Seattle headed towards ban on large data centers

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(The Center Square)- A one-year ban on new large-scale data centers appears likely to be approved by the full Seattle City Council later this month. 

The City Council’s Land Use and Sustainability Committee unanimously approved the moratorium on Wednesday, setting the stage for full approval by the entire council as soon as June 16.

Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson first proposed the ban in April, and none of the nine council members have broken ranks with the mayor on the issue since then.

The mayor's announcement came after four companies approached Seattle’s city-owned electric utility, Seattle City Light, about building large-scale data centers. 

Two of the companies subsequently withdrew their applications. 

Under the plan, Seattle would impose a one-year moratorium on data centers that use more than 20 megawatts of power.

Seattle already has more than two dozen data centers, but none of the large-scale centers that are causing controversy across the U.S.

The city plans to study the issue during the one-year pause to determine whether large-scale data centers could operate under certain conditions.

Councilman Eddie Lin, who chairs the Land Use and Sustainability Committee, said he was concerned about “the impact of mega data centers” and whether the city has the capacity to provide electricity without causing rate increases for other customers. 

He also echoed an environmental message, saying that energy demand from data centers may force the city to rely more heavily on electricity generated from fossil fuels.

Public feedback has been heavily against the facilities.

Most of the 30 public commenters on Wednesday expressed deep concern over what they said would be the data centers’ high electricity and water consumption. 

Several Amazon engineers also appeared at Seattle City Council hearings on Wednesday, supporting the city council’s regulation of the data centers. 

The engineer’s testimony comes as the company lays off thousands of employees while expanding AI and data centers nationwide. 

“It’s been reported that this year, Amazon is spending $200 billion on capital, with most of it going to data centers and AI,” said Patrick Schloesser, who identified himself as a software engineer at Amazon Web Services.

“Meanwhile, the leaders at my company have laid off 30,000 corporate employees in the last eight months.”

Margaret Callahan, a spokeswoman for Amazon, said in a statement to The Center Square that the company respects its colleagues' right to voice their opinions. 

“Currently, we don’t have any plans to construct data centers within the Seattle city limits," she said. “Across the communities where we do operate data centers, we’re committed to being a responsible neighbor—investing in local economic development while prioritizing water and energy efficiency that exceeds industry standards."