Seattle Says No to AI Datacenters (for Now)

Seattle is hitting the brakes on the AI revolution, at least for a while, the Guardian reports. On Tuesday, the City Council unanimously approved a one-year halt on new data center construction, making the hometown of Amazon and Microsoft the biggest US city to temporarily hit the pause button on AI-related infrastructure. Officials say the moratorium will give them time to craft rules for power-intensive facilities they fear could strain the grid, raise electric bills, and crowd out better uses of urban land. Mayor Katie Wilson said the city will also weigh requiring developers to fund transit and housing projects in exchange for future permits. The moratorium includes a stipulation that it could be extended by six months, Gizmodo reports.

The move followed reporting that five proposed data centers could use up to a third of Seattle's current electricity demand, and came after local tech workers and groups like Amazon Employees for Climate Justice flooded lawmakers with nearly 100,000 emails. An amendment allows existing facilities to seek expansions of up to 20 megawatts during the pause, a carveout that worries activists who say it could spike power use anyway, eroding the purpose of the moratorium. The city argues the exception is meant to protect data centers that support hospitals and 911 systems, not those built for AI. Seattle officials and organizers are now pushing to export the model to other Washington communities and to secure statewide regulations next year. KING5 reports cities including Denver, Baltimore, Atlanta, and Minneapolis have passed similar legislation.