Oklahoma legislators dealing with proposed data centers and their impact on electric rates and water use know the topic is well debated all over the nation. They also know they are not alone.
Take Colorado for instance where dueling data center bills at the Colorado Capitol are stalled as the legislative session nears its end.
The Colorado Sun reported how one measure, House Bill 1030, proposed tax incentives to data center companies but was stalled last week in committee. Another measure, Senate Bill 102, is supported by environmentalists who want more state regulation covering energy and water use. It too was heard in committee but without a vote.
Colorado has a Democrat-run legislature so in the case of the two data center bills, sponsors of each are Democrats. Denver Rep. Alex Valdez reported he is still working on a compromise measure to ensure approval of his HB1030, which supports the industry.
“A bill is critical to Colorado not losing the economic and environmental gains we all want,” he said via text to Colorado Sun.
Another Democrat, Sen. Cathy Kipp of Fort Collins, is the author of the environmental bill and also expressed optimism her measure will be approved.
“I’m pretty confident,” she said about passing a data center bill this session.
They’ll have to get support soon because the end of the legislative session is on May 13. At the same time, Colorado’s Public Utilities Commission has stepped in to consider regulating the industry with some protections featured in the environmentalist-backed bill.
The debates over the two data center bills and the move by Colorado regulators to consider their own steps comes as elected officials across the state are “rolling back deals” with data center companies because of growing public opposition, just as seen in Oklahoma.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis came out recently in support of a permanent sales and use tax exemption for data centers. In a statement last week, he said, “AI data centers are the manufacturing of our era. They manufacture bits and bytes, not widgets but I believe that update to the tax code would be appropriate and would help attract more data centers and jobs to Colorado,” he said, citing the state sales and use tax exemption for manufacturing.