Data Centers: Daily Notes | May 26, 2026
Pennsylvania regulators move to keep data center costs off ratepayers, Indiana utilities lean into gas and coal, and fights over moratoriums and mega-projects spread from Montana to New York.
At A Glance 🔽
- Pennsylvania PUC adopts a "but for" test so data center developers cover grid upgrades for loads of 50 MW or more.
- Indiana utilities lean on new gas plants and a revived coal plant to power a wave of hyperscale data centers.
- Socorro, NM: a community meeting over a New Mexico Tech data center erupts as the county weighs a June 9 moratorium vote.
- Inyokern, CA: a statewide construction union backs a contested data center that would draw up to 16 million gallons of water a year.
- Spalding County, GA commissioners hear a 4th data center May 28 after the planning board recommended denial.
- Goochland County, VA residents fight a $1 billion Valley Link transmission line built to serve data centers.
- East Fishkill, NY Town Board sets a June 25 hearing on a moratorium to block a 1-gigawatt data center.
- West Rockhill, PA supervisors tighten their data center ordinance with stricter lot, noise and water rules.
- Shalersville, OH: a developer hosts a May 29 open house on a contested data center as opposition mounts.
- Rep. Ocasio-Cortez presses the EPA over brown well water in Morgan County, GA near a Meta data center.
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania's Public Utility Commission wants data center developers, not households, to pay for the grid upgrades their projects require. On April 30, the commission approved a model "large load" tariff built around a "but for" test: if a substation or power line would not be built but for a data center, the developer covers the cost, even where the wider grid benefits. Upgrades a utility had already planned can still be shared across all customers.
The model tariff covers new users of 50 megawatts or more. It isn't a mandate, but the commission controls utilities' rate cases, which gives it leverage.
Indiana
To power a wave of hyperscale data centers, some Indiana utilities are leaning hard on fossil fuels. The clearest case is in Hobart, where NIPSCO's generation arm plans two new natural gas plants and a large battery to serve Amazon's 2.4-gigawatt project.
Others differ; AES Indiana is pairing solar and storage for a Google site. Watchdog group Citizens Action Coalition warns that much of this planning stays buried in regulatory filings, with projects like Meta's $10 billion Lebanon campus disclosing almost nothing about their power.
Socorro, New Mexico
A community meeting over a data center proposed on New Mexico Tech land erupted into shouting on May 19, as residents booed the university president and the developer and pressed them to drop the project. The developer pitched it as a greener facility that would pull water from the air to limit groundwater use, but the roughly three-hour session did little to ease the skepticism.
The proposal is still early, and no site has been chosen. Socorro County commissioners are expected to vote June 9 on a one-year moratorium on data centers in unincorporated areas. New Mexico Tech, a state institution, argues it is exempt from local zoning but says it will weigh any local ordinances.
Inyokern, California
A statewide construction union is urging California regulators to approve a contested data center near Inyokern, calling it the kind of responsible investment the state should encourage. Residents see it very differently. The project, proposed by R&L Capital in an unincorporated stretch of Kern County, would draw 12 to 16 million gallons of water a year from the Indian Wells Valley groundwater basin.
That basin is the near-sole water source for both Inyokern and Ridgecrest, a desert area with little natural recharge and a long history of shortages. The fight is playing out in the California Energy Commission's review of the developer's power-plant exemption application, where roughly 100 letters have urged the state to reject or pause the plan, against about 10 in support.
Spalding County, Georgia
Spalding County commissioners will weigh a fourth data center on May 28, weeks after the county planning board unanimously recommended denying it. The 75 South campus, proposed by an affiliate of developer Hillwood, would place seven two-story buildings totaling 2.24 million square feet plus a power station on about 292 acres along Tomochichi Road.
The Planning and Appeals Commission declined on April 28 to support the land-use change the project needs, which left its rezoning and variance requests moot, though commissioners aren't bound by that recommendation. State filings estimate the campus would be worth $6 billion at buildout and generate roughly $86 million in annual local tax revenue but only 200 permanent jobs. The developers say they would move quickly, targeting completion by 2030.
Goochland County, Virginia
Rural Virginians turned out for an open house in Goochland County to fight Valley Link, a $1 billion, 765-kilovolt transmission line proposed largely to carry power to Northern Virginia's data centers. The disputed segment would run more than 100 miles from a Campbell County substation through the agricultural Piedmont, on towers as tall as 165 feet with clearings as wide as two football fields.
Dominion Energy proposed the line with two partners after data centers requested grid connections, and regional operator PJM approved it in 2025; Virginia's State Corporation Commission is expected to review a route in September. Opposition spans at least nine counties, with worries about eminent domain, rural character and rising bills. Louisa County alone has set aside $250,000 to challenge the project.
East Fishkill, New York
A proposed 1-gigawatt data center has put East Fishkill on edge, and on May 21 the Town Board responded by setting a June 25 public hearing on extending its development moratorium to cover data centers. The project, floated by New Jersey's Treetop Companies, would be among the largest in New York, using power equivalent to roughly 800,000 homes.
The proposal surfaced mainly through NYISO's public grid-connection queue, which it entered in July 2025. Town Supervisor Nicholas D'Alessandro says only 50 megawatts are available locally against the 1,000 the project would need, so a new substation years away would be required. Ahead of the board meeting, dozens of residents rallied with an environmental group, chanting "we can't drink data" and demanding the moratorium.
West Rockhill, Pennsylvania
West Rockhill supervisors advanced a slate of amendments tightening the township's new data center ordinance. The board had adopted the ordinance in April over public opposition and promised to strengthen it.
The changes raise the minimum lot size from 25 to 35 acres, widen setbacks, cap building height at 35 feet, and lower allowable nighttime noise. They also require closed-loop cooling, ban groundwater and surface water extraction, and mandate water, electricity, sound and economic-impact studies before any project can proceed. With state law blocking an outright ban, the township solicitor has framed the rules as a preemptive guardrail; no formal applications have been filed. A final hearing is set for July 15.
Shalersville, Ohio
A developer will host a public open house on May 29 to field questions about a contested data center proposed in Shalersville. The "Open House and Community Q&A" runs from noon to 3 p.m. at the Turnpike Commerce Center, a 1-million-square-foot building on State Route 44, and is billed as a chance for residents to raise concerns about the project directly.
🏞️ Federal Watch...
Morgan County, Georgia. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez held up jars of brown well water from Morgan County residents during a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing, pressing the EPA over contamination that neighbors link to a nearby Meta data center.
She questioned EPA water official Jessica Kramer about the discolored water, which residents say comes from wells near the Meta site, where some neighbors have tied the problems to nearby construction and blasting.
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