Colorado Data Center News

Jun 3, 2026

Arkansas County’s Data Center Moratorium Failed Over Vote Miscount

Pulaski County Quorum Court’s proposed yearlong moratorium on data center development will not take effect after officials determined the vote had been miscounted.

County Clerk Terri Hollingsworth said the measure received 8 votes, short of the 10 needed for passage (the original count showed 10 votes). The ordinance was originally sponsored by Justice of the Peace Julie Blackwood, who plans to reintroduce it as soon as she can. The failed ordinance included an exemption for AVAIO Digital Leo.
AVAIO Digital Leo is a planned data center near Wrightsville; project manager Thomas Nesel said the center’s daily water demand would be about 200,000 gallons during warmer months and it would initially require 150 megawatts, with demand estimated to reach 1 gigawatt as the facility grows. Republican Justice of the Peace Phil Stowers supported the exemption, saying the company had “spent a heck of a lot of money to invest in this community.” The article also notes similar local actions: Denver passed a yearlong moratorium and Minneapolis passed a six-month moratorium on new data centers.

Jun 2, 2026

Daily briefing: Bad supervisors bump early-career researchers out of academia

A drug trial report shows that the experimental drug daraxonrasib nearly doubled median survival in people with advanced pancreatic cancer.

Main announcement: daraxonrasib targets all three RAS proteins and in a trial of 500 people with advanced pancreatic cancer patients who received the drug lived 13.2 months versus 6.7 months for chemotherapy; results reported in the New England Journal of Medicine (DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa2605555).
Background and other details: The Nature Briefing compiles other verifiable items in the issue, including a federal judge blocking the Trump administration’s move to transfer NCAR’s supercomputing centre in Wyoming (ruling calls the action “capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with law”), concerns about AI in social sciences, warnings on Ebola preparedness by Kevin Ariën, and conservation work at Kew/Millennium Seed Bank (29 seeds collected, 8 germinated).

Jun 1, 2026 · Information Technology and Innovation Foundation

Targeted Pressure: How Chinese Manufacturing Competition Impacts US States

The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) has published a report finding Chinese industrial policy is reshaping global manufacturing and harming industries across every U.S. state.

Main finding & method: The ITIF report (June 1, 2026) analyzes one “national power industry” per state using County Business Patterns employment data, HS/SITC export proxies, and global market-share series to conclude that state-backed Chinese subsidies, export pushes, and overcapacity are driving down prices and pressuring U.S. producers in sectors such as semiconductors, batteries, aircraft, and fabricated metals.
Key facts, numbers, and timelines:China plans ~$150 billion in semiconductor investment through 2030 vs. $52 billion under the U.S. CHIPS funding; the report cites $63.3 billion Chinese semiconductor spending in H1 2025, TSMC’s $165 billion U.S. investment announcement, GE Appliances’ $490 million Appliance Park investment (2025), and state/national export shares and HS-code trade series used throughout the analyses.

May 27, 2026

US energy storage installations hit Q1 record, up 32% year over year: SEIA

SEIA reported record 9.7 GWh of battery energy storage installed in Q1 2026.

Main announcement: SEIA said the U.S. installed 9.7 GWh of battery energy storage in Q1 2026 (a 32% YoY increase), with commercial & industrial 648 MWh, utility-scale 1.5 GW / 7.8 GWh, and residential 515 MWh; Benchmark Mineral Intelligence (for SEIA) forecasts 613 GWh of U.S. storage deployment by 2030.
Background and details: SEIA and Benchmark highlighted data centers as a major driver (example: Meta + Enbridge will build 365 MW solar colocated with 200 MW / 1.6 GWh of Tesla batteries to support a Cheyenne, WY data center with 8-hour discharge capability); SEIA also flagged 101 GW of clean projects under political threat and said 36% of projects due by 2030 could be affected; 13 states have storage targets and cumulative deployment leaders include California 60.6 GWh, Texas 29.2 GWh, Arizona 20.2 GWh.

May 19, 2026

Denver Passes One Year Moratorium On Data Centers

The Denver City Council has approved a one-year moratorium on new data center development.

Main action: The City Council unanimously approved a one-year moratorium (or until a formal regulatory framework is adopted) that pauses acceptance and processing of new zoning permits and site development plans for data centers citywide; the pause is explicitly up to one year or until Denver adopts formal rules covering energy consumption, water use, noise standards and siting requirements. The moratorium does not halt the CoreSite DE3 facility already under construction but blocks two additional buildings CoreSite had planned for the same campus.
Background & details: The announcement was supported by Mayor Mike Johnston and follows community opposition led by the Globeville Elyria-Swansea Coalition. Denver Water said the DE3 project’s projected water use would be “far above the typical industrial user and far above the volume of other data centers in the region,” noting the average industrial customer uses ~4.4 million gallons annually and that DE3 could require roughly 20 times that amount (approximately 88 million gallons annually) once operational.

May 19, 2026

Three Rural Providers Band Together To Build 2,000-Mile Fiber Route

Dakota Carrier Network, Range and WIN Technology announced a joint $700 million investment to build the Heartland Fiber Project expanding high-capacity fiber across the American heartland.

Main announcement: The three providers committed $700 million to deploy the Heartland Fiber Project across Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois; construction begins this summer with deployment expected over the next one to two years and the network will include high-fiber-count infrastructure and additional conduit capacity to scale bandwidth for AI hyperscale data center demand.
Background and details: The project targets markets offering available power, land and lower cooling costs to attract hyperscalers; CEOs Rob Johnstone (Range) and Seth Arndorfer (Dakota Carrier Network) framed the deal as improving scale/resiliency and competitiveness for hyperscaler investment. The article also references Zayo’s recent acquisition of Crown Castle fiber assets as sector context.

May 13, 2026

AI Infrastructure’s Next Bottleneck May Be Public Acceptance

Melissa Farney (Data Center Frontier) argues that AI data center expansion has become a first‑order political and permitting constraint, citing recent legislative and local actions including the “Artificial Intelligence Data Center Moratorium Act” proposal and Maine’s LD 307 veto.

Main point: The article states that AI‑oriented data center growth is now a core political and permitting risk for operators, not just a siting or PR issue, citing industry forecasts such as JLL’s ~$710 billion North America capex projection to 2026 and project‑level impact estimates from Data Center Watch (approximately $18B blocked and $46B delayed, totalling $64B) and a New York Times compilation of $156B across 48 AI projects disrupted in 2025.
Key supporting facts & recent actions: Federal and state moves are already concrete: Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio‑Cortez unveiled the “Artificial Intelligence Data Center Moratorium Act”; Maine’s LD 307 (would have paused data centers >20 MW through Nov 1, 2027) was vetoed by Gov. Janet Mills; local utilities like the Ypsilanti Community Utilities Authority (YCUA) imposed a 12‑month moratorium on new water/sewer hookups in April 2026. The article also highlights New Jersey bill S731/A796 (require 85% of requested service for 10 years for very large loads) as an example of state-level cost‑allocation tools.

May 11, 2026

Daily briefing: Why humans sleep so much less than other apes

The universities that manage the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) have sued the Trump administration over plans to dismantle NCAR and transfer parts of it to other public and private institutions.

Main action: The universities are suing the Trump administration and challenging actions by the US National Science Foundation (NSF) that would hand off pieces of NCAR, including a supercomputing centre in Wyoming, as well as parts of its aeroplane fleet, space-weather studies and climate-modelling teams; the administration has characterized NCAR as a source of “climate alarmism”.
Background and context: The suit contends the NSF is moving too quickly and without authority; the report frames this as the start of a broader, ongoing legal and policy battle over NCAR’s future. Other items in the briefing include Elsevier joining a class-action suit against Meta over AI training on copyrighted works, a ransomware breach affecting thousands on the Canvas platform, and features on sleep and genomic regulatory research.

May 8, 2026

World-leading climate centre takes Trump administration to court

UCAR (the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research) has sued the US government and asked a court to freeze plans to break up the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR).

Main action:UCAR (a coalition of around 130 universities) sued the government in March and on 3 April asked a US district court judge to freeze plans to transfer stewardship of NCAR’s supercomputing centre in Cheyenne, Wyoming; a court hearing took place on 7 May and Judge R. Brooke Jackson said he would issue a decision “as promptly as possible”.
Background and timeline: Documents show the White House budget office instructed the NSF in November to begin restructuring NCAR to align with Administration priorities; the NSF requested proposals and public comments (deadline 13 March) but told NCAR officials on 12 February that it had decided to transfer the supercomputing centre; UCAR argues the process is a “sham process” while the NSF says “a final decision has not been made to transfer stewardship.”

May 6, 2026

Data Center Jobs: Engineering, Construction, Commissioning, Sales, Field Service and Facility Tech Jobs Available in Major Data Center Hotspots

Data Center Frontier, in partnership with Pkaza, has posted the latest data center job listings on its jobs board.

Monthly job roundup: The post lists multiple open roles including Power Applications Engineer, Electrical Commissioning Engineer, Power Systems Sales Implementation Engineer, Architect Design Manager (CSA), Electrical Project Manager, Commissioning Project Manager, MEP Superintendent, Director of Data Center Facility Operations, Project Executive (Owner’s Rep), EHS Director, Mechanical Commissioning Lead, Mechanical Controls Engineer, Director of Project Deliverables, and Senior Electrical Engineer across numerous U.S. locations (examples: Pittsburgh, PA; New Albany, OH; Raleigh, NC; Dallas, TX; Charlotte, NC; Chesterton, IN; Denver, CO; New York, NY; Totowa, NJ), with many roles offering remote or multi-city travel options.
Client and role context: Positions are with mission-critical data center developers, engineering design and commissioning firms, electrical contracting firms, general contractors, and digital infrastructure firms; job descriptions emphasize reliability, energy efficiency, sustainable design, and LEED expertise, and note career-growth opportunities, competitive salaries and benefits. Many listings reference travel requirements and alternative available locations for implementation timelines (immediate hiring/use by clients), but no specific salary or funding amounts are disclosed.

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