New York is the latest state to consider pausing its data center

Lawmakers in at least five other states — Georgia, Maryland, Oklahoma, Vermont and Virginia — have also introduced bills this year that would impose various forms of pauses on data center development. While Democrats are leading efforts in Georgia, Vermont and Virginia, bills in Oklahoma and Maryland have been largely sponsored by Republicans. These bills mirror several moratoriums passed locally: At the end of December, at least 14 states had towns or counties that had paused permitting data centers and construction, Tech Policy Press reported.

There are some signs that the data center industry is beginning to respond to the backlash. Last month, Microsoft, with support from the White House, rolled out a set of commitments to be a “good neighbor” in the communities where it builds data centers. In response to questions about how the industry will respond to the slew of state-level legislation, Dan Diorio, vice president of state policy at the Data Center Coalition, an industry group, told WIRED in a statement that it “recognizes the importance of continued efforts to better educate and inform the public about the industry, through community engagement and stakeholder education, which includes factual information about responsible water use in the industry and our commitment to paying for the energy we use.”

Some states with moratorium bills have relatively few data centers: Vermont has just two, according to the data center map. But Georgia and Virginia are national centers of data center development and have found themselves at the center of much resistance, in both public reaction to data centers and legislative resistance. More than 60 data center-related bills have already been proposed in the Virginia Legislature this year, according to Data Center Dynamics, an industry news site.

Josh Thomas is a Virginia state delegate who has been at the forefront of leading the legislative charge to place limits on the expansion of data centers. During its first legislative session, in 2024, the caucus of self-identified data center “reformers” in both the House and Senate consisted of just three politicians. That number rose to eight in 2025, “and now it’s 12 or 13,” he says, with many politicians wanting to vote on reform bills. He says his fellow lawmakers “now understand that we need to negotiate where this goes.”

Last year, the Legislature passed a proposal by Thomas that would have required data centers to conduct more in-depth environmental, noise and community site assessments, but it was vetoed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin. Newly elected Gov. Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat who talked about making data centers “pay for themselves” on the campaign trail, appears likely to reconsider this year’s version of the bill, which has already passed the House.

“I’m more optimistic about that [Spanberger] “He’ll sign,” Thomas says.

Thomas, who was not involved in drafting the Virginia House moratorium, believes the data center moratorium is more likely to pass in states where the industry has less of a foothold than it does in Virginia. However, he says, “It’s not a bad idea.”