Seattle Advances Data Center Moratorium, Amid Public Backlash
Councilmembers are weighing charging new data centers higher energy rates to shield other ratepayers.
Amid a rising national tide of negative sentiment against big tech’s push to expand its artificial intelligence (AI) offerings, the Seattle City Council is discussing new legislation to regulate large-scale data centers.
In April, The Seattle Times broke the news that four companies were seeking to build five mega data centers within Seattle City Light’s service area. While the Seattle area already plays host to around 30 data centers, the new facilities under discussion would be built on a much larger scale and use a great deal more electricity than anything that exists in the area today.
Two of those companies have since withdrawn their plans for two of the new data centers, but the remaining two companies – Equinix and Prologis – are still considering three projects, two located in the SoDo neighborhood in Seattle and one in Tukwila.
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