California Cities Pull the Plug On Data Centers After State Regulations Don't Scale Up Fast Enough (apnews.com) 19
"Across California, at least 26 resolutions, moratoriums, or bans on data center development have been passed or proposed since June," reports the Associated Press, citing a count by the non-governmental organization Food & Water Watch:
California currently ranks third among U.S. states in overall data center density, according to independent trackers like the US Data Center Map, with the state home to 366 of such facilities that are either fully operational, under construction, or moving through the planning process. Local elected officials are proposing data center moratoriums to slow that momentum — if not stop it in its tracks. In the first half of October alone, Oakland's city council unanimously approved a 45-day moratorium on new approvals, making it the first city in Alameda County and the fourth in the Bay Area to adopt such a measure. San Francisco approved a similar moratorium this month, while the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors postponed a vote to permanently ban large-scale data centers, often called hyperscale facilities, on unincorporated land after receiving an overwhelming volume of public feedback. In Santa Clara, city officials considered a moratorium vote, and are moving forward with new rules to govern data center development, including more stringent water and air pollution regulations. Alhambra residents will vote on a moratorium measure in the November election....
The escalating pushback underscores a widening gap between state-level regulation and municipal action. While Gov. Gavin Newsom last month signed into law seven new measures that focus primarily on disclosure requirements, environmental impact studies, and grid protection, grassroots groups and city councils are moving fast to halt construction entirely. "I have a hard time remembering something that caught fire the way the opposition to data centers has," said Nicole Ghio, California Director at Food & Water Watch. "Local municipalities have been able to respond quicker to the grassroots wave of opposition of people saying, 'Hold on, let's press pause. Let's actually figure out what we're doing before we commit to this huge change....'"
As cities continue to draft temporary freezes and outright bans, the tension between local community control and global technological dominance remains unresolved. State transparency laws may have opened the books on data center growth, but local opponents are making it clear that seeing the plans isn't the same as approving them.
The story was originally published by CalMatters, the nonprofit news organization covering California's politics.
The escalating pushback underscores a widening gap between state-level regulation and municipal action. While Gov. Gavin Newsom last month signed into law seven new measures that focus primarily on disclosure requirements, environmental impact studies, and grid protection, grassroots groups and city councils are moving fast to halt construction entirely. "I have a hard time remembering something that caught fire the way the opposition to data centers has," said Nicole Ghio, California Director at Food & Water Watch. "Local municipalities have been able to respond quicker to the grassroots wave of opposition of people saying, 'Hold on, let's press pause. Let's actually figure out what we're doing before we commit to this huge change....'"
As cities continue to draft temporary freezes and outright bans, the tension between local community control and global technological dominance remains unresolved. State transparency laws may have opened the books on data center growth, but local opponents are making it clear that seeing the plans isn't the same as approving them.
The story was originally published by CalMatters, the nonprofit news organization covering California's politics.
The State does not need to be fast (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
But the feds could preempt the state. US constitution's supremacy clause.
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But the feds could preempt the state. US constitution's supremacy clause.
Of course. However the point remains that the state need not hurry because local government might act first.
Do like China (Score:2)
California should do like China and build data centers on bottom of the ocean for cooling, then build wind and solar farms for power.
Re: (Score:2)
IIUC, that was a (large scale) experiment. Maybe it will work, but maintenance may be too expensive.
Re: Do like China (Score:2)
Build the data centers in Mexico where property prices and labor are lower.
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Build in Mexico ... where security is zero. That's an insane proposition ... like having the Chi.coms manufacture American military rifles. The cartels rule Mexico , over-power the judiciary , infiltrate military units and collect "taxes" on every damned thing that crosses their territory. Butcher Mex yeomanry who oppose them. Good luck with that saving on labor costs.
Include the cartels from the outset, make it profitable for them, and probably still save money over what it costs to bribe politicians into compliance inside the US. Win-win-win.
Ha Ha (Score:1)
Biting the hand that feeds them.
They'll bitch about lack of tax revenue and want to raise taxes (again) once all the data centers are being built in North Dakota or BFE.
Ha ha!
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Ha Ha (Score:4, Informative)
A bit of income from the construction activity. And then from the revenue of half a dozen techs working in a basically empty building, swapping out bad hard drives and power supplies. Otherwise, it's just bits going in and out. Good luck counting those bits as they cross state lines.
Tokens are bought and redeemed a long distance away from these DCs. So they appear, at the state level, as huge operating expenses with no offsetting revenue.
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Re: Ha Ha (Score:2)
Datacenters provide a service, that service is charged against their customers, and revenue is generated, and that revenue is taxed.
Self-owned/private datacenters may be harder to tax, but ultimately something will be charged a fee and tax revenue will be collected.
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Self-owned/private datacenters
Aren't they all privately owned? Anthropic, for example, is based in California. As a customer or taxing authority, that's all you know. Your jobs may be handled by DCs in Texas, Virginia or Washington State. But all those states know is that a power and water bill was paid. And they can tax that, but Anthropic's revenue is booked in California. As are the wages paid (and income tax collected) to its most valuable employees.
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Biting the hand that feeds them.
They'll bitch about lack of tax revenue and want to raise taxes (again) once all the data centers are being built in North Dakota or BFE.
Ha ha!
Oh my sweet summer child you really believe that the tech companies pay taxes on those data centers?
Maybe in California (Score:3)
They're just ignoring us. If we tell them no they just keep building the data center.
American spent 50 years undermining democracy and dismantling our institutions. We can't expect them to save us or protect us now. We need to rebuild them and it's going to take decades. And we need to learn what a moral panic is and why we should ignore it
Possible Federal Preemption in San Diego, CA (Score:2)
for a proposed 400 Megawatt data center near old town.
voiceofsandiego.org/2026/10/15/manchester-group-pitches-massive-data-center-at-the-navwar-site/
Trump would surely sign off on it from the federal side.
The plan would be for the federal government to give a 99 year lease to the Manchester Group, then since the land is under the control of the federal government the city's hands would be tied.
The only way out of it would be for the city to find a way to prevent that 400 megawatt transmission line from bein
Moronium (Score:2)
California is the world's leading miner of moronium, the ore which is refined to produce morons. These morons are now more worried about a data center 4 miles away from where they live than about a nuclear reactor. Before now, they had not idea that that random building down the road was a data center. They just assumed it was a buggy whip factory.