Seattle City Council
Seattle's nine-member legislative body; introduced a 365-day emergency moratorium on large data centres on 30 April 2026.
Last refreshed: 6 May 2026 · Appears in 1 active topic
Can Seattle permanently block data centres by controlling its own utility?
Timeline for Seattle City Council
Introduced 365-day emergency moratorium on data centres above 10 MW on 30 April 2026
Data Centres: Boom and Backlash: Seattle freezes data centres for a year- What is Seattle's emergency data centre moratorium?
- Seattle City Council members introduced a 365-day emergency moratorium on new data-centre loads above 10 MW on 30 April 2026, after four developers requested 369 MW for five facilities in a single week from the city's utility, Seattle City Light.Source: Seattle City Council
- Why did Seattle City Council freeze new data centres in 2026?
- Four developers approached Seattle City Light in a single week requesting power for five facilities totalling 369 MW. The pace of demand prompted the council to introduce a one-year freeze while the city assesses infrastructure capacity.Source: Seattle City Council
- What is Seattle City Light and how does it relate to the data centre moratorium?
- Seattle City Light is Seattle's city-owned electricity utility. When four developers approached it in a single week in late April 2026 requesting power for five data-centre facilities totalling 369 MW, the pace triggered Seattle City Council to introduce a 365-day emergency moratorium on new loads above 10 MW.Source: Seattle City Council
- How many cities in the US have data centre moratoriums in 2026?
- As of April/May 2026, dozens of US municipalities have implemented construction pauses, according to Good Jobs First. In a single week in late April, Twinsburg (Ohio), Ypsilanti (Michigan), and Seattle (Washington) all acted, with Seattle's council also considering a formal ordinance.Source: Good Jobs First / Seattle City Council
Background
Seattle City Council members introduced a 365-day emergency moratorium on large data centres on 30 April 2026, with a possible six-month extension, after four developers approached Seattle City Light (the city's publicly-owned utility) in a single week requesting power for five facilities totalling 369 MW — enough electricity for roughly 300,000 homes. The proposed ordinance would ban any new or expanded data-centre load above 10 MW for the moratorium period. At least two developers pulled their plans before the moratorium was formally passed. Mayor Katie Wilson said on 1 May that initial executive steps were being identified.
The Seattle City Council is the nine-member legislative body of Seattle, Washington, with seats elected by district since 2015. The council has authority over Seattle City Light, the municipally-owned utility that serves the city, which gives the council direct leverage over power supply to new loads — including data centres — without needing to act through the state legislature or utility regulators. Seattle City Light draws primarily on hydropower from the Columbia River system and sources additional electricity from the regional grid.
The Seattle moratorium is significant because it demonstrates how local governments with ownership of municipal utilities have a PATH to blocking data-centre load that bypasses both state legislatures and FERC. Unlike a planning moratorium, blocking utility hookups has no established legal-challenge pathway under existing US law — a model pioneered almost simultaneously by Ypsilanti, Michigan's utility authority. The council's unilateral action shows the consent fight has moved to local government bodies where governors have no veto.
