A 10-YEAR MORATORIUM on state-level AI regulation included in President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” has brushed up against a mounting battle over the growth of data centers.
On Thursday, Representative Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, posted on X that the megabill’s 10-year block on states regulating artificial intelligence could “make it easier for corporations to get zoning variances, so massive AI data centers could be built in close proximity to residential areas.” Massie, who did not vote for the bill, followed up his initial tweet with a screenshot of a story on a proposed data center in Oldham County, Kentucky, which downsized and changed locations following local pushback.
“This isn’t a conspiracy theory; this was a recent issue in my Congressional district,” he wrote of concerns over the placement of data centers. “It was resolved at the local level because local officials had leverage. The big beautiful bill undermines the ability of local communities to decide where the AI data centers will be built.”
The same day, the National Conference of State Legislatures, a nonpartisan group representing state lawmakers around the country, sent a letter to the Senate urging it to reject the AI provision. Barrie Tabin, the legislative director of the NCSL, told WIRED that the organization had heard directly from multiple state lawmakers who were concerned about how the moratorium may affect data center legislation. Laws passed by local legislatures, the letter states, “empower communities to weigh in on data center sitings, protecting ratepayers from increasing utility costs, preserving local water resources, and maintaining grid stability.”
