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Washington Cities Pause Data Centers
Coverage from District Energy, KOMO, and others
Seattle and Spokane have enacted temporary moratoriums on new large data centers as Washington officials examine their effects on electricity supply, utility rates, water, land use, noise, and public health.
Seattle’s freeze covers facilities above 20 megavolt-amperes and is paired with a formal impact-review framework, while Spokane imposed a one-year pause amid discussion of a potential 500-megawatt project. The measures signal that permitting, grid capacity, and cost allocation are becoming immediate constraints on data center proposals, although heat reuse and other lower-impact designs remain under consideration.
The story has broadened from two city moratoriums into a statewide permitting response, with utilities now considering explicit cost-allocation measures and at least one major proposal stalled.
The core story is largely unchanged, but the framing has sharpened around local power capacity and how large data center customers should fund related infrastructure. The current version also drops some earlier specifics, such as the named developer examples and Seattle’s employee-staffing concern.