Risk · Moratoriums & Local Opposition
Community Opposition
Formal moratoriums, zoning bans, and legislative proposals restricting new data center development, by jurisdiction.
Confidence
A Directly reported figure
B Estimated / Derived
C Regional inference / indirect estimate
D Not found / insufficient data
US markets (10)
10 MARKETS| Market | Status | Detail | Date Enacted/Effective | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US moratorium tracker (aggregate) | Trend/count | 7 moratoria (2023), 6 (2024), 59 (2025), 294 in first 7 months of 2026 (June alone: 80) | 2018-2026 (tracked monthly) | A |
| Hillsboro, OR | In force | 120-day moratorium on new land use applications for data centers and BESS sites; does not affect existing/already-submitted projects; may be extended another 120 days | Jul 27, 2026 | A |
| Seattle, WA | Pending/proposed | Proposed 365-day moratorium (extendable 6 months), pending city impact reports on grid, water, rates, land use, jobs, and health. | Apr 30, 2026 (introduced) | A |
| Louisville / Jefferson County, KY | In force | Metro Council approved a moratorium; a separate Greenberg-administration rule would ban hyperscale (>500,000 sq ft) data centers outright, with distance requirements for smaller ones. | Aug 13, 2026 | A |
| Jackson Township / Pleasant Township, OH | In force | Two adjacent townships each passed 1-year moratoriums | 2026 | A |
| Multiple Florida counties | In force (various) | Moratoriums pausing data center applications for up to 12 months | 2026 | B |
| Ohio (statewide ballot measure) | Failed to qualify | Proposed constitutional amendment to ban data centers over 25 MW; gathered ~70,000 of the 413,488 signatures required by the July 1, 2026 deadline | Jul 1, 2026 (deadline missed) | A |
| Michigan (statewide bills) | Introduced, not enacted | HB 5594-5596 and SB 1018-1020 (statewide moratorium bills) reintroduced June 2026 alongside a Senate Democratic regulatory package | 2026-06 (reintroduced) | A |
| US federal (Congress) | Introduced, not enacted | S.4214, "Artificial Intelligence Data Center Moratorium Act" -- would halt new AI data center construction nationwide pending federal AI safety legislation | Jul 18, 2026 (introduced) | A |
| States moving the opposite direction (pro-development) | Enacted (protective/regulatory, not prohibitive) | Florida protected local land-use authority; Oklahoma's Data Center Customer Protection Act; Maryland's Utility RELIEF Act; Idaho requires a "no harm" test for loads >50 MW. | 2026 | B |
International markets (15)
15 MARKETS| Market | Status | Detail | Date Enacted/Effective | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amsterdam, Netherlands | In force | Data center development moratorium | Ongoing as of 2026 | A |
| Dublin, Ireland (EirGrid) | Lifted with conditions | 2021/2022 moratorium on new grid connections lifted Dec 2025, conditional on on-site generation/battery capacity and 80% renewable sourcing within 6 years | Dec 12, 2025 (lifted) | A |
| Denmark | In force | Temporary pause on new large-consumption grid connections (not data-center-specific, but data centers are the primary driver): ~60 GW queued vs. 7 GW national peak demand | 2026 | A |
| JLL community-acceptance survey finding | Sentiment gap | 35% local acceptance level vs. 93% national support level -- a 58-point gap | 2026 | A |
| Iver (Court Lane), Buckinghamshire, UK | Reversed on appeal, then legally challenged again | Refused 2024, approved on appeal by Angela Rayner; Jan 2026 judicial review (Foxglove/Global Action Plan) found a "serious logical error" in the approval, which should be quashed. | 2024 (refused) -> Rayner approval -> Jan 22, 2026 (quashed) | A |
| Abbots Langley, Hertfordshire, UK | Refused, pending appeal | 96MW data center development rejected | 2026-01 (rejected) | A |
| Havering (East London), UK | In force, contested | 600MW, £5.3bn, 12-building, 175-acre Green Belt campus by Digital Reef; council-backed, opposed by residents/Friends of the Earth over long construction impact and Green Belt "creep". | 2026 (ongoing) | A |
| Houghton Regis, Bedfordshire, UK (AWS-linked) | Opposed, campaign group formally requesting refusal | Foxglove asked the UK government to refuse permission pending answers on power/water availability and emissions — for this site and as general future policy. | Jun 12, 2025 (campaign statement) | A |
| UK (national policy) | New centralized approval pathway (reduces local veto power) | Infrastructure Planning Regulations 2026 let data centers use the NSIP regime — a centralized process bypassing local councils for the largest developments. | 2026-01 (in force) | A |
| UK (public sentiment research) | Sentiment/procedural finding | Analysis of 807 public comments across 4 UK data center planning applications concludes "the consultation system may be structurally misaligned with the scale of public concern it is now expected to handle" | Jun 10, 2026 | B |
| Netherlands (grid-capacity conflict) | Grid operator warning, new-home connections paused | TenneT has paused new-home electricity connections in affected regions, warning data-center demand is contributing to grid overload risk. | Feb 12, 2026 | A |
| Amsterdam, Netherlands (moratorium fallout) | Documented casualty of the moratorium/grid-priority conflict | A Microsoft hyperscale project reportedly proceeded despite the local ban; reporting says 50 schools/daycares couldn't be built because a data center got priority grid access. | Jan 26, 2026 | B |
| Aragon region, Spain | Active development, contested on renewable-land-competition grounds | Data centers under construction in Aragon would consume approximately 9x more electricity than all other current economic activity in the region combined, and would occupy up to 32% of land earmarked for renewable energy generation | 2026 | B |
| Ireland (national economic cost) | Quantified household cost | Data-center electricity demand added an est. €360/household (2015-2023) and drained ~€715M from the economy; only 0.1% of the workforce (~3,300 people) works in data centers. | 2015-2023 (cumulative) | B |
| EU-wide (advocacy proposal, not policy) | Proposed (not enacted) | A coalition of European civil-society researchers has published a formal public call for a temporary EU-wide moratorium on large data centers pending better data and democratic deliberation | Jul 28, 2026 | B |