Greenwood County, South Carolina

Local and federal pushback against rapid data center growth intensified this week. In South Carolina, Spartanburg County Council unanimously delayed a final vote on a 12-month moratorium on new data centers, pushing it to Sept. 21 to allow another public hearing. The pause wouldn't affect the $2.8 billion NorthMark project already under construction, but would halt approval of new or pending facilities while officials study appropriate locations and conditions. Spartanburg would join Greenwood County, South Carolina in enacting such a pause amid resident concerns over power and water use, noise, and air pollution, plus a lawsuit over NorthMark's permitting and recent primary losses by council members who backed data center tax incentives.

Separately, Oregon Rep. Andrea Salinas introduced the Data Center Community Reinvestment Act, which would tax electricity used by large data centers at one cent per kilowatt-hour, raising an estimated $1.76 billion annually for affordable housing, public lands conservation, hazardous waste cleanup, infrastructure, and clean energy programs. The moves reflect broader tension between the AI-driven data center boom and community concerns over resource strain and local costs.