US Data Center Moratoriums and Blocked Projects, Tracked (2026)

Alongside the AI data centers going up across the US, a growing number have been paused, banned or voted down by counties, cities and townships since 2024. One inventory of local moratoriums grew from 222 records in April 2026 to 1,329 in November, most of them covering data centers. In 2026 the fight reached statehouses, the U.S. Senate and the midterms. This post tracks that opposition; for the projects that went ahead, see our map of AI data centers under construction in the US.

The headline numbers, as of November 2026: Data Center Watch, part of the AI intelligence firm 10a Labs, counted at least $156 billion of projects blocked or delayed by local opposition in 2025, then at least 75 projects worth about $130 billion in the first quarter of 2026 alone and 45 more worth about $68 billion in the second. The Moratorium Nation dataset lists 1,101 local moratorium records that cover data centers in 47 states, 946 of them listed as active or extended. New York became the first state to pause large data centers on July 14, 2026, Texas froze grid approvals on August 3, and on November 3 voters sided with restrictions in 40 of 41 local data center ballot measures. Gallup found that 71% of Americans oppose an AI data center in their area.

Why people oppose data centers, and what supporters say

Power bills are a common complaint. Pew found that the share of Americans who say data centers are mostly bad for home energy costs rose from 38% in January 2026 to 50% in August. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro's August 2026 executive order cites the PJM market monitor's finding that data centers accounted for $29.4 billion, or 46%, of capacity charges across PJM's last four auctions.

Water comes up about as often: in Gallup's open-ended follow-up, 18% of opponents named water and 18% named energy. Tucson's council turned down Project Blue after city findings said it would need more water than four golf courses. In Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, where a June 2026 tally by Resilience.org counted eight of 13 proposed data centers rejected or withdrawn, one proposed campus could draw up to 3.3 million gallons a day from Lake Scranton.

Then there is noise and on-site power. Peculiar, Missouri, residents fought Diode Ventures over noise, visual impact and property values, and Brighton, Colorado, residents cited backup generators and air quality. In Memphis, the Southern Environmental Law Center said xAI ran gas turbines for its Colossus supercomputer without permits before Shelby County permitted 15 of them in July 2025, and the NAACP sued over xAI's turbine plant in Southaven, Mississippi, in April 2026.

Tax breaks draw fire from Republicans as well as Democrats. In Virginia's 2026 session, 21 Democrats and seven Republicans in the state Senate voted to end a data center sales tax exemption projected at about $1.6 billion a year; Gov. Abigail Spanberger opposed ending it, and the June budget kept the exemption and added a tax of $0.011 per kilowatt-hour on data center electricity. Maine Gov. Janet Mills vetoed the state's moratorium but signed a law barring data centers from state business tax incentives, and Texas Gov.-elect Gina Hinojosa campaigned on ending data center tax subsidies.

Secrecy is another constant. St. Charles officials had signed nondisclosure agreements for Project Cumulus, and the mayor blamed its collapse on a lack of transparency and public trust. In Wood County, Ohio, NDAs kept Meta's name off its "Project Accordion" campus even after construction began. Pennsylvania's order now bars state agencies from signing data center NDAs, and Hinojosa promised to stop data center companies from using them in Texas.

Many of the sites are farmland. Google's Indianapolis plan would have rezoned 468 acres, and the Stargate campus in Saline Township, Michigan, started as a request to rezone 575 acres of farmland (covered in our Stargate site map).

Supporters have numbers too. In Gallup's follow-up, 55% of data center supporters cited jobs and 13% cited tax revenue. Beale promised Tucson 3,000 construction jobs and 180 permanent ones, Tract offered Hanover County $15 million for a water pump station and tank plus $6 million for land conservation and parks, and NorthPoint offered Hazle Township, Pennsylvania, a $165 million community package. Maine's governor said a moratorium was appropriate but vetoed the bill because it had no exemption for a project in the town of Jay that she said had strong local support. The Data Center Coalition says a national moratorium would eliminate jobs and drain local tax revenue, and President Trump wrote on August 31, 2026 that the only reason communities would not want data centers "is if they want to end up being backwards and poor."

Data center moratoriums in the US: the 2026 tracker

With more than a thousand local actions on record, the table lists the statewide measures and the local ones that set a precedent or cover a large market. Status is as of November 15, 2026.

Blocked, denied and withdrawn data center projects

"Blocked" here means a vote, a court ruling or a withdrawal stopped the project at that site. Some came back elsewhere, which the table notes.

The three 2024 entries come from Data Center Watch's first report.

By the numbers

• $156 billion: projects with disclosed values blocked or delayed in 2025, per Data Center Watch's Q3-Q4 2025 report. Its first report, covering May 2024 to March 2025, counted $64 billion.
• 75 projects and $130 billion: blocked or delayed in Q1 2026, the largest quarter on record (Q1 2026 report). Q2 2026 added 45 projects worth about $68 billion. Added together, the first half of 2026 comes to at least 120 projects and about $198 billion. Treat that as an estimate, since Data Center Watch counts delays as well as cancellations.
• 843: active local opposition groups in Q2 2026, across 49 states, up from 142 groups in 24 states in the first report.
• 1,101: local moratorium records covering data centers in the Moratorium Nation inventory (updated November 11, 2026), including proposals and lapsed ones. 934 are dated 2026 and 68 are dated 2025. Ohio leads with 159, then Michigan (134), Georgia (71) and North Carolina (66). A separate tracker by Electric Choice counted 583 active restrictions in 46 states on November 4.
• 300+: state data center bills filed in the first six weeks of 2026, with statewide moratorium bills in 14 states.
• 40 of 41: local ballot measures on November 3, 2026 where voters favored limits, per Ballotpedia.
• 474 GW: large-load requests in ERCOT's interconnection queue when Texas paused approvals, more than five times the grid's record peak.

Timeline, 2023 to 2026

• 2023: Cascade Locks, Oregon, recalls two port officials over a data center deal, and the new board cancels it in July.
• 2024: Tract withdraws a $14 billion Arizona plan (May) and Culpeper County's planning commission denies a $12 billion campus (June 12).
• 2025: Data Center Watch counts $98 billion blocked or delayed in Q2 alone. The Senate strips a federal moratorium on state AI laws 99-1 (July 1), Tucson ends Project Blue talks (August 6), a judge voids the Digital Gateway rezoning (August), Google withdraws in Indianapolis (September 22), Microsoft leaves Caledonia (October 8) and Georgia voters oust two utility commissioners (November 4).
• 2026: Archbald denies Project Scott (March 27) and Maine's statewide moratorium dies (April 29). New York's legislature passes a moratorium (June 4), QTS abandons the Digital Gateway (July 2) and Hochul signs Executive Order 62 (July 14). Texas pauses grid approvals (August 3), the Senate blocks the Ratepayer Protection Act (September 30), Ohio's Supreme Court backs Lordstown (October 20) and voters weigh in on November 3.

State by state: where the fights are

New York data center moratorium

Executive Order 62 pauses state environmental permits for data centers of 50 MW or more until the state finishes a generic environmental impact statement, for up to a year; projects that need only local permits are not covered. The legislature's bill would set a 12-month pause at 20 MW and require renewable power, but as of mid-November the Senate's record shows no delivery to the governor. NYISO's large-load queue had grown to about 12 GW, according to a law firm analysis cited by Utility Dive.

Texas data center moratorium

Texas's pause came from a governor's letter, not a law. Abbott's August 3 letter told the PUCT and ERCOT to audit every data center in the interconnection queue and deny connection to any that fail. The pause later reached TCEQ permits, and TCEQ shut its online filing system in October after advocates said some permits slipped through. Hinojosa, who takes office January 19, 2027, has promised a ban on all data center approvals until the legislature passes protections.

Northwest Ohio data center moratoriums, township by township

Wood County's planning commission told residents in January 2026 that Ohio law does not let counties impose land-use moratoriums, so northwest Ohio pauses go township by township. Seven of Wood County's 19 townships had one by March 13. Statewide, Ohio voters approved three full bans and eight partial bans on November 3, and Grove City now requires a public vote for large data centers.

Virginia and Maryland

Virginia has more operating data centers than any state. In 2026 Hanover County denied Tract's 900 MW park (May), and Loudoun County, whose attorney said a moratorium would not be legal, moved toward a 12-month pause on votes on new legislative applications (September). Amazon has faced long-running fights in Warrenton and King George County. In Maryland, The Banner reported in July 2026 that Montgomery and Frederick counties had issued six-month moratoriums and Washington County a yearlong one, alongside Prince George's pause.

Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin

Indiana University researchers counted at least 17 Indiana counties with temporary moratoriums and two, Marshall and Cass, with bans as of July 2026. Michigan's best-known fight was in Saline Township, which denied the Stargate campus 4-1 in September 2025 and settled when the developer sued; Howell Township adopted a moratorium in November 2025, weeks before a rezoning request reportedly tied to Meta was withdrawn. Microsoft left Caledonia while its Mount Pleasant campus kept growing (more in our big tech AI data center map), and Port Washington voters now get a say on large tax-increment districts.

Georgia, Missouri, Pennsylvania and Arizona

Georgia had more data center moratorium records dated 2025 than any other state in the Moratorium Nation dataset, and some counties then wrote rules and resumed approvals, including Coweta with its 829-acre Project Sail (see our record of data center approvals). St. Charles, Missouri, went furthest with an outright ban. In Pennsylvania, Shapiro chose rules instead of a moratorium: Executive Order 2026-05 removes data centers from the state's permit fast track and makes developers who skip his standards win local approval first. Pima County adopted a 120-day moratorium in September.

Public opposition to AI data centers: polls and elections

Opinion turned fast. Heatmap's poll had local support and opposition about even in September 2025 (43% to 42%); by May 2026, 71% opposed a data center near them. Gallup's March 2026 survey also found 71% opposed, 48% strongly, with opposition highest in the Midwest (76%) and South (75%) and no meaningful difference between urban and rural areas. Pew's July-August survey found 60% uncomfortable with a new data center nearby, including 54% of Republicans and 68% of Democrats. In Pew's fall survey, 58% said they dislike political leaders who support building data centers locally.

Voters have acted on it too. On November 4, 2025, Georgia Democrats Alicia Johnson and Peter Hubbard ousted two Republican utility commissioners with about 63% each after campaigning on energy costs. On November 3, 2026, several winners had campaigned against data centers: Hinojosa defeated Abbott in Texas after pledging a moratorium, Sherrod Brown beat Sen. Jon Husted in Ohio and told supporters "I do not work for data centers," and in South Carolina Annie Andrews flipped a Senate seat after branding her opponent, Sen. Darline Graham, "data center Darline," CNBC reported. Based on preliminary results, Data Center Watch counted 61 of the 393 congressional winners it classified, and 12 of 34 governors, as backing a ban or moratorium.

Senate blocks the data center bill: the federal fight

Congress has not passed a data center law.

• July 1, 2025: the Senate voted 99-1 to strip a 10-year moratorium on state AI laws from the reconciliation bill.
• December 11, 2025: Executive Order 14365 created a Justice Department task force to challenge state AI laws, but its legislative section says the administration will not propose preempting state laws on "AI compute and data center infrastructure," apart from general permitting reforms.
• March 25, 2026: Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez introduced the AI Data Center Moratorium Act to pause new data centers until national safeguards exist. Sen. John Fetterman and the Data Center Coalition opposed it.
• September 2026: the House passed the Ratepayer Protection Act (H.R. 9340) 417-3. It would have directed state utility regulators to consider making large data centers pay for their own grid costs. On September 30 the Senate failed to advance it, 57-43, short of the 60 votes needed, with all but four Democrats opposed. Chuck Schumer called it toothless because it was optional for states.
• After November 3: Sanders posted "National data center moratorium now," and Rep. Yassamin Ansari called a pause on AI development a first-day priority for the incoming House Democratic majority.

How projects actually get stopped

The most common ending in the tables is a withdrawal shortly before a vote, as with Google in Indianapolis, CRG in St. Charles and the Howell Township developer in Michigan. Several of the largest projects fell on procedure: a defective public notice in Prince William County, a deemed-approval deadline in Archbald, a moratorium that beat a site plan in Lordstown.

A withdrawal is often a relocation. Microsoft says it will stay in southeast Wisconsin, Beale went ahead with Project Blue on county land after Tucson declined to annex it, Tract announced another Buckeye-area project three months after its 2024 exit, and Beltline Energy moved its Pacific project into unincorporated Franklin County, which approved it. Developers also sue: Saline Township settled weeks after its denial, and the $16 billion Stargate campus went ahead. Coweta approved Project Sail after writing its own rules.

What this means for your AI visibility

Residents, county officials, journalists, investors and job seekers now research a project by asking ChatGPT, Google AI Mode or Perplexity: "Is there a data center moratorium in my county?", "Did Google cancel the Indianapolis data center?", "Why did Archbald reject Project Scott?" The answer, the sources it cites (a local paper, an opposition group's site, a developer's press release, a utility filing) and its tone shape what people believe before the hearing starts. Statuses in this post changed month to month, so an AI answer that still calls Project Blue dead, or the Digital Gateway approved, misleads the people about to vote or testify.

For developers, utilities, economic development agencies and the companies behind these campuses, that is a reputation question you can measure. LLM Pulse tracks brand mentions, the sources and URLs cited, share of voice and sentiment across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Mode and Google AI Overviews, with daily, weekly or monthly tracking. Other models, including Claude, Copilot, Grok and Meta AI, are paid add-ons. You can see whether answers about your project cite the county minutes, the opposition group or your own fact sheet, and whether that changes after a vote.

Summary

Opposition to US data centers grew from scattered zoning fights in 2023 into a national political issue by 2026. Data Center Watch counts at least $156 billion of projects blocked or delayed in 2025 and, by our sum of its quarterly reports, about $198 billion more in the first half of 2026, more than a thousand local moratorium records cover data centers, New York and Texas have paused approvals statewide, and voters backed restrictions in 40 of 41 local measures on November 3. Congress has passed nothing. Projects still get built, often after a pause, a lawsuit or a move to the next county, so the status of any single site can change within weeks.