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 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 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 →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 →Plain-English framing. The Colorado River is the most heavily contested water resource in the United States — it serves 40 million people and is under formal drought management because the Lower Basin states have over-allocated it for decades. The Imperial...
KPBS / Calexico Chronicle / IV Press / Sierra Club v. Imperial County (CEQA) ↗
Colorado
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. 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. 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. A 'rate class' is the legal bucket a utility puts a customer into to decide what tariff applies — residential, small commercial, large industrial. Oregon just carved out a new bucket exclusively for data-center-scale loads, ring-fenced...
Utility Dive / KPTV / KGW / Oregon PUC ↗
ColoradoWisconsinOregonMinnesotaInterconnectionRatepayer protection
Read why it matters →Plain-English framing: where Wisconsin's tariff change was a regulator (PSC) tightening one utility's rate plan, North Carolina is a state legislature pre-emptively writing the rules for the whole state across every utility — Duke, Dominion-NC, ElectriCities....
WRAL / WUNC / Data Center Knowledge / Data Center Dynamics ↗
VirginiaColoradoNorth CarolinaWisconsinBehind-the-meterRatepayer 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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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
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