Moratoriums and Opposition

What it is

Pauses, Bans and Local Fights

A moratorium halts approvals for new data centers for a set time or until new rules are written. In 2026 they spread from a few counties to whole states, alongside zoning bans, lawsuits and the withdrawal of tax breaks.

• Scale: Data Center Watch counted about $130B of US projects blocked or delayed in the first quarter of 2026 alone, and 843 local opposition groups by September. Its method is not public, and a delay is not a cancellation.
• States: New York paused permits for sites of 50 MW and up, Texas paused interconnection and state permits pending an audit, Maine passed a statewide moratorium that was vetoed, Vermont's governor vetoed a bill setting data center siting and cost rules, and at least 14 states filed moratorium bills. Ohio, Illinois and Arizona froze data center tax incentives.
• Opponents' case: power bills and grid strain, water use in drought, noise, lost farmland, rising home prices, tax breaks and few permanent jobs. A Brookings study found a county's first large data center adds roughly 100-200 jobs.
• Builders' case: data centers pay large tax bills; in Loudoun County, Virginia, they provide 38% of the county's general fund. Developers increasingly offer closed-loop or air cooling, their own generation and community funds, and argue that much opposition rests on outdated information about water and power.
• Where projects go: some rejected projects move rather than end. Tucson's Project Blue was rejected by the city and approved by the surrounding county with air cooling and community funds.
• Abroad: Ireland, the Netherlands, Singapore and Malaysia limited new sites over grid capacity, land and water. Little local opposition in China appears in public reporting; its limits come from central planning, which steers new sites to western hubs and caps their energy use.

Flagship

Texas: The Largest Market Pauses

• Queue: ERCOT's interconnection queue held more than 474 GW of requests from about 1,800 projects by August 2026, about 90% of them data centers.
• Local: in 2026 Hill County passed a moratorium in May and lifted it within weeks after a federal lawsuit, San Marcos banned data centers in every zoning district, and Hays County suspended approvals for high-water-use projects.
• Audit: on 3 August 2026 Gov. Greg Abbott ordered the PUCT and ERCOT to audit every queued data center; none may advance until the audit is done. The audit requires disclosure of tax breaks, power and water use, cooling, community impacts and ownership. Separately, the PUCT's proposed SB 6 large-load rule would require site control and $50,000 per MW of upfront financial security.
• Pause: on 21 September Abbott ordered the TCEQ to pause all pending and new data center permits until the audits finish. ERCOT expects to file its audit reports by 10 December 2026.
• Gaps: self-powered projects and areas outside ERCOT are not clearly covered.
• More: the Texas moratorium explained at AustinIO.

Actions

Moratoriums, Bans and Limits

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