Data center moratoriums gain ground in states and cities
Erik Isakson via Getty Images
By
Chris Teale
Legislators in New York passed a bill imposing a one-year pause on new hyperscale data centers, while residents in one California city voted recently for a complete ban.
Just days before the end of their regular session, the New York Legislature passed a bill that would place a one-year moratorium on the development of large data centers.
And residents of Monterey Park, California voted overwhelmingly to permanently ban the facilities from being built in city limits in what appears to be the first vote of its kind in the United States.
With more data center questions set to be on the ballot in the coming months and more moratorium bills being debated in state legislatures, there appears to be at least some momentum for hitting the brakes.
"Technology should improve people's lives, not drive up utility bills, strain our energy grid, or undermine our climate goals,” New York Sen. Kristen Gonzalez said in a statement when she introduced the legislation. “I introduced this legislation alongside Assemblymember Barrett because New York State needs a comprehensive plan for responsible data center development. That is why a one-year moratorium is so important — we must ensure communities have a voice, working people share in the benefits of new technology, and corporations pay their fair share of the costs.”
Gonzalez, who chairs the Senate Internet and Technology Committee, introduced the Responsible Data Center Development Act in the final days of the 2026 session. It combined several pieces of legislation designed to promote accountability, community benefits, sustainability and transparency around data centers.
Some of its provisions included requirements for public hearings and environmental impact reports, created new electric and water rate classes for data centers over 20 megawatts, established energy efficiency goals, created a community benefits program and established labor requirements.
Kristin Devoe, a spokeswoman for New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, said she “will review the bill” before deciding whether to sign or veto it. She also pointed to a recent Hochul proposal advanced by the New York Public Service Commission that would require data centers to pay their fair share for the power they use.
Devoe said Hochul “continues to look for ways to ensure that data centers are not draining resources or driving up costs for New Yorkers.”
Bills imposing various kinds of moratoriums on data center development appear to be spreading across the country, based on research by the National Conference of State Legislatures. Lawmakers in 14 states are considering bans, NCSL found, with those moratoriums often paired with requirements to study data centers’ impacts on local communities. NCSL noted that several efforts have failed, while Maine Gov. Janet Mills vetoed that state’s proposed ban on data centers larger than 20 MW in April.
Socorro County, New Mexico, also adopted a one-year moratorium on data centers and related infrastructure projects as more local governments take action.
Separately, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez introduced a national moratorium on data center development. But some Congressional Republicans have sought to tie the legislative movement to stop data center development to foreign influence campaigns.
Away from New York, public anger at the growth of data centers appears to be growing, which may be troublesome in areas where they are being placed on the ballot for a vote. Residents of Monterey Park, California, voted 90% in favor of banning data center development in their community in what appears to be the first such vote anywhere in the United States.
Residents of the city east of Los Angeles only heard about a data center project “after it was already in motion,” said organizers behind the push to add a ban question to the June 2 ballot. The Monterey Park City Council has already passed three ordinances banning data center development citywide.
And the Seattle City Council voted to approve a one-year moratorium on data center development, having seen those efforts sail through legislative committees unanimously. Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson said she only learned in April via local media of efforts to build five data centers that were well underway. At the time, she said in a statement the prospect of construction “raised understandably intense public alarm,” and said she was working with others to “identify a range of long-term policy approaches.”