UKRAINE HITS THIRD YANDEX DATA CENTER IN FOUR DAYS • Oct 11, 2026 A drone strike disabled a Yandex data center in Vladimir, Russia, halting operations there, the company said. It is the third such attack on Yandex facilities in four days, following strikes in the Ryazan and Kaluga regions. The Vladimir outage disrupted taxi and banking services for users across Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus and Armenia.

MICHIGAN TOWNS HAVE LITTLE POWER TO BLOCK HYPERSCALE DATA CENTERS • Oct 5, 2026 A Michigan State University survey found 70% of respondents oppose hyperscale data centers in their communities. Near Mason, a 400-plus acre project from Ohio-based Comino Development awaits State Boundary Commission approval for annexation, with the mayor saying the city has no authority to stop it. In Washtenaw County's Saline Township, developers of a 250-acre project sued over a zoning denial and won a settlement that set the development terms. We track 11 data center projects in Washtenaw County, Michigan.

MICHIGAN REGULATORS APPROVE POWER DEAL FOR GOOGLE DATA CENTER • Oct 1, 2026 The Michigan Public Service Commission approved contracts between the utility DTE Electric and Google for a data center in Van Buren Township, Wayne County. Google will pay for up to 1,600 megawatts of renewable energy and 480 megawatts of battery storage, with a 20-year contract and 80% minimum billing demand to prevent other customers from bearing project costs. Service is expected to begin December 2027, reaching maximum load by December 2028. We track 6 data center projects in Wayne County, Michigan.

FEDERAL LAND DATA CENTER NEAR BOULDER CITY PUT ON HOLD • Oct 1, 2026 The Bureau of Land Management approved the Townsite Data Center on federal land outside Boulder City, Nevada by reusing a solar farm's environmental review, then asked on Sept. 21 to rescind that approval after an appeal from the Sierra Club and the Center for Biological Diversity. Boulder City plans to file opposition by an Oct. 5 court deadline.

AMAZON COMMITS $1 BILLION TO DATA CENTER HOST COMMUNITIES • Oct 2, 2026 Amazon will invest more than $1 billion over five years in communities where it operates data centers, funding education, job training, water and energy preservation projects. The move comes amid growing backlash from politicians and consumers over the tech industry's data center rollout.

OHIO TOWN CLEARS FIRST OFF-GRID POWER SOURCE FOR A META DATA CENTER • Oct 1, 2026 State regulators approved air quality permits for generators built by Life Cycle Power to supply electricity to the Orla Inc. data center north of Lebanon. The generators will serve as a bridge power source until the site secures a local utility connection.

PENNSYLVANIA SENATE PANEL ADVANCES BAN ON SECRECY DEALS FOR DATA • Oct 1, 2026 Legislation sponsored by state Senator Tracy Pennycuick, who represents Berks and Montgomery counties, was unanimously approved by the Senate Communications and Technology Committee, which she chairs, on September 29. The bill would prohibit confidentiality agreements that keep details of data center development secret.

GOOGLE LAUNCHES FIRST TEST SATELLITE FOR ORBITAL AI DATA CENTERS • Oct 1, 2026 Google launched its first Project Suncatcher prototype aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, to test how its tensor processing units perform under launch forces and space radiation. The test satellite supplies about 1 kilowatt of power and must power down every 20 minutes to avoid overheating. Google plans two more satellites in 2027 to test continuous operation and laser data links between them.

MERCER COUNTY, KENTUCKY REJECTS ZONING ORDINANCE FOR DATA CENTERS • Sep 29, 2026 Mercer County Fiscal Court in Kentucky voted down an ordinance that would have allowed data centers in the county. Developer Panattoni is still pursuing a 950-acre data center despite a one-year moratorium; the rejected zoning would have permitted development within 2,000 feet of Shaker Village, a National Historic Landmark drawing more than 100,000 visitors annually.

US ENERGY REGULATOR REJECTS COMED BID TO CANCEL $20B DATA CENTER DEAL • Sep 23, 2026 The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission rejected Commonwealth Edison's cancellation of a transmission security agreement for a 1.8-gigawatt, $20 billion data center PowerHouse Hillwood Holding is developing in Joliet, Illinois. The dispute, which involves a $1 letter of credit posted by PowerHouse Hillwood, remains pending in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer is urging Democrats to block the Ratepayer Protection Act, a data center energy bill from Republican Sen. Jon Husted of Ohio, ahead of a procedural vote. The bill passed the House 417-3 on September 16. Majority Leader John Thune has filed cloture on the motion to proceed. • Data centers and other qualifying IT loads with peak demand of 100 MW or more would pay the full incremental cost of generation, transmission and distribution upgrades needed to serve them, including financial assurances before those upgrades are built. • State utility regulators would be required to consider and make a determination on adopting the standard. The bill does not directly require every state to implement it. Schumer argues the state-level framework is voluntary and does not go far enough. Sen. Martin Heinrich, who previously blocked an attempt to pass the bill by unanimous consent, has backed a separate proposal with mandatory requirements.

MARYLAND REJECTS DATA CENTER MORATORIUM FOR NEW STATE STANDARDS • Sep 25, 2026 Governor Wes Moore signed an executive order Sept. 23 creating a task force to review data center proposals with over 25 megawatts of peak energy demand. Developers must generate their own power or offset grid costs, prioritize hiring Maryland residents, and report energy, water and employment data publicly. Moore also pledged to roll back tax incentives passed in 2020, but stopped short of a moratorium.

SOUTH CAROLINA GOVERNOR REJECTS STATEWIDE DATA CENTER PAUSE • Sep 25, 2026 Governor Henry McMaster said he will not call for a statewide data center moratorium, even as at least 13 South Carolina counties, including Colleton, Spartanburg and York, have passed local moratoriums. Two counties, Edgefield and Horry, have passed zoning ordinances on data centers, and McCormick and Sumter counties are considering regulations.

EL PASO ELECTRIC'S $551.8 MILLION PLANT TIED TO META DATA CENTER • Sep 25, 2026 Texas administrative law judges recommended approval of El Paso Electric's proposed $551.8 million power plant, built to serve a Meta data center. The judges said the state regulator should approve the application only if conditioned to prevent added costs from falling on ratepayers.

Oracle is preparing for the possibility of delays outside its control. Nothing more. Last week, Democratic gubernatorial nominee Deb Haaland said that she would immediately pause new large-scale data center proposals while lawmakers write statewide rules for the industry. Polymarket has her at a 95% chance of winning office. Project Jupiter was allowed to drill a new well before a formal public hearing, using an emergency exception. This bypassed the formal public hearing process, which community members were upset about. The New Mexico Supreme Court temporarily halted proceedings tied to the project’s emergency water well after legal challenges. The court later rejected those challenges and allowed the permitting process to resume at the beginning of September. Last week, Doña Ana County created a Community Monitoring Committee specifically for Project Jupiter. The county resolution cites continued concerns from residents over water, air, noise, pollution, and other environmental impacts, and calls for independent public information forums around the project, putting the project under a microscope. At Tuesday’s county meeting (9/22), the Mesilla Valley Economic Development Alliance presented the scale of Project Jupiter’s expected impact: 750 announced jobs, $50 billion in Phase 1 investment, and more than 2 million square feet of facilities, trying to remind the county how beneficial the project is for them. $ORCL is moving forward with Project Jupiter while the project is simultaneously going through permitting scrutiny, local monitoring, and a broader statewide debate over how New Mexico should regulate large data centers. I, too, would want to defer debt for things outside of my control. We have this whole timeline at regardingdatacenters.com.