MAP: More Arkansas communities putting data centers on hold

The number of Arkansas communities rejecting or imposing new limits on data centers is growing faster than the list of places considering such projects publicly.

Madison County joined four other counties in passing a three-year moratorium on data center projects last week, though it doesn’t have any known projects in development. The pause is the second-longest in the state; only Independence County’s is longer.

The Madison County Record first reported on the moratorium, which passed unanimously.

Local governments have forged ahead on the moratoriums, even as similar measures in Pulaski County have continued to fall short despite blowback over two data center projects. Arkansas has several proposed data centers, with two already under construction.

Outside of Little Rock, Arkansas counties and cities move ahead on data center moratoriums

Meanwhile, Fayetteville’s city council gave the green light to further restrictions on data center construction, building on regulations it passed earlier in the summer. The additional rules will see prospective data center developers required to submit additional documentation, comply with the city’s existing wastewater treatment and pretreatment rules and use battery storage as the primary backup power source instead of generators. 

A data center looking to expand would require an amendment to its city-issued permit.

Data centers have become an increasingly prominent issue in this year’s midterms, and have drawn bipartisan opposition. All five of the county quorum courts that have imposed moratoriums in Arkansas have a Republican majority. 

Democratic Sen. Fred Love of Little Rock on Friday put forward a non-binding interim resolution to the Arkansas Legislative Council “to encourage a moratorium on the development and opening of data centers” while the state develops standards for the facilities. The council referred the resolution to the House and Senate Committees on Insurance and Commerce for a recommendation on how it should vote.

Love is also the Democratic nominee for governor, challenging incumbent Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders. 

Sanders has declined so far to tamp down on data center projects the way other states like Texas have. In a statement Friday, her spokesperson Sam Dubke said Sanders would continue working on protecting the state’s clean water and on “common sense solutions to lower costs for Arkansans.” He said Sanders helped “stop AI amnesty” last year, pointing to her support of successful efforts to strip out language from the Big Beautiful Bill last year that would have overridden state artificial intelligence laws.

Libertarian Colt Shelby is also running for governor, and he said during a June debate that he would support whatever local leaders want, whether it’s recruiting a data center project to their community or implementing a moratorium. 

Meanwhile, a data center announced in Miller County in February has flown under the radar. The Texarkana Gazette reported last Monday that Dallas-based Bentaus, a data center developer, has obtained more than 2,700 acres of land for the project. 

Bentaus did not respond to emailed questions about the status of the project.