The tech industry’s insatiable appetite for data centers has run headfirst into a wall of local government resistance. More than 300 US local and state governments have enacted bans, moratoriums, or restrictions on new data center development since 2023, according to a report from The Information.
That number is staggering. And the financial fallout is even more so: roughly $64 billion in US data center projects have been either blocked or delayed as a result of local opposition over the past two years.
The scope of the pushback
Of that $64 billion total, approximately $18 billion in projects have been outright blocked, while another $46 billion have been delayed.
As of mid-June 2026, 97 moratoriums remain actively in effect across the country. Another 122 local regulatory actions are being tracked, spanning 38 states.
