The International Energy Agency reported that data centers accounted for roughly half of all electricity demand growth in the United States in 2025 — far surpassing the rise in residential, industrial, and transportation sectors combined. U.S …
Two Portage County cities voted within a week of each other to pause new data center applications while they write zoning they can actually defend. Streetsboro City Council approved a six-month moratorium last Tuesday. Kent City Council followed …
AEP Ohio filed notice this week with the Ohio Power Siting Board for a new 345-kilovolt substation and a cluster of transmission lines in Licking County, serving a large customer development near New Albany. The filing is in two parts: - Case No …
NPR published a sweeping analysis arguing that data center opposition has crossed the threshold from local land-use dispute to viable midterm campaign issue. The evidence is mounting fast. In Festus, Missouri, voters ousted all four incumbent …
More than 30 residents attended a Lebanon County commissioners' workshop to voice objections to a proposed $1.7 billion, 99-acre data center in South Annville Township. The project would include five buildings and employ an estimated 50 to 100 …
Trump-branded Fermi America data center stalling (TX). CEO Toby Neugebauer departed abruptly; shares down 75% in six months. The Texas Panhandle project, co-founded by former Energy Secretary Rick Perry, has no publicly confirmed anchor tenant. An …
Update: This story builds on our April 15 coverage of Louisiana's regulatory fast-tracking. The numbers have gotten bigger. Louisiana Public Service Commission members voted 4-1 to allow Entergy Louisiana to bypass a formal administrative law judge …
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission announced it will take action in June on proposed reforms for connecting data centers and other large loads to the transmission grid, missing the Department of Energy's original April 30 deadline. The delay …
A U.S. Department of Energy-funded study by Purdue University found that Indiana counties restricting wind and solar development lose at minimum $800 million per year in economic activity and approximately 9,000 jobs, primarily in rural …
Ohio's data center debate has intensified on multiple fronts. A group is working to place a constitutional amendment on the November ballot to ban all new large data centers, needing roughly 414,000 valid signatures by mid-2026. Meanwhile, the $33 …
American Rivers has named the Potomac River — the primary drinking water source for the Washington, D.C. metro area — the nation's most endangered river. The designation cites a January sewage pipe failure and the ongoing expansion of more than 300 …
VCU professor predicts data center growth is "approaching a ceiling." Peter Aiken, a data management authority, told VCU News that community pushback and the rise of "local AI" that can run on laptops could fundamentally shift the landscape. "For …
In DeForest, Wisconsin, residents organized as "No Data Centers in DeForest" after learning that village staff had been strategizing with QTS representatives and Alliant Energy since March 2025 — months before the October public announcement. The …
The Stokes County Board of Commissioners voted to formally void its January 2026 rezoning decision and text amendment that would have cleared the way for "Project Delta," a hyperscale data center complex along the Dan River. The county acknowledged …
Governor Josh Shapiro announced that PECO — Pennsylvania's largest utility, serving 1.7 million customers in southeastern Pennsylvania — will withdraw its combined electric and natural gas rate case before the Pennsylvania PUC. The request would …
More than 600 people — most living within one mile of the proposed site — attended a Gaines Township planning commission hearing on Microsoft's request to rezone land from residential to light industrial for an AI data center. The hours-long public …
The Ypsilanti Township Board of Trustees approved a resolution requesting the Ypsilanti Community Utilities Authority place a water moratorium on hyperscale and mid-size data centers. The move directly targets the University of Michigan's planned …
Atlanta residents call for citywide data center moratorium (GA). West End resident urges city council to reject an exception to Atlanta's 2024 ban on data centers within a half-mile of major transit stations. Neighborhood Planning Unit V already …
Attorney General Dana Nessel filed a claim of appeal in the Michigan Court of Appeals challenging the Michigan Public Service Commission's December 2025 "conditional approval" of two special contracts between DTE Energy and Green Chile Ventures for …
Protests targeting AI companies and data centers are escalating into violence. An arson attack on OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's home led to an attempted murder charge. In Indianapolis, a legislator's home was hit by gunfire with a "No Data Centers" note …
North Franklin Township, PA adopted preemptive data center zoning ordinances — no current proposals, but supervisors cited a 1,400-acre tract in nearby South Strabane as a prompt. Setbacks: 1,000 feet from schools, hospitals, churches; 500 feet from …
The International Energy Agency's "Key Questions on Energy and AI" report finds data center electricity consumption rose 17% in 2025 — far outpacing global electricity demand growth of 3%. Capital expenditure by five major tech companies exceeded …
A Data & Society policy brief identified several Pennsylvania bills that would reduce municipal authority over data center siting: HB 502 (part of Gov. Josh Shapiro's "Lightning Plan," creating a statewide board for large energy project approvals) …
Aon expanded its Data Center Lifecycle Insurance Program to $3.5 billion in capacity — a signal of how much capital is flowing into data center risk management. (Aon press release) Ohio adding 64 EV fast-charging stations with $51 million in …
At an Axios Live event, bipartisan lawmakers and the Trump administration's National Energy Dominance Council agreed that data center operators — not residential ratepayers — should bear the cost of their electricity demand. "The people who need the …
The NAACP, represented by the Southern Environmental Law Center and Earthjustice, filed a federal lawsuit against xAI and its subsidiary MZX Tech for operating 27 unpermitted gas turbines in Southaven, Mississippi, to power its Colossus 2 data …
A Washington Post-Schar School poll of 1,101 registered Virginia voters found that comfort with new data center construction in their community dropped from 69% in 2023 to 35% today — approaching the 33% comfort level Americans express toward …
The Louisiana Public Service Commission voted to adopt a fast-track schedule for Entergy Louisiana's application to build seven new gas-fired power plants for Meta's Hyperion data center in Richland Parish. These would join three gas plants already …
The Pennsylvania House passed HB2151, a bill backed by Gov. Josh Shapiro that would provide municipalities with a model data center zoning ordinance intended to speed development. Over 20 hyperscale data centers have been proposed in Pennsylvania …
Xcel Energy submitted a proposal to the Colorado Public Utilities Commission for a large-load tariff — a rate structure requiring large electricity users like data centers to pay rates and infrastructure costs proportional to their demand, rather …
Putnam County residents used their first public opportunity to voice concerns about a Google data center planned for 1,700 acres near Buffalo, West Virginia. Discussion ran for over an hour at the county commission meeting. Residents raised concerns …
Potomac River named most endangered in the U.S. (VA/DC). American Rivers cited a 243-million-gallon sewage spill and cumulative data center water demand from 300+ facilities in the watershed. The Potomac supplies drinking water for 5 million people …
Microsoft announced plans to purchase approximately 3,200 acres south of Cheyenne, tripling its physical footprint in the area. The company has been operating data centers there since 2012 and was the No. 1 city taxpayer and No. 2 county taxpayer in …
Maine's legislature passed a first-in-the-nation statewide ban on new data centers drawing more than 20 megawatts of power — enough to power roughly 15,000 homes — effective until fall 2027. The bill establishes a study mechanism to evaluate data …
Texas will forgo at least $3.1 billion in sales tax revenue over the next two years from its data center tax exemption, according to the state comptroller's office. The exemption cost $5–30 million per year from 2014 to 2022. By 2023 it hit $150 …
The NAACP filed a federal lawsuit against xAI for operating 27 unpermitted gas turbines in Southaven, Mississippi, to power its Colossus 2 data center. The turbines could emit more than 1,700 tons of nitrogen oxides per year, potentially making the …
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