Legislators in at least five other states –Georgia, Maryland, Oklahoma, VermontAND Virginia—also introduced bills this year that would impose various forms of short-lived pauses in data center development. While the efforts in Georgia, Vermont and Virginia are led by Democrats, the bills in Oklahoma and Maryland were largely sponsored by Republicans. These bills mirror several moratoriums that have already been passed locally: In tardy December, cities or counties in at least 14 states halted permitting and construction of data centers, Tech Policy Press reported.
There are some signs that the data center industry is starting to respond to this backlash. Last month, Microsoft, with support from the White House, made a series of commitments to be a “good neighbor” in the communities where it builds data centers. In response to questions about the industry’s response to the plethora of state-level regulations, Dan Diorio, vice president of state policy for the industry group Data Center Coalition, said in a statement WIRED “recognizes the importance of ongoing efforts to better educate and inform the public about the industry through community engagement and stakeholder education that includes factual information about the industry’s responsible use of water and our commitment to paying for the energy we use.”
Some states with moratorium laws have relatively few data centers: Vermont has just two, according to data Data center map. However, Georgia and Virginia are two of the nation’s hotbeds for data center development and have been at the center of much of the resistance, both in public reaction to data centers and legislative opposition. Over 60 data center related accounts already proposed this year in the Virginia Legislature, according to industry news site Data Center Dynamics.
Josh Thomas is a state delegate from Virginia who has spearheaded legislative initiatives to limit data center expansion. During his first legislative session in 2024, the group of self-proclaimed data center “reformers” in both the House and Senate numbered just three politicians. By 2025, that number had risen to eight, “and now it’s 12 or 13,” he says, with many more politicians willing to vote on reform bills. His fellow lawmakers, he says, now “understand that we have to negotiate where these things go.”
Last year, a proposal introduced by Thomas that would have required data centers to conduct more in-depth site assessments for environmental, noise and community impacts passed the Legislature but was vetoed by then-Governor Glenn Youngkin. Newly elected Gov. Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat who we talked making data centers “pay for themselves” according to the campaign seems much more likely to reconsider this year’s version of the bill, which has already been passed passed House.
“I am much more confident [Spanberger] I will sign,” says Thomas.
Thomas, who was not involved in shaping the moratorium in the Virginia House, believes the data center moratorium will be passed in states where the industry is less established than in Virginia. Still, he says, “it’s not a bad idea.”