker 2026 ↗
PJMMISOCAISOSPPMoratoriumInterconnection
Read why it matters →Plain-English version. Imperial County sits in California's southeastern corner against the Mexican border — agricultural valley land, ~180,000 residents, hot desert climate, one of the lowest median income counties in California. The Imperial Irrigation...
CalMatters — This rural, California county approved a massive new data center. Then it changed its mind. (Jun 27 2026) + KPBS — Imperial Valley data center developer files lawsuit seeking access to Colorado River water (Jun 15 2026) + East County Magazine + Washington Post (Jun 23 2026) + CP&DR News Briefs Jun 23 2026 + The Cool Down + Imperial Valley Press ↗
TexasColoradoArizonaMoratoriumBallot initiative
Read why it matters →Plain-English background. Minnesota sits in MISO (Midcontinent Independent System Operator) — the same RTO that just received FERC's June 18 show-cause order on large-load tariff design. Minnesota's data center growth had been more measured than...
CBS Minnesota — Minneapolis City Council approves 5-month pause on data center development (Jun 25 2026) + Fox 9 — Inver Grove Heights City Council votes to pass data center moratorium despite developer threatening lawsuit (Jun 26 2026) + MPR News — Inver Grove Heights approves one-year moratorium on data centers + KSTP — Inver Grove Heights council pauses data centers amid lawsuit threat + Star Tribune + Bring Me The News + Audacy / WCCO Radio ↗
MISOFERCTexasColoradoMoratorium
Read why it matters →Plain-English version. Oregon is a top-5 state for data center capacity in the US: ~7-8% of all US data center build-out has been in Oregon over the last decade, concentrated in Hillsboro (the Washington County corridor west of Portland), Prineville (Crook...
Oregon Department of Energy — Governor's Data Center Advisory Committee Meeting 5 Agenda (Jun 26 2026) + Davis Wright Tremaine — New Oregon Law Impacts Data Center Development Statewide + Oregon CUB — Oregon Still Needs More Protections Against Data Centers + Columbia Riverkeeper engagement materials ↗
PJMVirginiaOregonMoratoriumRatepayer protectionHyperscaler
Read why it matters →Plain-English version of what happened. PJM Interconnection is the regional transmission organization (RTO) — the federally regulated nonprofit that physically dispatches the electric grid for 13 states and DC, covering 67 million people from New Jersey...
PJM Inside Lines — PJM Adds Emergency Procedures to Maintain Reliability (Jun 24 2026) ↗
PJMFERCVirginiaNorth CarolinaMoratoriumInterconnectionCapacity market
Read why it matters →Plain-English version. On June 18, 2026, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC, the federal regulator with jurisdiction over the interstate transmission grid) used Section 206 of the Federal Power Act to issue what are called 'show-cause orders'...
FERC — FERC Launches Aggressive Targeted Action to Speed Large Load Integration (Jun 18 2026) + Mondaq + Day Pitney summaries of the six Section 206 orders + Akin Gump abeyance analysis ↗
PJMMISOCAISOSPPMoratoriumInterconnectionBehind-the-meter
Read why it matters →Plain-English status update. Per yesterday's edition, the New York State legislature passed the 'Responsible Data Center Development Act' (S.10642 / A.11560) — a 1-year moratorium on new permits for hyperscale (>20 MW) data centers, plus an 18-month statewide...
Status check via NY Senate bill tracker + Gov. Hochul press office (no statement issued Jun 25 or AM Jun 26) + Mintz / Greenberg Traurig / Harris Beach Murtha analyses cited in yesterday's edition ↗
NYISOMoratoriumInterconnection
Read why it matters →Plain-English version. Over the last 30 days, a narrative has hardened in trade press and political coverage: roughly half of US data center capacity 'planned for 2026' will be cancelled or delayed. The claim comes from a few different sources stacked...
SemiAnalysis (Dylan Patel) — Stop Saying Half of 2026 US Datacenter Capacity Is Canceled (Jun 25 2026) + Data Center Watch + Tom's Hardware / TechRadar / TechSpot coverage of Bain analysis ↗
MoratoriumBehind-the-meterHyperscaler
Read why it matters →Plain-English version of what happened. New York has a part-time state legislature that adjourns in mid-June; in the last 72 hours of the 2026 session, both the Senate and Assembly passed S.10642/A.11560, the 'Responsible Data Center Development Act,'...
NY State Senate / Sen. Kristen Gonzalez press release — Passes Data Center Moratorium, First in the Nation If Signed (Jun 23 2026) ↗
MISONYISOFERCWisconsinMoratoriumInterconnectionRatepayer protection
Read why it matters →Plain-English version. Until June 24, the most common threshold for state and local data-center legislation was either 100 MW+ (hyperscale conventional definition, used by industry groups like AFCOM and Uptime Institute) or no threshold at all (county...
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission — FACT SHEET: FERC Directs Nation's Largest Grid Operator to Create New Rules (Jun 18 2026) + cross-reference to NY S.10642 / AOC HR / Sanders S.4214 statutory text ↗
NYISOFERCOregonOklahomaMoratoriumInterconnectionBehind-the-meter
Read why it matters →Plain-English version. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) filed the AI Data Center Moratorium Act in the Senate (S.4214) earlier in 2026 as the first federal statutory pause on data-center construction. The bill has been a marker statute — designed to lay down a...
Office of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — Ocasio-Cortez Introduces House Version of the AI Data Center Moratorium Act (Jun 24 2026) ↗
FERCFloridaMoratoriumRatepayer protection
Read why it matters →Plain-English version. House Energy & Commerce is the committee with jurisdiction over the FERC Act, the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA), and most federal electricity policy. The ranking member of that committee is the most senior Democrat on...
Office of Rep. Frank Pallone — Pallone Supports National AI Data Center Moratorium (Jun 24 2026) ↗
PJMFERCTexasFloridaMoratorium
Read why it matters →Plain-English version of what happened. Tuesday, June 23 was the single most active moratorium day Florida has had — three county boards moved separate ordinances forward in a coordinated wave. Clay County (just south of Jacksonville, ~220,000 residents) gave...
Florida Politics — Three counties moving forward with one-year data center moratoriums (Jun 24 2026) ↗
ERCOTPJMMISOCAISOMoratoriumInterconnectionBehind-the-meter
Read why it matters →Plain-English version of what SB 484 does. On May 7, 2026, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Senate Bill 484 at a ceremony in Lakeland, calling it the 'first of its kind in the nation.' The law has four operative provisions, and unlike most data-center state...
Office of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — Governor Ron DeSantis Signs Law to Protect Floridians from Subsidizing Data Centers (May 7 2026) ↗
FERCTexasNorth CarolinaFloridaMoratorium
Read why it matters →Plain-English version. Knox County is the eastern Tennessee county containing Knoxville (population ~480,000 in the metro). On June 23, the County Commission voted 10-0 — with Commissioner Courtney Durrett recusing because she works at Xfinity (a Comcast...
WATE 6 Knoxville — Knox County puts new data center projects on hold for 1 year (Jun 23 2026) ↗
ERCOTPJMMISOFERCMoratoriumHyperscaler
Read why it matters →Plain-English version of what Project Kilby is. Microsoft and Chevron jointly announced on June 22 that they are co-developing a roughly 2.67 gigawatt natural gas power plant in the Permian Basin near Pecos, Texas (about 200 miles east of El Paso), paired...
Chevron newsroom — Chevron signs 20-year power agreement with Microsoft for West Texas data center (Jun 22 2026) ↗
ERCOTMISOFERCTexasMoratoriumInterconnectionBehind-the-meter
Read why it matters →Plain-English version of what Spartanburg did and why the procedural mechanic matters. Spartanburg County, in the Upstate region of South Carolina, called a 9 a.m. special meeting on June 22 to introduce a 12-month moratorium on all new data center...
WSPA — Spartanburg County Council gives first approval of data center moratorium ↗
ERCOTFERCTexasNorth CarolinaMoratoriumInterconnectionRatepayer protection
Read why it matters →Plain-English version. The North Carolina cluster covered in detail yesterday (Jun 22 newsletter) included Durham County as one of the nine jurisdictions moving on a data center pause. Today, June 23, the Durham County Board of Commissioners took the...
INDY Week — Durham County Moves Toward Data Center Moratorium ↗
TexasNorth CarolinaGeorgiaSouth CarolinaMoratorium
Read why it matters →Plain-English version of the geography. North Carolina's data center backlash has concentrated in two adjacent regions: the Charlotte metro (Mecklenburg + Rowan) and the Research Triangle (Durham, Wake, Orange, Chatham). In roughly five weeks, at least nine...
WFAE (Charlotte's NPR) — Charlotte City Council approves 150-day data center moratorium ↗
ERCOTPJMMISOFERCMoratorium
Read why it matters →Plain-English version of what happened and why it matters more than a single county. Hill County is a rural county south of Fort Worth, in ERCOT territory. On May 12 its commissioners passed — 3 to 2 — a one-year moratorium on new large battery storage, power...
The Texas Tribune — Texas county rescinds data center moratorium after lawsuit ↗
ERCOTTexasNorth CarolinaMarylandMoratoriumInterconnection
Read why it matters →Plain-English version of the procedural detail. Calvert County is a five-member Board of County Commissioners. On any given vote, three yes votes are needed to pass. With one commissioner absent and one declining to vote, the math is brutal — even if the...
Southern Maryland Newspapers Online (somdnews.com) ↗
MarylandMoratoriumHyperscaler
Read why it matters →Plain-English version of the geographic pattern. The moratorium streak has been geographically dispersed — Iowa, Tennessee, California, Georgia, Nebraska, Utah, North Carolina, Indiana, Oklahoma, Nevada (the counter-signal), Wisconsin. Most states have had at...
WisBusiness / Dane County Board ↗
MISOFERCNorth CarolinaWisconsinMoratoriumHyperscaler
Read why it matters →Plain-English version of the procedural detail. Section 205 and Section 206 of the Federal Power Act are the two ways a transmission tariff gets changed. Section 205 is operator-initiated — PJM (or any RTO) files a proposed tariff change with FERC, and the...
Akin Gump — analysis of FERC show-cause orders ↗
PJMFERCMoratoriumInterconnection
Read why it matters →La Crosse County sits in western Wisconsin along the Mississippi River. The Board of Supervisors is 28 members; two were absent, so 28 effective votes were cast and 26 of them were yes. That is a 93% margin among voting members.
The ordinance has two...
WXOW La Crosse ↗
MISOFERCWisconsinMoratorium
Read why it matters →Counter-signal context. Every other data center vote tracked in the past nine days has been a pause or a ban. Clark County is the first 'go' vote inside the streak, and the unanimous margin on the Commission matches the broad-margin pattern the streak has...
Fox 5 Vegas ↗
Moratorium
Read why it matters →Coweta County is southwest of Atlanta and is the second metro-Atlanta county after DeKalb to pause data centers. The vote was unanimous. Scope is data centers only (no battery storage bundling), but the pause is broad within that scope — it halts new permits,...
Atlanta Journal-Constitution ↗
GeorgiaIndianaUtahMoratoriumHyperscaler
Read why it matters →Luther sits in eastern Oklahoma County, about 25 miles northeast of Oklahoma City. The town has roughly 1,700 residents, which means ~400 attendees represented about 23% of the entire population — and the meeting had to be held outdoors on Main Street because...
News 9 Oklahoma City ↗
OklahomaMoratorium
Read why it matters →Pennsylvania HB 2496 is bipartisan and would explicitly authorize any Pennsylvania local government to enact a 180-day moratorium on data center development while it conducts zoning review. The bill cleared committee this week and is heading toward a floor...
ABC27 Harrisburg ↗
FERCUtahTennesseeMoratoriumFERC action
Read why it matters →Plain-English version. Crusoe is a data center developer that originated in Bitcoin-flared-gas-to-compute and pivoted into AI-specific hyperscale campuses, most notably the Abilene Texas site that anchors a leg of the Stargate program. Meta is one of the four...
Data Center Dynamics — covering the original Bloomberg report ↗
ERCOTPJMMISOFERCMoratoriumInterconnectionBehind-the-meter
Read why it matters →Plymouth County (northwest Iowa, next to Woodbury and Sioux City) enacted a revocable one-year pause on all large-scale data centers AND industrial battery energy storage (BESS) facilities under the county zoning board's authority. The vote was 4-0 with one...
KLEM 1410 (Le Mars, IA) ↗
TennesseeMoratoriumHyperscaler
Read why it matters →Gage County is in southeast Nebraska. The Planning and Zoning Commission held a public hearing where residents 'overwhelmingly opposed' a data center for two hours of comment, citing concerns about strain on local water and electric supply. The commission...
Nebraska Public Media ↗
MoratoriumHyperscaler
Read why it matters →Woodbury County (Sioux City, northwest Iowa) is moving toward a one-year moratorium on data center projects in unincorporated areas while it writes regulations. The supervisors have voiced majority support and asked the county attorney's office to also review...
Iowa Public Radio ↗
MoratoriumInterconnectionHyperscaler
Read why it matters →Box Elder County (northern Utah, west of Salt Lake) paused new data centers and data-center power plants on unincorporated land for 180 days while the county studies how to regulate them. The vote was unanimous. The pause covers any future applicant, but it...
Utah Public Radio + KSL ↗
UtahMoratorium
Read why it matters →Plain-English version: Nashville's mayor cannot legally declare a moratorium himself — Tennessee preempts that power at the state level. So instead of a ban, O'Connell signed an executive order (Executive Order 59) that does two things. First, it tells every...
Nashville.gov — Office of the Mayor (Executive Order 59 announcement) ↗
TennesseeMoratorium
Read why it matters →Anderson County (east Tennessee, near Oak Ridge) passed one of the longest pauses in the current wave: a full two years, versus the 6-to-12-month norm. The unusual feature is scope — the same ordinance covers three different facility types at once: data...
WVLT (Knoxville) / Tennessee Lookout ↗
TennesseeMoratorium
Read why it matters →Imperial County paused all pending and future data center projects on industrially-zoned land for at least 45 days, with the option to renew for up to ~10.5 more months while a newly-formed 19-member ad hoc committee writes zoning and building rules, due by...
inewsource (San Diego) ↗
ColoradoMoratorium
Read why it matters →Cumberland County (Fayetteville, home to Fort Bragg) enacted a unanimous six-month pause to give staff time to write standards on water, power, noise, and neighborhood/school impacts before permitting anything. The commissioners' framing — 'plan before we...
CityView (Fayetteville NC) ↗
North CarolinaMoratorium
Read why it matters →Boone County paused new data centers in unincorporated areas and the town of Advance for a year while it writes zoning rules. The structural detail is the carve-out: Meta's $10 billion data center is untouched, because the LEAP Innovation District land was...
Indianapolis Business Journal ↗
IndianaMoratoriumInterconnectionHyperscaler
Read why it matters →Google will spend $1.5 billion through 2027 expanding the data center it has operated in Jackson County since 2018 (cumulative investment now over $2 billion), creating 1,000+ construction jobs. The campus sits on the site of TVA's retired Widows Creek coal...
Alabama Daily News ↗
ERCOTTexasOklahomaMoratoriumInterconnectionRatepayer protection
Read why it matters →Plain-English framing of the South Dakota context. South Dakota tried in February-March 2026 to pass a statewide data-center moratorium and failed; the legislature instead passed SB 135, which authorized counties and municipalities to regulate or ban data...
Yankton Daily Press & Dakotan / Buffalo's Fire / South Dakota Searchlight / Yankton County Commission agenda ↗
ERCOTTexasMoratorium
Read why it matters →Plain-English framing. A 'preliminary injunction' is the next legal step after a TRO (temporary restraining order, which expires in 14 days unless extended). It freezes construction until the underlying lawsuit is decided on its merits, which typically takes...
Post Bulletin / Construction Dive / MPR News / Star Tribune / Construction Review Online ↗
ERCOTTexasMinnesotaMoratoriumInterconnectionHyperscaler
Read why it matters →Plain-English framing. Nassau County is the far northeast Florida county adjacent to Jacksonville, with Jaxport and St. Marys River frontage. The 12-month moratorium is a 'study moratorium' — it freezes new applications while the County does the research...
First Coast News / Yahoo News / Nassau County Chamber / News4Jax / Jax Daily Record ↗
TexasVirginiaFloridaMoratoriumInterconnection
Read why it matters →Plain-English framing. Monterey Park is a city of ~60,000 in Los Angeles County (San Gabriel Valley). 'Measure NDC' was put on a special-election ballot after a January 2026 city council 45-day moratorium and a March 2026 10-month extension — the moratoriums...
ABC7 Los Angeles / Fox Business / Planetizen / Data Center Knowledge / Monterey Park City Council ↗
ERCOTPJMTexasColoradoMoratorium
Read why it matters →Plain-English framing. 'Behind the meter' (BTM) means generation that sits on the customer's side of the utility meter and never injects power into the grid. It bypasses every interconnection-queue rule, every capacity-market rule, every transmission-cost...
DCD / Power Magazine / Power Engineering ↗
ERCOTPJMFERCEPAMoratoriumAir permitInterconnection
Read why it matters →Plain-English framing. An AUAR (Alternative Urban Areawide Review) is the Minnesota equivalent of a NEPA Environmental Assessment — a structured analysis of a project's water, air, noise, and traffic impacts, required before construction. The Minnesota Center...
Post Bulletin / KARE 11 / Engineering News-Record / kimt.com ↗
OhioArizonaMinnesotaMoratoriumBehind-the-meterHyperscaler
Read why it matters →Plain-English framing. The Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant (or 'Piketon site') is a Cold War-era uranium-enrichment facility on ~1,200 acres of DOE-owned federal land in southern Ohio. It was decommissioned, and the cleanup created a large, fully-graded...
The Reporting Project (Ohio) / DCD / Network World / Scioto Post ↗
TexasWisconsinOhioArizonaMoratoriumInterconnectionBehind-the-meter
Read why it matters →Plain-English framing. Arizona has used a Computer Data Center sales-tax exemption since 2013 to attract hyperscaler builds in the Phoenix metro and Pinal/Maricopa counties; the program currently exempts qualifying equipment purchases from state sales tax....
Arizona Capitol Times / CALO News / BGOV ↗
TexasOhioArizonaMoratoriumTax incentiveBehind-the-meter
Read why it matters →Plain-English framing. Hood County sits about an hour southwest of Fort Worth, on Lake Granbury. It's a rural county with a small planning staff and limited industrial base. The county was the first in Texas to enact a data-center moratorium — passed quietly...
Texas Tribune / KRGV / Salon ↗
TexasVirginiaNorth CarolinaIllinoisMoratoriumInterconnection
Read why it matters →Plain-English framing. Angelina County is in deep East Texas, between Lufkin and Nacogdoches, in the Piney Woods region. Like Hood, it's rural and politically conservative — the moratorium push is not coming from the typical environmental-left coalition...
Texas Tribune / KBTX ↗
TexasWashingtonMoratoriumBehind-the-meter
Read why it matters →Plain-English framing. Yesterday's newsletter (and most of the trade press) implied the 10-day signing clock was already running. That's the standard pattern in most states, but New York's transmission rules are different. The Senate Majority Leader and...
Daily Kos / NY Senate procedural manual / Inside Climate News ↗
PJMOregonMoratoriumInterconnection
Read why it matters →Plain-English framing. Schedule 96 is Oregon's version of the separate-rate-class concept that New York's S10642 mandates: a tariff schedule specifically for data center loads with longer contract terms (typically 15-20 years), demand-charge floors, and...
OPB / Utility Dive / KOIN ↗
ERCOTTexasOregonMoratoriumInterconnectionBehind-the-meter
Read why it matters →Plain-English framing. Applied Digital (NASDAQ: APLD) is a midsize US data-center developer that focuses specifically on hyperscale 'AI factory' colocation — large-block, single-tenant, GPU-dense campuses on greenfield sites with dedicated power. The $5.2B /...
Tech Times / Applied Digital 8-K / Stock Titan ↗
ERCOTPJMMISOTexasMoratoriumHyperscaler
Read why it matters →Plain-English framing. New York's state legislature wraps each year in early June. In that final-hour rush they passed a bill that, if Hochul signs it, freezes any state agency from issuing a permit to a 20 MW+ data center anywhere in New York for one year....
Data Center Dynamics / Earthjustice / Spectrum News ↗
TexasVirginiaIllinoisGeorgiaMoratorium
Read why it matters →Plain-English framing. Seattle's threshold is 20 MVA (megavolt-amperes), which is functionally similar to 20 MW for data center loads — both round to the same 'roughly 20 megawatts of incoming utility service' floor. The moratorium pauses any permit...
KOMO / MLQ Infrastructure / Seattle DCI ↗
TexasVirginiaNorth CarolinaWashingtonMoratoriumInterconnection
Read why it matters →Plain-English framing. Western North Carolina is the cluster of counties between Asheville and the Tennessee/Georgia border, dominated by the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Pisgah/Nantahala National Forests. It's not a traditional data center market — until...
WUNC / WFAE / Blue Ridge Public Radio ↗
North CarolinaGeorgiaWashingtonTennesseeMoratoriumInterconnectionHyperscaler
Read why it matters →Plain-English framing. Larimer County sits north of Boulder and Denver and contains Fort Collins (Colorado State University, where Aspen Aerogels was founded) and Loveland. The county is the gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park and historically not a data...
Larimer County Planning / Rocky Mountain Real Estate Law / engage.larimer.gov ↗
ColoradoOregonMoratorium
Read why it matters →Plain-English framing. Charlotte is the second-biggest US banking center after New York (Bank of America HQ, Truist HQ, Wells Fargo's east coast hub) and the dominant Carolina metro. Until this week the assumption was that bank-anchored cities would be...
Axios Charlotte / WBTV / WCNC ↗
VirginiaNorth CarolinaWashingtonArizonaMoratorium
Read why it matters →Plain-English framing. Spokane is the second-largest city in Washington State, served by Avista Corp — a small investor-owned utility (about 400,000 electric customers in eastern Washington plus northern Idaho) whose total system load is roughly 1,000 MW. So...
Spokesman-Review / City of Spokane / KXLY ↗
North CarolinaWashingtonMoratorium
Read why it matters →Plain-English framing. Homewood is an inner-ring suburb of Birmingham, Alabama (population ~26,000, sits inside the I-65 / I-459 ring). Birmingham itself passed a 6-month moratorium in late May and Leeds (eastern Birmingham metro) approved a one-year freeze....
WBRC / CBS 42 / City of Homewood ↗
North CarolinaMoratoriumHyperscaler
Read why it matters →Plain-English framing. A 'memorandum of understanding' (MOU) in utility-customer land is a non-binding framework agreement — it commits both sides to negotiate in good faith but does not lock in tariffs, contract terms, or capacity allocations. Avista's MOU...
Spokesman-Review (June 3 + June 9 stories) / KXLY ↗
MoratoriumAir permit
Read why it matters →Plain-English framing. The Seattle moratorium freezes any new data center at or above 20 MVA (which is roughly 16 MW of real load using typical 0.8 power factor). The roughly 30 existing co-location facilities in the city are grandfathered and each can expand...
Seattle City Council official blog ↗
ColoradoWashingtonMoratorium
Read why it matters →Plain-English framing. Lexington and Fayette County are merged into a single 'urban-county government' under Kentucky law (KRS 67A), which gives the combined entity broader regulatory authority than a typical Kentucky county. Most KY counties are Dillon's...
CivicLex (primary local government coverage) ↗
WashingtonMoratorium
Read why it matters →Plain-English framing. Edmond is a Oklahoma City suburb operating under Article XVIII home rule. The city has no pending data center applications and no announced projects. The council voted to pause anyway, expressly to give staff time to 'fully research...
Edmond city government / NonDoc ↗
OhioWashingtonOregonOklahomaMoratorium
Read why it matters →Plain-English framing. DeKalb County (inner-ring Atlanta metro, GA) had an existing moratorium expiring June 23. The 5-2 extension pushes it to September 30 while staff drafts 'strict new guidelines on noise and environmental damage.' Georgia is a home rule...
CBS Atlanta ↗
GeorgiaWashingtonMoratorium
Read why it matters →Plain-English framing. ERCOT is the Texas grid operator. Two years ago it was receiving about 24 large-load interconnection requests per year. In the most recent two-year window it received 519. Those 519 requests sum to 438,595 megawatts of requested grid...
Texas Tribune ↗
ERCOTTexasMoratoriumInterconnection
Read why it matters →Plain-English framing. Crusoe is the developer that built Stargate Abilene (the OpenAI / Oracle / SoftBank campus in West Texas that opened earlier this year). The Cheyenne project was supposed to be the second major site — partnered with Tallgrass, a...
Bloomberg / Data Center Dynamics / Crusoe newsroom ↗
TexasMoratoriumBehind-the-meterHyperscaler
Read why it matters →Plain-English framing. There are two kinds of local government in the U.S. — home-rule (broad authority to legislate locally unless state law specifically forbids it) and Dillon's-rule (only the powers state law expressly grants). Texas counties are...
Texas Tribune / KWTX / KERA News ↗
TexasVirginiaNorth CarolinaOhioMoratoriumInterconnection
Read why it matters →Plain-English framing. A 'moratorium' is just a local time-out on issuing new permits — typically 60-day, 180-day, or 1-year. The county uses the pause to write new zoning or impact-fee rules; if the rules don't get written before the moratorium expires, the...
WHQR / WRDW / 10TV / Arkansas Times / WALB ↗
TexasWisconsinFloridaOregonMoratorium
Read why it matters →Plain-English framing. The May 24 newsletter flagged that the moratorium playbook had bifurcated into three templates (pre-emptive total ban / square-footage carve-out / megawatt carve-out). This week added two more templates, both useful to name explicitly...
Press Herald / Arkansas Advocate / Daily Reporter / WTVR ↗
MoratoriumHyperscaler
Read why it matters →Plain-English framing of a 'moratorium': a city or county council voting to refuse all new data-center applications for a fixed window (here ranging 6 months to 1 year) while staff study the impacts. It is a pause button, not a permanent ban. What changed...
WBKO / Star Tribune / KARE 11 / OKC Fox / KGOU / Free Press OKC ↗
MinnesotaOklahomaMoratorium
Read why it matters →Plain-English framing: a 'statewide moratorium' is a single state legislature voting to freeze data-center development across every jurisdiction inside the state — much bigger blast radius than the city-by-city pauses above. Maine got within one veto of being...
Maine Morning Star / Press Herald / TechCrunch / Data Center Knowledge ↗
TexasVirginiaOhioGeorgiaMoratoriumRatepayer protection
Read why it matters →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 →