Overview
- Gilroy’s city council unanimously approved an emergency 45-day moratorium on new data center applications Monday to study rules for electricity, water, cooling, noise and backup‑generator emissions.
- San Francisco supervisors introduced a 45-day pause to halt approvals while planners update codes written in 2001 that do not address modern, high‑power AI facilities.
- Edgewater enacted an immediate ban that city leaders plan to enshrine on the ballot in November, and other cities from Buffalo to Poway and Leon County are debating pauses or longer one‑to‑two‑year moratoria.
- Community and environmental justice groups say data centers strain grids and water supplies, produce generator pollution and often cluster near Black and working‑class neighborhoods, while some officials and unions point to tax revenue and limited local job gains.
- State action is uneven: Pennsylvania’s governor issued an executive order to curb fast‑tracked approvals and make developers pay for grid upgrades, and the growing local patchwork could prompt more state or federal rules or legal fights.