NEWS: From the county to federal level, officials are accelerating the data center crackdown.

In Virginia: Loudoun County—which has the world’s highest concentration of data centers—has voted to halt the review of new data center applications for a year. The pause will give officials more time to establish guardrails to protect surrounding communities, who have pushed officials to take action.

In North Carolina: State Attorney General Jeff Jackson has continually criticized Duke Energy’s response to data center demand. Now, he’s asking the state’s utilities commission to carve out a rate class for Duke’s data center customers (and prevent cost-shifting onto residential ratepayers).

On Capitol Hill: The House passed the Ratepayer Protection Act, which would require state utility regulators to consider a standard to make data centers cover their generation and transmission costs.