Federal

Sen. Adam Schiff introduced the Energy Cost Fairness and Reliability Act, which would require data center developers to pay for new power and transmission infrastructure rather than passing costs to ratepayers. The bill is the latest in a growing list of proposals from both parties aimed at curbing the electricity price impacts of data centers.

Ohio

Ohio lawmakers are launching a bipartisan joint data center committee co-chaired by Rep. Adam Holmes (R-Nashport) and Sen. Brian Chavez (R-Marietta), with plans to hold at least one meeting a week starting May 27.

The committee will invite companies including Google and Meta, along with workers and residents, to testify. Ohio has roughly 200 data centers, the fifth-highest count in the country. Separately, a citizen-led effort needs more than 413,000 signatures by July 1 to place a constitutional amendment banning data centers over 25 megawatts on the November ballot.

Illinois

Environmental advocates are pressing for the POWER Act with less than three weeks before adjournment, but the bill has not moved beyond hearings since February. It would ban nondisclosure agreements between municipalities and developers, require public water-use reports, and mandate that new data centers build their own renewable energy generation.

‼️5/15/2026 Rule 2-10 Committee/3rd Reading Deadline Established As May 22, 2026

The Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition said it is frustrated by Gov. JB Pritzker's silence since his February address, where he proposed a two-year pause on data center tax credits. At least 27 data centers have received incentives totaling $983 million in estimated lifetime tax breaks, and a Commonwealth Edison representative told lawmakers that northern Illinois has almost 100 large-load projects in the queue.

Knox County, Tennessee

Knox County commissioners take up a proposal today from Commissioner Andy Fox to require data centers with a capacity over 10 megawatts to obtain special permission from the Knoxville-Knox County Planning Commission. State law sets the threshold for special zoning at 50 megawatts; Fox's ordinance would set a far lower bar.

No data center has been proposed in Knox County. Fox called the effort proactive, saying existing industrial-zoned land remains exposed without more specific protections. The commission will discuss and vote at 5 p.m. in the City-County Building.

Lisle, Illinois

Lisle's planning and zoning commission will consider an amendment May 20 that would exclude data centers from the village's I-1 zoning district, the only zone where they are currently permitted. If approved, new data centers would be effectively prohibited without a separate text amendment to the zoning code.

The move follows public outcry over a 256,000-square-foot proposal from Cloud Centers, LLC at 711 Ogden Avenue. A January public hearing drew hundreds of residents and had to be canceled due to overflow. Cloud Centers later withdrew its application. One existing data center has operated in the I-1 district for approximately 25 years.

Conway, Arkansas

May 12, 2026 City Council Meeting

A major technology company has purchased more than 700 acres on Lollie Road in southwest Conway for a data center campus with an initial investment of $2 billion and the potential to scale to $10 billion. The company, which has not been publicly named, plans to invest $1 billion for construction and another $1 billion to equip the facility. The site closed in June 2025 and is in the engineering and design phase.

Conway's City Council, Conway Corporation Board, and Conway Foundation Board all voted unanimously last year to enter a memorandum of understanding. The facility would draw up to 1,000 megawatts from Entergy Arkansas and cool with redirected treated wastewater rather than the city's drinking water. A $10 billion buildout would represent an annual 25% increase in the Conway School District's budget.

Cleveland, Ohio

Cleveland Council President Blaine Griffin and Mayor Justin Bibb declared that data centers will not be permitted at The Midline, a new initiative to turn 350+ acres of long-vacant East Side industrial property near East 55th Street into shovel-ready land for high-tech manufacturing.

Griffin said pending legislation will establish zoning guardrails near neighborhoods. The declaration comes after the city rejected a $1.6 billion data center permit in Slavic Village and Council introduced separate legislation to block all new data centers until May 2027.

South Whitehall Township, Pennsylvania

Parkland School District raised alarm at a May 12 board workshop over Project Atlas, a proposed 5.1 million-square-foot data center spanning more than 400 acres directly across from Parkland High School in South Whitehall Township. The project would include six data center buildings, a dedicated electric substation, and 356 Tier 2 diesel backup generators.

Superintendent Mark Madson described the footprint as equivalent to roughly 10 Parkland High Schools. The district wants a third-party sound study and raised traffic concerns near the campus. The proposal is still preliminary and could change.

Henrico County, Virginia

QTS is preparing two campus expansions that would add 1,100 acres and 17 new data centers to its footprint in Varina, totaling nearly 8 million square feet of new space on top of the 3 million-plus already built at White Oak Technology Park.

Richmond 1

Data Center Campus Richmond 1 Spanning more than 200 acres, Richmond 1 is the largest and most connected data center campus in the area. This multi-building campus is one of three facilities in Richmond operated by QTS. Schedule a tour Schedule a tour Richmond Community Partnerships https://vimeo.com/1161957780?share=copy&fl=sv&fe=ci Our data center campus features Campusfootprint 207 acre […]

QTS Data Centers

The company has applied to the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality to permit 370 diesel-fired emergency generators, adding to 544 generators and 11 cooling towers already permitted. The larger of the two campuses, RIC5 (622 acres, seven buildings), was the last major data center rezoning approved before Henrico changed its rules to require provisional-use permits for all new projects.

LaPorte, Indiana

Gov. Holcomb announces plans for new $1B Microsoft Data Center in Northwest Indiana

LA PORTE, Ind. – Governor Eric J. Holcomb today announced that Microsoft will invest $1 billion to establish a new data center in northwest Indiana. The new facility, which will create up to 200 new jobs by the end of 2032 in La Porte, will accelerate cloud computing infrastructure to support growth in technology and artificial intelligence worldwide. “Indiana is committed to being a central hub in the global economy of the future, and this latest announcement ensures Hoosier communities and talent will be key to widespread advancements in cloud and artificial intelligence technology,” said Gov. Holcomb. “As a state, we’ve built a pro-growth business climate and implemented a future-focused framework to attract major investments in high-tech, high-growth sectors. We’re excited to welcome Microsoft’s new data center to Indiana and look forward to the incredible value add impact this will have on our statewide data driven ecosystem, new career opportunities, specifically the greater northwest Indiana community.” Microsoft, headquartered in Redmond, Washington, will construct a new 245,000-square-foot data center on 489 acres at the Radius Industrial Park in La Porte. The campus will help power the Microsoft Cloud and support the next-level digital transformation spurred by the widespread adoption of cloud computing and AI (artificial intelligence). The La Porte facility will join the company’s worldwide network of cloud computing infrastructure of more than 60 Azure regions, more than 300 data centers, over 280,000 kilometers of network, and over 190 edge sites. To support its growth in Indiana, Microsoft plans to hire a variety of positions, including critical environment engineers, IT technicians and managers, inventory and asset technicians and managers, security personnel, and site managers. The timeline for construction and operations of the new datacenter is dependent on the design, planning and permitting process, which will start in cooperation with the City of La Porte later this year. “Microsoft is excited to expand our datacenter infrastructure into Indiana, with our first campus to be built in La Porte,” said Bowen Wallace, Microsoft CVP Datacenters, Americas Region. “We appreciate the collaboration with the State, City and the La Porte Economic Advancement Partnership that has made this opportunity possible. We look forward to an enduring and beneficial relationship with Indiana and the City of La Porte as we build and scale our data center infrastructure to support our customer and partners.” Microsoft is committed to the responsible operations of their datacenters, with its environmental impact on local communities firmly in mind. The company has four main sustainability goals: Being carbon negative and removing its historical carbon emissions by 2050; Being water positive and replenishing more water than it uses; Being zero waste across its direct operations; Protecting more land than it uses by 2025. “Projects like this happen once in a lifetime, and their effects are felt forever,” said La Porte Mayor Tom Dermody. “What makes this even better is that we get to work with the talented and community-minded team at Microsoft. From the very beginning of this project, they have been committed and attentive to the needs of our community. We are incredibly excited to welcome them here and look forward to a strong collaboration long into the future.” The city of La Porte approved additional incentives to support the project. NIPSCO offered additional incentives. “Providing safe, reliable and affordable energy to the communities we serve is NIPSCO’s mission, and we have been working closely with Microsoft on plans to fulfill the energy needs for the new data center in the city of La Porte,” said Vince Parisi, NIPSCO President and Chief Operating Officer. “This economic development project will deliver long-term, sustained benefits to the northwest Indiana region, and we’re proud to support these efforts.” Today’s news marks Indiana’s fourth strategically located major planned data center announcement in 2024. Together, these Fortune 500 businesses have made plans to invest $14.8 billion in cloud computing and storage infrastructure in communities and regions across Indiana, creating 1,500 new jobs in Fort Wayne, Jeffersonville, La Porte and New Carlisle. Based on the company’s investment plans, the Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC) committed an investment in Microsoft in the form of a 35-year term data center sales tax credit for a minimum $1 billion in eligible capital investment. For each $1 billion of eligible investment made at the site within the first 15 years, the company will be eligible for tax exemptions for an additional 5-10-year period, up to a total term of 45 years. These incentives are performance-based, meaning the company is eligible to claim state benefits once investments are made. - 30 -

Gov. Holcomb announces plans for new $1B Microsoft Data Center in Northwest Indiana

LaPorte's Common Council votes tonight on whether to annex land for a second Microsoft data center in the city. The annexation covers nine properties off Boyd Boulevard in Pleasant Township, with the main parcel running along Highway 35 south to County Road 250.

The proposal has been under discussion for nearly four years, with some residents speaking out against another data center. The meeting starts at 6 p.m. in City Hall Council Chambers.

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