1,000 Data-Center Proposals Advance

More than 1,000 data-center proposals are currently pending across the United States. The Trump administration has identified data-center build-out as a strategic priority and has promoted data-center capacity as a measure of American strength while signaling that federal regulations on data centers may be eased.

In April 2026, the Ypsilanti Community Utilities Authority near Detroit, Michigan, passed a year-long halt to the delivery, commitment, reservation, extension, or approval of water and sewer services for data centers.

The moratorium blocks a data-center project under development by the University of Michigan and Los Alamos National Laboratory. Towns across Ohio, Wisconsin, Maryland, Nevada, and California have placed data-center-related questions on local ballots. In Sunbury, Ohio, local officials considered a moratorium after public protests over a proposed data center.

In April 2026, voters in Festus, Missouri, removed several City Council members who had supported a new data center. In 2025, West Virginia passed a bill that reduces local governments’ zoning and regulatory powers over data centers and microgrids. A bill in the New Hampshire legislature that would have reduced local zoning and regulatory powers over data centers was defeated in May 2026.

Data-center developers sued Saline Township, Michigan, and Chatham County, North Carolina, seeking to overturn local zoning decisions. Officials in Hood County, Texas, rejected a proposal for a six-month moratorium after a state senator urged the Texas attorney general to intervene.

Nearby residents experience higher air pollution and excess noise from data centers, and data processing uses substantial water for cooling.