Laws, Ordinances, and Regulations of Data Centers
Communities across the country and around the world are struggling to regulate Data Centers in their neighborhoods, cities, counties, states, and nationwide. The Coalition for Responsible Data Center Development has a collection of regulations for individuals, NGOs, and governments to choose what types of regulations best fit their needs. We understand that regulation is not a one-size-fits-all situation; some areas will want a full moratorium while others will want to protect water, rate payers, farmers, etc. While this is in progress, we want to share some of the sources our database will be drawing upon, which may be found below.
If you have additional resources for this page, please let us know at: info@datacenterresponsibility.com
Sources:
This Policy Tracker from Halt the Harm is the most comprehensive list we have found on regulations related to Data Centers.
https://datacenters.halttheharm.net/policy-tracker/
This dataset by Earthworks lists legislation from 2026, listed by State.
This publication by AI Now is a great guide explaining different types of Data Center regulations at the state and local levels.
https://ainowinstitute.org/publications/data-center-policy-guide
This publication by the Columbia River Keepers describes attempted and successful legislation at the state and local levels.
This publication be Sierra Club describes types of Data Center regulations and provides some examples of each type.
https://www.sierraclub.org/sites/default/files/2026-01/policies-for-data-centers-2026.pdf
This list by the Piedmont Environmental Council describes types of regulations and lists current Virginia legislation.
https://www.pecva.org/region/regional-state-national-region/2026-data-center-reform-legislation/
Multistate has an interactive map of AI legislation across the country. This is larger than just data centers and related to issues such as autonomous vehicles and facial recognition.
https://www.multistate.ai/artificial-intelligence-ai-legislation
