Eight data centers are moving in on Bell County, Texas — and tomorrow's commissioners vote could be the last stand for residents fighting back. Meanwhile, a $100 million lawsuit just forced a neighboring county to reverse its own ban.
🏘️ **COMMUNITY** — Bell County, Texas is facing 8 proposed or under-development data centers near Temple. Over 40 residents packed a June 1 commissioners workshop demanding a moratorium. Commissioners are weighing options — but the legal landscape is precarious. Bell County is watching what happened to Hill County, where a developer's lawsuit forced a moratorium rescission in 14 days. A commissioners vote is scheduled for June 15.
⚖️ **LEGAL** — Hill County became the first Texas county to pass a data center moratorium (3–2 vote, May 12), targeting RCM Hill LLC's "Project Aquila" — a planned 1,235 MW facility on 800+ acres. Developer RCM Hill filed a $100 million federal lawsuit in Waco on May 27, calling the ban illegal. Commissioners voted unanimously to rescind the moratorium on June 4. The lawsuit remains active in U.S. District Court for Western Texas.
⚡ **POWER** — Oregon became the first state to fully shift electricity costs from residents to data centers. Under the POWER Act, Portland General Electric filed June 4 to raise large-load data center rates 29% — while cutting residential rates 1.3% and small business rates 3.7%. The new rates took effect June 10.
🏗️ **NEW BUILD** — Related Digital has broken ground on "The Saline Barn" in Saline Township, Michigan — a $16 billion Oracle and OpenAI AI campus, 1.4 GW capacity, three 550,000 sq-ft buildings on 250 acres, 10 miles from Ann Arbor. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer called it Michigan's largest ever economic investment. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman attended the June 1 groundbreaking. Saline Township residents had previously voted to reject the project.
💰 **INVESTMENT** — The largest data center acquisition in history is closing. BlackRock's Global Infrastructure Partners, Abu Dhabi's MGX, and the AI Infrastructure Partnership — backed by Nvidia, Microsoft, and xAI — are acquiring Aligned Data Centers from Macquarie Asset Management for $40 billion. That's more than double the previous record ($16.6B AirTrunk, 2024). JPMorgan and MUFG are providing $22B in debt financing.
