Spartanburg County residents filled the council chamber with hand-lettered signs reading "No More Data Centers" and "No More Poi$on" — and the council pushed its moratorium vote to September. In Pennsylvania, a judge froze an entire township's data center review, then reversed himself a day later. The operator of America's largest power grid has asked federal regulators for permission to cut electricity to data centers before it cuts anyone's home. And Virginia's own scientists say the aquifer under the world's biggest data center market can't take another water-cooled build. Here's what actually moved.
COMMUNITY — Spartanburg County Council, South Carolina, delayed the third and final reading of a countywide data center moratorium to its September 21 meeting, saying members wanted more time to hear from experts and to hold a special safety session first. Frustrated residents filled the chamber holding homemade signs reading "No More Data Centers" and "No More Poi$on," and exchanges between residents and council members grew sharp during public comment. Most speakers targeted the $3 billion NorthMark project, where construction has already begun. The moratorium, which would pause new data center applications for one year, had already cleared two readings.
⚖️ LEGAL — Developer Brian O'Neill sued Upper Merion Township, its Board of Supervisors and its Planning Commission over the Renaissance Park and Innovation Data Center Campus, a King of Prussia, Pennsylvania project exceeding 4.5 million square feet. A Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas judge granted an injunction Wednesday temporarily barring the township from acting on the applications, forcing the cancellation of a planning commission meeting where O'Neill's team was set to present. By Thursday afternoon the judge vacated the order. The board then met and denied two extension requests that would have given the developer more time. O'Neill says he will push forward.
⚡ POWER — PJM Interconnection, the g
