Lawmakers across 31 states introduced 151 data center bills in 2025, more than three times as many as in 2024. And they’re picking up the pace even further. Through April 21, they’ve already introduced 264 in 2026.
Latitude Intelligence tracked state bills with data centers as their primary subject across all 50 states from 2021 through today. The pattern is hard to miss: roughly flat activity from 2021 through 2024, then a steep acceleration that shows no sign of stopping.
ChatGPT’s November 2022 launch didn’t immediately move statehouses. However, by 2024, hyperscalers were announcing record U.S. data center buildouts and utilities were revising their load forecasts upward to match. For the first time, state utility commissions had concrete numbers for what AI infrastructure might cost residential ratepayers.
A recent study from PowerLines found that utilities across the U.S. are requesting to spend $1.4 trillion through 2030. Virginia’s legislature commissioned a study that found data center demand could add $14 to $37 a month to household electricity bills. The issue has become impossible to ignore.
The composition of the legislation has shifted too. While bills used to be mostly about attracting data centers through tax incentives, they are increasingly about regulating them through special utility tariffs, ratepayer cost protections, water disclosure requirements, and construction moratoriums.
Virginia remains the dominant state by far, considering 61 bills this session alone. However, the geographic spread is widening. Maryland, Tennessee, and West Virginia have emerged as newly active states in 2026, a sign that regulatory concern is moving beyond the early-adopter states that hosted most of the early construction.
Maine’s legislature passed a first-in-the-nation moratorium on April 15 banning data centers over 20 megawatts through November 2027, and the bill now sits on Governor Janet Mills’ desk awaiting her signature. However, other statewide moratoriums have mostly stalled, while dozens of municipalities have moved faster and enacted local construction pauses while state legislators weigh economic benefits against grid and ratepayer impacts.
A version of this story was published in the AI-Energy Nexus newsletter on April 22, 2026. Subscribe to get pieces like this — plus expert analysis, original reporting, and curated resources — in your inbox every Wednesday.
