{"id":51,"date":"2026-05-20T18:38:25","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T18:38:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/smartmovinghome.com\/?p=51"},"modified":"2026-05-20T18:38:25","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T18:38:25","slug":"as-cities-try-to-regulate-data-centers-more-states-work-to-block-their-efforts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smartmovinghome.com\/?p=51","title":{"rendered":"As Cities Try to Regulate Data Centers, More States Work to Block Their Efforts"},"content":{"rendered":"
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An increasing number of states are pursuing legislation aimed at preventing local municipalities from regulating data centers and artificial intelligence (AI), legal advocates warn, all but ensuring their construction. This \u201cpreemption legislation\u201d truncates efforts led by residents to counter the rapid expansion of facilities that have been widely criticized for everything from noise pollution to the secretive process by which many contracts for development are approved.<\/p>\n

In the past two years, at least nine states have considered 12 different bills aimed at curbing local control of data centers and artificial intelligence, according to the Local Solutions Support Center, a national network of organizations that tracks the overuse of preemption. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe companies that are behind AI are going to state legislatures proactively and saying, \u2018We want to make sure that there are no governments that are regulating AI \u2026 we want you to enact this,\u2019\u201d said Leslie Zellers, a lawyer with the Local Solutions Support Center. \u201cIt\u2019s a coordinated effort by special interests to try to stop any local regulation of AI.\u201d<\/p>\n

Members of Local Solutions Support Center say that the bills introduced in New Hampshire, Ohio, South Carolina, and Virginia, which seek to codify a \u201cright to compute,\u201d are facsimiles of the same model legislation written by the conservative lobbying group American Legislative Exchange Council. Going off that model allows the legislation to appear in many state houses seemingly all at once, and it\u2019s dangerous, Zellers said, because once preemption is made law, it\u2019s nearly impossible to undo.<\/p>\n

The U.S. is constructing data centers faster than anywhere else in the world and is home to the largest number of hyperscale data centers. A single hyperscale facility can consume as much energy as U.S. households. While data centers have been used since the 1940s to store computer processing information off-site, the AI boom is driving the construction of new hyperscale facilities. <\/p>\n

Explicit support from the Trump Administration coupled with active and ongoing deregulation of the Environmental Protection Agency has paved the way for data center construction, often in places where land is cheap and relatively undeveloped. <\/p>\n

The national fight over data centers has shined a light on the ways poor, rural, and disenfranchised communities can pay the price for the economic development of industries shielded from their own externalities. Numerous reports detail the impact of data centers on drinking water quality and availability, fossil fuel use, and attendant air pollution. <\/p>\n

In response to the buildout, Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT), introduced legislation calling for a moratorium on data centers, Maine\u2019s legislature approved a ban on new data center construction (which the governor later vetoed), and residents in cities such as Monterey Park, California, pushed local councilmembers to consider a total ban on the energy-gobbling enterprises. <\/p>\n

At the same time, several states are considering ways to roll out the red carpet for development by preempting local municipalities from following in the footsteps of Monterey Park. <\/p>\n

But these preemption laws do more than prevent local governments from protecting their residents, Zellers said. \u201c[It] disregards the will of the people living in those communities to decide what kind of industry or businesses they want to allow there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Communities should have a say in what goes on within the boundaries of their city, especially given that they\u2019re the ones who might have to contend with pollution that results from operation, Zellers said. <\/p>\n

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\u201cThere\u2019s no way that the state legislature can know enough about every community to say you must require this, because they\u2019re not the ones bearing the brunt of the impact,\u201d she told Prism<\/em>. <\/p>\n

West Virginia, seeking to compete with the development in nearby states like Virginia, approved a law in its most recent legislative session that preempts local governments\u2019 abilities to regulate data centers, citing the data center race with China and a need for economic development.<\/p>\n

Paula Kaufman, an educator and a life-long West Virginian, told Prism<\/em> that the model of propping up data centers as a form of economic development is short sighted. The pattern was seen with timber, then coal, followed by fields of oil and gas wells, but Kaufman bemoaned the idea that the state has to sell itself in order to be valuable. <\/p>\n

\u201cHere, [there\u2019s] an inverse relationship between the wealth of a space and the wealth of the people \u2014 super rich in resources and then super poor people,\u201d Kaufman said. It\u2019s the \u201cboom and bust\u201d cycle, similar to what the state experienced in the heyday of coal, she added. \u201cPoliticians can say, \u2018oh, it\u2019s going to bring jobs,\u2019 but it doesn\u2019t account for the bust cycle. It doesn\u2019t provide a long-term plan for sustained financial security.\u201d <\/p>\n

Despite little longitudinal evidence supporting the claim, proponents of data centers tout the economic activity that results from their construction and operation, as do the West Virginia and South Carolina bills. However, it increasingly appears that data centers are some of the least efficient job stimulants and economic drivers. Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group Food and Water Watch found that as of 2024, as few as 23,000 people nationally worked in data centers, accounting for 0.01% of all jobs across the country. <\/p>\n

\u201cThese companies come in, talk to local elected officials who have varying degrees of sophistication about industries, [and] they manipulate public opinion,\u201d said Mitch Jones, managing director of Policy and Litigation at Food and Water Watch. \u201cThey promise jobs, income, funding, and in exchange, they get huge tax cuts, access to water, electricity, land, so on and so forth.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added, \u201cEvery extractive industry that comes into a community makes these promises, it\u2019s just that data centers are doing it from a position of economic power that most industries don\u2019t have.\u201d <\/p>\n

State-level preemption laws put data centers in a highly favorable position. With little federal regulation and no manner of local accountability, companies can push a product onto local communities and leave when the going gets tough. The lack of federal oversight is even more of a reason why preemption laws are dangerous to everything from resource use to civic engagement, advocates say. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf what this industry claims about itself is true, it\u2019s going to have such a profound effect on our lives that we deserve a say in that matter,\u201d Jones said. \u201cWe are a democracy; as such, we deserve democratic decision making when it comes to an industry which claims it\u2019s going to disrupt so much of how we are living.\u201d <\/p>\n

Prism is an independent and nonprofit newsroom led by journalists of color. We report from the ground up and at the intersections of injustice.<\/em><\/p>\n

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At least 9 states have considered bills to curb local control of data centers and AI over the last 2 years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nAs Cities Try to Regulate Data Centers, More States Work to Block Their Efforts - Smart Moving Home<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/smartmovinghome.com\/?p=51\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"As Cities Try to Regulate Data Centers, More States Work to Block Their Efforts - Smart Moving Home\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"At least 9 states have considered bills to curb local control of data centers and AI over the last 2 years.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/smartmovinghome.com\/?p=51\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Smart Moving Home\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-20T18:38:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/smartmovinghome.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/efa27727da9502703403ed9bdc1121b2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1708\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/?p=51#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/?p=51\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ec0d70042821fd684a174c8d0e8becfa\"},\"headline\":\"As Cities Try to Regulate Data Centers, More States Work to Block Their Efforts\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-20T18:38:25+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/?p=51\"},\"wordCount\":1181,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/?p=51#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/efa27727da9502703403ed9bdc1121b2.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Interesting\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/?p=51#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/?p=51\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/?p=51\",\"name\":\"As Cities Try to Regulate Data Centers, More States Work to Block Their Efforts - 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