00:00Memphis City Hall descended into chaos as a data center moratorium vote collided with angry
00:06protesters. Across the country, city councils, courts and statehouses are being pulled into
00:13the same fight. Here is what is happening. Memphis has become the latest flashpoint in
00:20the national data center fight. At a tense city council meeting, members voted 7-5 to delay a
00:28final vote on a proposed 12-month moratorium on new data center projects until October 20.
00:35Councilman J.B. Smiley Jr., who sponsored the pause, had pushed for a decision that day.
00:43Protestors chanted inside City Hall, police cleared the chamber, and a fight broke out between two
00:49women in the lobby. Councilman Jeff Warren warned that a year-long pause could push companies into
00:55nearby counties such. As DeSoto, Crittenden, Fayette and Tipton, Mayor Paul Young says he wants stronger
01:04rules on water, electricity, air quality, noise and sighting. While still counting on the tax revenue
01:12these facilities generate, residents near the Colossus supercomputer sites say power, water and air quality
01:19are their biggest concerns. Memphis is not alone, because Aurora, Colorado, is considering an even
01:28bigger step. Mayor Mike Kaufman called a special city council meeting for October 19 to consider an
01:35indefinite moratorium on new data center applications. Proposed by Councilwoman Amy Wiles,
01:43the city would stop accepting new applications until it adopts regulations. And Kaufman says indefinite
01:51means they will get there. The pause would not apply to the Trident data center. But Kaufman has said he
01:57may ask the council to vote no on it after walking the site and concluding. It was not appropriate.
02:04Residents of the Reserve, a 55-plus community across the street, learned of the project by word of mouth
02:11and cite constant low-frequency noise in diesel generator. Pollution. The data center coalition
02:18warns moratoriums create uncertainty and urges clear guardrails instead.
02:25That opposition is now making its way into courtrooms. And in one Missouri county it has
02:31reached the campaign trail. Developer Trent Overhue has filed a defamation lawsuit against
02:37Gail Peake Brown, a candidate for Webster County presiding commissioner in the November 3rd election.
02:45The suit says Brown made misleading statements about the electrical and cooling systems at his data
02:50center project near Marshfield, including a July social media video of the facility running loudly.
02:59Overhue says the noise came from a generator used during testing.
03:02Not normal operation. In August, he and his company also sued resident Catherine Wiltz over a post
03:10claiming the facility had two fires in three weeks. The filing says firefighters responded once and found
03:18no fire. Both cases are pending, and no court has ruled on the allegations. Developers are also suing
03:27governments directly. In Maryland, Quantum Maryland LLC, managed by Cattellus and the master developer of
03:36the Frederick Digital Campus near Adamstown, sued Frederick County on October 8th in County Circuit Court.
03:43The suit names County Executive Jessica Fitzwater and the Planning Commission, and claims the county
03:50unlawfully blocked new data center applications for political reasons. The county's moratorium was set
03:57to run from the end of 2025 until July 1st, 2027. The developer alleges Fitzwater pushed the pause
04:07despite a pending application that the Planning Commission had approved, and says a loan and
04:13transaction worth more than $500 million was threatened. Across the country, similar suits are testing
04:20whether local governments can legally freeze a booming industry. And the outcomes could decide how far
04:27moratoriums can go. Behind every one of these fights is a simple problem. Power. And more developers are
04:36deciding not to wait for the grid. Enerflex announced on October 13th that it won a contract for more than
04:43one gigawatt of low-emission, natural gas-fired power generation units for a North American data center
04:51development. The customer and contract value were not disclosed. The award lifts the company's behind
04:58the meter backlog above 1.75 gigawatts. Including roughly 450 megawatts announced on October 1st,
05:07Enerflex will design, engineer, fabricate and assemble the units. With deliveries extending through
05:152028, CEO Paul Mahoney says demand for power that does not require a grid connection is growing.
05:23Driven by artificial intelligence and digital infrastructure, shares rose about 5% in pre-market
05:30trading on the news. The pressure on the grid is only half the story. Water tells the other half.
05:38And Texas is learning how little it knows. Data centers using more than 10 million gallons a year must file
05:46annual water surveys. Yet the Texas Water Development Board surveyed 329 data centers in 2025 and
05:54only about 30% responded. Of 334 facilities identified since 2020, 233 never submitted a survey.
06:05Those that did report show rapid growth. 97 facilities reported 1.4 billion gallons in 2025.
06:15Violators face a Class C misdemeanor and a fine of up to $500. The data gap left the board unable
06:22to
06:23include data center water use in its 2027 state water plan. And Attorney General Ken Paxton has opened an
06:31investigation into hundreds of developments. State legislators are taking notice. In Virginia,
06:40the country's data center capital with nearly 400 operating facilities and more than two
06:45180 planned. Lawmakers are lining up moratorium bills ahead of the January session. Senator Russett Perry's
06:54SB 843 would bar approvals of data center building permits statewide from July 2027 to July 2030.
07:04Senator Danica Roham wants a pause until the interconnection queue is energized.
07:10And Delegate Irene Shin has a House version. Even Republican Senator Glenn Sturtevant plans his own.
07:17Dominion Energy says queued customers wait about seven years. But the data center coalition says the industry has
07:25invested over $80 billion in Virginia. And an electrician's union leader says he doesn't think a moratorium will
07:33pass. And the financial commitment behind all of this keeps growing. Construct Connect reports data center
07:53data centers now make up 24% of non-residential building starts. The average project this year costs $1.18
08:05billion.
08:06More than double last year's $507 million. The largest August start was the $6 billion AVAIO
08:14digital campus on about 300 acres in Little Rock, Arkansas. Growth is shifting from the coasts toward
08:22the Midwest and South, with Texas above $22 billion. Another 65 projects worth $26 billion are tracked to start
08:32before year's end. Though none are guaranteed.
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