Bell County, Texas commissioners gathered Monday to vote on a data center moratorium — and left telling residents their hands were legally tied. Meanwhile, New York's governor holds a pen that could make history, and the nation's largest grid operator is warning of a crisis hitting in months, not years.
🏘️ **COMMUNITY** — Bell County, Texas commissioners tabled a data center moratorium on June 15, saying they lack legal authority to enact one. With 8 facilities proposed or under development near Temple, legal advisors warned that a ban would invite $100M+ lawsuits — the fate of neighboring Hill County. Commissioners instead passed a resolution asking the Texas Legislature to grant counties power to regulate data centers. The next session is January 2027.
⚖️ **LEGAL** — New York's Responsible Data Center Development Act passed the Senate 44–16 and Assembly 102–39 on June 4–5, creating a potential one-year permit freeze for data centers drawing 20 MW or more. Gov. Kathy Hochul said June 12 "we've got some time" to decide. Hochul's nuclear power push complicates the picture — some argue data center load is essential to new nuclear economics.
⚡ **POWER** — PJM Interconnection, the grid serving 65 million people across 13 states, projects a 6 GW shortfall as soon as June 2027. Households in the PJM region could face $70/month higher electric bills by 2028, with total consumer costs rising $100 billion through 2033. Data centers are adding twice the load that new generation delivers every year through 2032.
🏗️ **NEW BUILD** — QTS Data Centers is building a $10 billion AI campus in Van Wert, Ohio — a rural farm town of ~10,000 people. The 902-acre, 500 MW campus will have 7 buildings, break ground Q4 2026, and be fully built by 2032. QTS is paying 100% of energy infrastructure costs, and its closed-loop cooling system will not consume water for cooling once operational.
💰 **INVESTMENT** — Applied Digital Corporation signed a $7.5 billion, 15-year lease with an undisclosed U.S. hyperscaler for its Delta Forge 1 campus in Rapides Parish, Louisiana. The $3.6B facility covers 300 acres outside Alexandria, delivering 430 MW for AI training and inference. Gov. Jeff Landry announced the deal on May 26; operations begin mid-2027.
