Skip to content
  • Happy Health
  • Happy Mindset
  • Animal Wonders
  • About Us
    • Team
  • Subscribe
Menu
  • Happy Health
  • Happy Mindset
  • Animal Wonders
  • About Us
    • Team
  • Subscribe
Happy News

Communities Across America Are Banning AI Data Centers And The Number Just Jumped From 8 To 78

According to the U.S. Data Center Moratorium Tracker, communities across the country have been pushing back against the rapid expansion of AI data centers with growing success, with the number of active bans and moratoriums jumping from just 8 in May 2025 to 78 today, including 50 active restrictions and 4 permanent bans, in a wave of local resistance that has spread across both politically red and blue jurisdictions. The central concerns driving the movement are practical and directly felt: data centers consume enormous amounts of electricity, which studies have shown is raising utility rates for surrounding residential customers, and they require massive volumes of water for cooling, competing with local communities for resources in regions from the American West to the Great Lakes. In several communities, residents and local officials say they were caught off guard by the size and pace of data center expansion and are using moratoriums as a tool to pause new construction long enough to understand what is happening to their water supplies, noise levels, and utility bills before more projects break ground. The bans are coming from cities, counties, and townships in states including Minnesota, Michigan, Georgia, New York, Vermont, and several others.

At the state level the picture is more mixed, with 14 statewide moratorium bills filed across 11 states in 2026, though none has yet passed a full chamber. Maine’s legislature passed a statewide ban but the Governor vetoed it, saying the bill would have blocked a specific project with strong community support. Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have introduced federal legislation that would halt all new data center construction until Congress enacts comprehensive AI regulation. The movement has drawn bipartisan participation, with both Republican and Democratic communities involved, united less by ideology than by the concern that hyperscale data center expansion is moving far faster than the towns hosting it have been able to respond to. A policy tracker describes the local wave as a warning to state lawmakers: if states will not set guardrails, communities will keep hitting the pause button themselves.

Source: https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/ai-data-center-bans-are-rapidly-multiplying-across-the-us-69-jurisdictions-block-new-builds-with-four-moves-noted-as-permanent

PrevPreviousAn Alaska Animal Shelter Lets You Borrow A Dog For 48 Hours And It Is Leading To More Adoptions
NextThe FDA Just Gave Pancreatic Cancer Patients Early Access To A Pill That Doubled Survival TimeNext

Recent Articles

Happy News

Scientists Just Proved That Your Brain Can Dream While You Are Wide Awake

May 11, 2026

A study from the Paris Brain Institute, published in Cell Reports, has overturned something most people take for granted: that dreaming and waking are two cleanly separate mental states, each with their own type of thoughts. Researchers monitored 92 adults using EEG caps as they drifted into and out of

Read More
Happy News

A Kitten Found Covered Head To Tail In Industrial Glue Just Made A Full Recovery And Has A New Home

May 11, 2026

When a good Samaritan in Fort Worth, Texas, discovered a small kitten stuck in a bucket of industrial-strength glue near an industrial area in April and rushed him to the Humane Society of North Texas, shelter staff were not sure the tiny animal would survive the night. The glue was

Read More
Happy News

The FDA Just Gave Pancreatic Cancer Patients Early Access To A Pill That Doubled Survival Time

May 11, 2026

The Food and Drug Administration has authorized early expanded access to a new pill called daraxonrasib, developed by Revolution Medicines, giving patients with advanced pancreatic cancer a chance to receive the experimental treatment while it awaits full regulatory approval, in a move the agency completed just two days after receiving

Read More
« Previous Next »
  • Privacy Notice
  • Accessibility Notice
  • Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information
  • Unsubscribe
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Privacy Notice
  • Accessibility Notice
  • Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information
  • Unsubscribe
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
Copyright © 2026 HappyNews.