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. 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 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. 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. 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. 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: 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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →