The Oklahoma City Council unanimously approved a moratorium on the construction and expansion of data centers on Tuesday.
The moratorium will last through the end of 2026, and specifically prohibits rezoning requests intended for data centers. It also creates an appeals process for groups that believe their projects should be exempt from the moratorium.
All council members, plus Mayor David Holt, supported the moratorium.
"Even when it seems like maybe we've landed on a national model, that kind of collapses," Holt said in an interview. "And so it's just so fluid that it just seemed like the right thing to do to just put a pause on it."
Hyperscale data centers, many of which power artificial intelligence, have popped up around the United States as the AI industry continues to grow. Many projects across the country have faced pushback, including in other parts of Oklahoma, such as Sand Springs and Coweta. Residents have cited concerns about the increased demand for electricity and water, and the possibility it could raise utilities bills for homeowners. The state legislature is considering a proposal designed to keep power prices down.
Some citizens spoke at the meeting to voice their support for the measure. Taylor Sanchez provided a comment on behalf of Honor the Earth, an Indigenous environmental advocacy organization. She pointed to a recent settlement agreement involving Amazon and residents in northeast Oregon, where the company's data center is accused of increasing nitrate concentrations in well water contaminated by wastewater. In the settlement, the company retains no admission of guilt.
"There's plenty of reasons why this can cause public health disparities," Sanchez said. "So I urge you to vote yes on this moratorium and slow down the process and consider the protection of your constituents."
Other speakers, however, represented the interests of data centers — including Trevor Francis, the CEO of 46 Labs. He expressed apprehension about the moratorium being effective immediately, saying it could prevent data center-adjacent projects. He referred to the central plant on the Expand Energy campus, which helps cool buildings. It needs updates as summer weather moves in, he added, and he asked for the moratorium to be delayed two weeks to file permits for the construction.
"It's just lumping everything in the fact that we're a data center operator," Francis said. "We just happen to operate, also operate that central plant. So I think there are unintended consequences here to this."
Holt said in the discussion that cases like Francis' do not reflect the Council's intent in creating the moratorium, and City Manager Craig Freeman said that the moratorium, as it is written, should not affect the Expand plant.
Francis, however, said he was not sure how the data center could be separated from the plant in this case. In approving the moratorium, council members stipulated that they would come back to amend it in the next few weeks to add clarity.
"I just believe that smart people can figure out in two weeks a way to differentiate what he's describing, which is obviously a very limited use data center, of which we probably have how many in Oklahoma City, probably dozens?" Holt said during the discussion. "And what we're talking about, which are these $50 billion data centers serving the international data business."
During the remaining months of the year, Holt said the City will continue to gather information as it considers how to implement specific regulations for data centers.
Oklahoma City Council will reconvene April 28 at 8:30 a.m.
This report was produced by the Oklahoma Public Media Exchange, a collaboration of public media organizations. Help support collaborative journalism by donating at the link at the top of this webpage.
