“Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman said the company has stopped using nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) in its dealings with government agencies as it seeks approval to build new data centers.”
Bipartisan opposition to eminent domain for private gain
Both candidates for Governor of Iowa oppose eminent domain for private gain.
Why does this matter? Iowa’s outgoing Governor has vetoed legislation to prevent eminent domain for private gain, something the majority of the legislature has supported for years and years.
City buys farm land
Ann Arbor Michigan has a program that buys farmland that is likely to be facing a harm and attaches a conservation easement to the land. The city then re-sells it to farmers at a lower cost to preserve the farmland.
+1 local data center permit in Texas?
Next month League City “will consider an ordinance that would require companies to obtain a special-use permit for data centers, giving it authority to approve or deny their construction.”
+1 development moratorium
Add San Francisco to the list of cities adopting a data center moratorium. San Francisco’s moratorium will continue for 45 days. @bloombergbusiness
Data center developer tactics
Governing walks through the tactics employed by data center developments. They identify 4 tactics including:
(1) Utilizing zoning in places that have no zoning or limited public participation.
(2) $$$. Money, money, money like the ABBA song. Remember the 6 figure volunteer fire fighter donation that was declined in Oklahoma? Or, the offered $10,000 per household in a rural Pennsylvania township.
(3) lawsuits/the threats of lawsuits
(4) Secrecy such as non-disclosure agreements.
Anatomy of Oklahoma’s data center development policies
Oklahoma City & the Seminole Nation have enacted data center development moratoriums.
The Legislature is working to balance the concerns of residents with the needs of data center development. To that end, while working through this Republican lawmakers have said things like to be clear I am not on the side of data centers, but I believe, as usual, the answer is somewhere in the middle.
As for water and utilities, ensuring water of Oklahomans, and not passing on electric rate increases to consumers are at the forefront.
In 2025, Oklahoma passed Senate Bill 480 that allows data centers to build their own power plants, bypassing utilities.
Data center development force majeure notice
“Oracle has sent a force majeure notice to the developer of Project Jupiter, a Stargate data center campus in New Mexico, Bloomberg first reported Thursday.”
Tech Crunch explains that ‘the notice would allow the company to delay payments should the facility miss its 2028 target to come online.”
What’s happening? Regulators delayed a gas pipeline permit for 6 months.
Inverse condemnation from wildfires
California has limited liability from wildfires for water systems. If a water system cannot maintain systems during a wildfire there had been liability issues. SB 1153, signed by the Governor, would limit liability of any public water system that is unable to “maintain water supply or water pressure during a wildfire from being considered a substantial cause of the damages resulting from a wildfire.”
Rural power rises from land use issues
Look around and rural voices are gaining power. Whether it is data center development throughout the U.S. , or land use permitting that impacts farmers and ranchers in Vermont. Rural revolution it is.