More than 100 U.S. communities have voted for a moratorium on data centers, fifteen states are considering it

Brookings lists the wave of local blockades targeting data centers, and warns that suspending projects does not replace the control tools that local authorities still lack.

The challenge of data centres has changed. In an analysis published on July 28, 2026, Nicol Turner Lee and Darrell West of the Brookings Institution have at least 15 U.S. states that have reviewed a moratorium on these facilities, and more than 100 local authorities that have already adopted one.

The grievances that come back from one municipality to the other are quite constant: the electricity consumption and its effect on private bills, the volumes of water mobilized for cooling, but also the nearby air pollution, noise, light nuisances, drought, and a more diffuse hostility to see some large technological enterprises settle in the immediate vicinity.

Suspend is not framed

The two authors did not defend the drafts, however: their argument was that the moratorium was a crude instrument, which put the subject on a break without creating the means to deal with it. They argue for transparency obligations on real consumption, compensation agreements negotiated with residents, tariff protections for residential subscribers, and a consultation that really involves elected, industrial and local people rather than putting them in the face of fait accompli.