Democratic lawmakers propose three-year moratorium on new large data centers in Oregon

Carpenter and Oregon Senate hopeful Myrna Muñoz, of Hillsboro, and sister to Lesly, have also thrown their support behind the data center pause. The two won their Democratic primaries in May over establishment and incumbent candidates in large part due to their vocal opposition to data center development in Washington County.

Carpenter is among plaintiffs, including the state’s largest teachers union and conservation nonprofits, suing Washington County and Hillsboro city leaders over their recent flurry of approvals for tax breaks to data centers.

The call to slow data center growth in the state follows growing public backlash against the server farms. Oregon would join 15 other states that have proposed moratoriums in the last year, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Just one has passed so far: a one-year moratorium on new data centers in New York that consume 20 or more megawatts of electricity.

Representatives at Amazon, Google, Microsoft and the nonprofit industry group Data Center Coalition did not respond to a request for comment on the proposal by Monday evening.

Pro-data center industry group behind ad campaign in Oregon, six other states

In March, the Oregon Legislature passed a one-year pause on a popular tax incentive program for data centers that had previously netted them hundreds of millions in savings. And last week the Hillsboro City Council unanimously voted to pass a 120-day moratorium on new data center approvals.

Days later, Gov. Tina Kotek intervened to stop a data center company in Salem from buying state property. The developers behind the proposed Salem project submitted plans for a data center on privately owned land just ahead of a Monday Salem City Council special meeting to consider a data center moratorium.

Kotek has convened a data center advisory committee that’s met monthly since January to discuss issues and develop policy recommendations for the state’s massive data center industry. A draft report for the Legislature should be ready by mid-September, according to the committee, and a final public meeting is scheduled for Sept. 23.

A lack of sales tax, generous property tax incentives for industrial development and relatively cheap electricity over the years has made Oregon a hot spot for data centers, and today among the top 10 states for housing them.

Golden, who unsuccessfully proposed in March exempting data centers from all of the state’s property tax incentive programs, said the attitudes around data centers in the public and the Legislature have changed dramatically in just the last few months.

“It was a mild proposal that was treated as radical six months ago,” he said of his earlier effort to exempt the data centers from tax incentives, but would not have stopped data center development altogether. “So the grounds really shifted.”

The climate news site Heatmap recently published an analysis of more than 500 city, county and municipal policies enacted to ban or restrict data centers, 40% of which were passed since just June 1.

The Oregon Working Families Party, the Democratic Socialists of America and several conservation groups and farm owners are backing the Democratic legislators’ call for a moratorium.

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