- Seattle City Council votes unanimously to ban new data center projects for an entire year
- It buys the council time to consider AI data centers’ impacts on local resources
- Residents are fed up with facing higher electricity bills and no clear benefits
Seattle has approved a one-year moratorium on the construction of new data centers, with the city council voting unanimously in favor of the measure on June 9 2026, making it the largest US city yet to introduce such measures.
The temporary move targets new projects rather than pre-approved builds, and cites concerns over energy consumption, water use, noise and other environmental impacts, as well as the rising utility bills that residents face.
“The passing of today’s moratorium does not stop AI or data centers,” Councilmember Debora Juarez said in a city press release, noting that it instead serves to create time for Seattle to develop its own regulations around future projects.
Seattle bans new data center projects
Public opposition quickly accelerated after reports revealed that four companies were exploring as many as five large-scale projects in and around the city, which collectively could have used 369MW of energy – the equivalent of around one-third of the entire city.
As a result, many residents took to council meetings to raise concerns over higher electricity costs, e-waste generation, grid reliability, land use and its impacts on housing, and the limited job creation in relation to resource consumption.
“We’ve heard from tens of thousands of residents – Seattleites should not be subsidizing record profits of large corporations from the AI boom,” Councilmember Eddie Lin said.
The pause gives Seattle time to consider all of these concerns over the course of the next year without having to deal with the noise of approving additional projects.
Importantly, the moratorium is a noteworthy one given that Seattle is home to two of the world’s biggest tech companies and the two hyperscalers that account for the largest cloud market shares – Amazon and Microsoft.
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