Data Center Moratoriums

The biggest political development of the past week was Maine's failed override of Governor Janet Mills' veto of LD 307. On April 29, 2026, the House voted 72-65 and the Senate 20-11 — both falling short of the two-thirds majority needed — definitively ending what would have been the first statewide data center moratorium in US history. Mills's parallel actions stand: she signed LD 713 (excluding data centers from Maine's business development tax incentives) and is moving forward with an executive order creating a study council. Local moratoria in Bangor and other Maine communities remain active, and the veto has prompted national reflection in moratorium-curious states. While the broad-pause path appears closed, narrower ratepayer-protection bills continue to advance. Oklahoma's Senate unanimously passed an amended HB 2992 (Data Center Consumer Ratepayer Protection Act) on April 28, adding stronger transparency requirements before sending it back to the House for concurrence. New Jersey's A796 still awaits Senate passage after a 55-18 Assembly vote, and Virginia's special session recessed April 23 without a budget deal — the $1.6B-$1.9B data center sales tax exemption remains the central fight, with Governor Spanberger's bill-action deadline May 22 and a possible deal projected by June. New York's lawmakers continue to push the country's most aggressive proposals: a three-year moratorium (S9144) and a separate bill capping or banning data center subsidies. Local momentum is increasingly the action. Seattle Councilmembers announced plans on April 30 to introduce a 365-day emergency moratorium with optional six-month extension; two developers have already withdrawn their Seattle expansion plans. Denver's City Council holds a second reading and public hearing on a one-year moratorium May 18, with a May 21 effective date if approved. Minneapolis's council has scheduled its own moratorium vote for May 21 (Minnesota HF 4888 would impose a parallel statewide pause). Camden County, Georgia adopted a nine-month moratorium on May 5, with Kingsland's city manager recommending a similar measure for May 11. Oliver County, North Dakota moved the other way, repealing its 180-day moratorium on May 1. On the construction side, the buildout continues at unprecedented scale. Per Epoch AI tracking, OpenAI's Stargate Abilene is on pace for ~0.6 GW IT capacity by late May 2026 with full ~1.2 GW reached in Q4; OpenAI dropped a planned 2.1 GW expansion on the site, redirecting capacity, and Crusoe is building two adjacent AI factory buildings for Microsoft. Independent analysis projects Meta's Prometheus campus in New Albany, Ohio crosses 1 GW capacity in May 2026 — joining a small group of US AI sites at gigawatt scale this year. xAI's Colossus 1+2 in Memphis now claims ~2 GW combined capacity (~555k GPUs), even as the NAACP, Earthjustice, and Southern Environmental Law Center filed a Clean Air Act complaint April 22 over unpermitted methane turbines. The political trajectory points firmly toward incremental ratepayer regulation and locally driven pauses rather than statewide bans, while frontier AI construction continues to outpace policy.