Overview
- San Francisco and Oakland approved 45-day moratoriums this week on new data centers to give city planners time to study electricity, water, noise and air quality impacts.
- A Memphis City Council meeting this week ended in protests and a delayed vote on a proposed 12-month moratorium, illustrating rising community tensions over existing facilities near the city.
- A yearlong Senate investigation found major developers used nondisclosure agreements, overstated local benefits and generally refused to accept standards that would require them to pay for wider grid upgrades.
- Congress has already debated cost rules: the House passed the bipartisan Ratepayer Protection Act to push states to make big users cover incremental infrastructure costs but the Senate voted not to advance the bill.
- The dispute has become an electoral issue with dozens of local ballot measures planned for November and competing local rules likely to produce a patchwork of limits and requirements across states.