00:00A protester in handcuffs, a tech giant backing down, and courts siding with communities.
00:07From a county hearing in Provo to a Virginia campus Amazon just gave up.
00:12The fight over data centers took another sharp turn.
00:17A data center hearing in Utah ended with a protester in custody.
00:22On Tuesday night, the Utah County Planning Commission met in Provo to consider new rules for data centers on.
00:31Unincorporated County land.
00:32Sheriff's deputies removed activist and dancer Aspen Azalea from the meeting.
00:38And she ended up on the lobby floor.
00:40Three people were restrained in total.
00:43The sheriff's office says Azalea struck a deputy.
00:46And she was booked on a Class A misdemeanor for disrupting a meeting and two Class B misdemeanors.
00:53For interfering with and assaulting an officer.
00:57Azalea says she was thrown to the ground.
01:00And she reports a concussion and bruises.
01:02Though a scan showed no broken jaw.
01:05The group Protect Utah rallied at the Capitol on Wednesday.
01:09Demanding justice for Aspen.
01:11But not every fight ends with an arrest.
01:14Sometimes a company simply backs down.
01:18In Virginia, one of the world's biggest data center builders just backed down.
01:23Amazon is withdrawing its plan to build data centers on the former George Washington University campus in Loudoun County, a
01:32site it bought for $427 million.
01:35According to the student newspaper, the Bridgefield Tech Center proposal called for four two-story buildings totaling more than eight
01:44hundred thousand square feet.
01:46Under a deal, Adele County Board Chair Phyllis Randall calls Project Potomac Promise.
01:52Amazon will drop its site plan and legal action.
01:56Donate about 25 acres along Route 7 worth roughly $65 million for an arts center and a recreation facility.
02:06And pay $5 million into the Affordable Housing Trust Fund.
02:10The remaining land will be rezoned for mixed use.
02:14Mostly housing.
02:16Elsewhere, opponents are turning to the courts.
02:20That opposition is now making its way into courtrooms.
02:24And in Wisconsin it just won a major round.
02:27On Monday, Ozauki County Circuit Judge Adam Jural dismissed a lawsuit by business and trade groups challenging a voter-approved
02:37ordinance that requires public referendums on large tax incentives, including those for data centers.
02:44Port Washington voters passed it in April.
02:47The plaintiffs, including the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce, argued it would slow development and conflict with state law.
02:58Jural found they had not shown real injury.
03:00And that the ordinance was consistent with state law.
03:04Even if imperfectly drafted, the fight sits beside a $15 billion campus from Vantage, Oracle and OpenAI, with $458 million
03:14in local incentives.
03:16The business groups say they may appeal.
03:19But developers face headwinds in other courts too.
03:24Developers have been hoping courts would clear the way.
03:27But not in Ohio.
03:29The state Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the village of Lordstown does not have to keep
03:35reviewing a proposed $3.6 billion data center while its moratorium is in effect.
03:41The developer, Bristolville 25, affiliated with Western Hospitality Partners, filed site plan materials in October 2025, shortly before council approved
03:55a ban in November.
03:57The justices said filing while data centers were still permitted did not give the developer the right to apply for
04:04a zoning permit.
04:05The campus would have had four buildings totaling about 1.65 million square feet near Interstate 80, with about 120
04:15jobs.
04:16It is the latest setback for the company, which has stumbled in Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois.
04:23And a new study shows why the stakes keep rising.
04:27The Houston Advanced Research Center warns that the data center boom could erase two decades of Texas air quality gains.
04:36The study, co-authored by Carlos Gamara, finds that if the state keeps its current grid mix, emissions of several
04:45pollutants could return to levels last seen in the 2000s.
04:49Nitrogen oxide, a key ingredient in smog, could be two to ten times higher if data centers burn fuel on
04:57site rather than drawing grid power.
05:00Supplemented by solar and wind, the group forecasts nitrogen oxide from natural gas could rise more than 140 percent between
05:102025 and 2031.
05:12In Bastrop County, Elm Ridge residents describe noise, dust and concrete drift from an Edgecon X campus, and one says
05:22he lost about $70,000 in home value.
05:26The pressure on air is only half the story.
05:29And water tells the other half.
05:32The Utah County ordinance behind Tuesday's arrest also contains some of the strictest water rules.
05:39On the table, the Planning Commission voted unanimously to recommend capping cooling systems at 300,000 gallons of water per
05:49year.
05:50Closed-loop systems could not drain and refill more than once every five years.
05:55Except in emergencies, developers would have to study well and water impacts.
06:01With monitoring every six months for the first two years, the largest projects would be capped at 500 megawatts and
06:091 million square feet.
06:10And applicants must pay for grid upgrades and show they will not raise costs for other utility customers.
06:19Commission Chair Shane Pierce said the rules set limits that did not previously exist the Utah County Commission makes the
06:27final decision later.
06:28Across the country, local lawmakers are taking notice.
06:34County officials across Indiana are taking notice.
06:38According to the Indiana University Environmental Resilience Institute, at least 50 counties.
06:44More than half the state now restrict data centers.
06:49Up from about 30 communities in July, 32 have passed moratoriums, 14 have adopted regulatory ordinances, and 4 do not
06:59permit data centers at all.
07:01Marshall County made its ban permanent, and Stark County approved a ban on Monday.
07:07Marion County passed a moratorium through the end of 2027, with three previously approved projects exempt.
07:16Institute official Therese Durao says a moratorium is best used as a timed pause for research.
07:23Not a permanent decision.
07:25All of this is happening in a state whose lawmakers created tax breaks to attract Google, Amazon, and Meta.
07:32Meanwhile, the White House is making a push of its own.
07:37In Washington, President Trump is trying to win over skeptical communities.
07:43In a Truth Social post this week, he called on AI data center builders and hyperscalers to pay communities a
07:50dividend to offset rising energy costs, or to lower those costs.
07:56He said data centers should generate their own electricity and give or sell excess power back to local communities.
08:04The post ended with the instruction to make deals and get them built.
08:09How the dividend would work is unclear.
08:12And critics question whether the president can enforce it.
08:15Others note that much of the on-site generation going in today relies on noisy gas generators that
08:22may not help neighbors at all.
08:24The idea follows a recent law requiring data centers to pay for grid upgrades.
08:30Whether payments can calm opposition from Provo to Port Washington remains the open question.
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