It took twelve hours of public fury and one vote: Palm Beach County rejected the 3.6-million-square-foot Project Tango AI campus 5–1. The same week, Indiana killed a $13 billion proposal after a 10-hour meeting, a Nevada city appealed the federal government's approval of a data center, and America's largest power grid handed ratepayers a record-tying $16.4 billion bill — with data centers to blame.
🚨 **COMMUNITY** — Palm Beach County commissioners voted 5–1 to reject Project Tango, the 3.6M sq ft hyperscale AI campus near the Arden community, after a 12+ hour hearing with overflow rooms and 80+ speakers, many wearing "Stop Project Tango" shirts. Commissioner Maria Marino was the lone yes. The denial is without prejudice — and the site keeps entitlements for 2M+ sq ft of warehouse/data center space. (Source: WLRN / WFLX / WPTV)
🚨 **COMMUNITY** — The St. Joseph County Council rejected a $13 billion data center proposal near New Carlisle, Indiana after a 10-hour meeting. Next door, AWS's Project Rainier keeps expanding: 1,200 acres, up to 2.2 GW of eventual power, 935 employees, a 35-year tax exemption — and water usage kept confidential under an NDA. (Source: The Indiana Citizen / TheStatehouseFile)
⚖️ **LEGAL** — Boulder City, Nevada voted unanimously to appeal the BLM's approval of Townsite Solar-2's data center on federal land within city limits. The project moved to BLM land after residents packed council chambers against it on city land. The appeal heads to the Interior Board of Land Appeals; the developer promises waterless cooling and water returned to Lake Mead. (Source: KSNV News 3)
⚡ **POWER** — PJM's capacity auction for June 2028 tied the all-time record: $16.4 billion at $325 per megawatt-day, paid by ratepayers across 13 states and D.C. The independent market monitor pins roughly $6.3 billion on data centers; supply costs are up more than 60%, and for the third straight auction PJM fell short of its reliability target. (Source: Bloomberg / Axios)
💧 **WATER** — Hundreds of Chesterfield County, Virginia residents pressed Google at an open house on its three campuses near Richmond — Project Peanut (300+ acres, under construction), Project Skye (848 acres), and Project Loch (334 acres). Google declined to give water or power figures until the facilities are operational. (Source: NBC12 / Data Center Dynamics)
🏛️ **POLICY** — Hamilton County, Tennessee commissioners approved a one-year moratorium on new rural data centers, proposed by Mayor Weston Wamp, while zoning rules are rewritten. Existing projects like JailHouse Studios — a data center inside the former county jail — continue. (Source: NewsChannel 9)
🤖 **AI/TECH** — Ypsilanti Township, Michigan residents are pushing back on a $1.25 billion University of Michigan–Los Alamos National Laboratory research computing center. U-M says it would use ~1/10th a data center's energy and target cancer, climate, and national security research.
