Overview
- Seattle’s Land Use and Sustainability Committee voted to advance a one-year moratorium on issuing permits for large AI data centers, a move meant to give the city time to write specific regulations following public hearings on the issue.
- The vote followed public testimony on Wednesday that included three Amazon engineers who urged strict conditions on data-center buildout and cited the company’s heavy AI capital spending while corporate layoffs have cut roughly 30,000 jobs.
- Speakers at the hearing asked the city to require projects to supply net-new renewable power, add on-site battery storage, drop non-disclosure tactics such as shell companies, fund local services through new taxes, and create worker-led safety oversight.
- Two developers reportedly withdrew proposed Seattle data-center projects after local opposition, and city officials say the moratorium could shape what companies must provide in exchange for locating compute capacity inside the city.
- Seattle’s pause reflects a wider trend of local and state scrutiny over data centers, with dozens of projects delayed or blocked and at least 14 states weighing pauses or restrictions because of concerns about power, water, emissions, and limited long-term local jobs.