Enact a Federal Moratorium on New Data Centers Until Public Protections Are in Place

While much of the pushback against specific data centers is occurring within communities where proposed projects will be sited, the public impact of data centers is not limited to the immediate neighborhood where they are located—creating a collective action problem that can be addressed effectively at the federal level. When a new data center connects to the grid in one town, utility bills can increase for all customers of that service region. Data center developers are in some cases responding to local moratoriums or local opposition by targeting adjacent districts with weaker protections (as happened recently when a data center project that received pushback in Memphis was moved across the state line, nevertheless impacting the same constituents who breathe the same air and drink the same water).1

Enact a Time-Bound Moratorium

A time-bound, national moratorium on the approval and construction of new data centers would allow local governments, states, and public utility commissions to pass widely applicable regulations to protect their constituents from unrestrained hyperscaler development. For a comprehensive list of state and local policy recommendations, see our North Star Data Center Policy Toolkit: State and Local Policy Interventions to Stop Rampant AI Data Center Expansion. 

Strong example

Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Ocasio-Cortez announced legislation proposing a moratorium on new construction or updates until Congress passes comprehensive AI legislation.

Strong Example

Over two hundred environmental groups have called for a national moratorium on new data center construction until regulations are put in place.

Strong Example

Honor the Earth, Indigenous Environmental Network, and the No Data Centers on Native Land Coalition have called for a three-year data center moratorium on tribal lands.

Include Anti-Federal Preemption Provisions

If federal moratorium legislation includes any federal regulations, it should include a provision specifying that federal laws will not preempt local and state authority to regulate data centers. 

Strong example Language

“Nothing in this chapter shall preclude a state or local government or instrumentality thereof from establishing additional regulations requirements that are more stringent than federal standards. This chapter shall prohibit any federal agency from overriding or circumventing state, tribal, territorial, or local land use, water, environmental, or utility review processes.”

  1. Sophie Bates, “Elon Musk’s xAI to Build $20 Billion Data Center in Mississippi,” ABC, January 8, 2026, https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/elon-musks-xai-build-20-billion-data-center-129038245. ↩︎