US Data Center Bans Reach 500 as New York and Texas Join Pushback
Local resistance to data center construction across the United States has intensified sharply, with the tally of municipal and county bans reaching roughly five hundred locations according to Shane Burke at The Information. That figure climbed from more than three hundred in late June as New York and Texas joined a widening wave of cities and counties pushing back against new builds. The surge frames AI-era infrastructure as an increasingly contested land-use fight rather than a routine utility expansion. Operators planning capacity in previously permissive states now face a patchwork of blocked jurisdictions that can delay timelines, raise political risk, and complicate site selection. Reporting attributes the count to Burke's tracking rather than a single federal registry, so local definitions of bans may vary.
Sources
- Data Center Bans Top 500 as New York, Texas Join Pushback - The InformationThe Information AI · primary
- New Amazon Data Center Stokes Worry It Would Be the Most Polluting Power Plant in the U.S.NYTimes Technology · secondary
- Planned Amazon data center could become the biggest climate polluter in the U.S.TechCrunch AI · secondary
- US data center bans top 500, up from 300+ in late June, as New York and Texas join cities and counties pushing back against data center development (Shane Burke/The Information)Techmeme · secondary