Arizona AG Mayes seeks moratorium on new data centers despite pushback

(The Center Square)- Attorney General Kris Mayes announced this week that she supports a statewide moratorium on new data centers in Arizona.

She urged state lawmakers and Gov. Katie Hobbs to pass a law temporarily pausing data center construction until Arizona develops a plan to address the increasing demand for the centers.

The Democratic attorney general said the ban is paramount, given the state’s rising energy bills and pending cuts to its Colorado River use, as required by a recent federal plan.

“The only sane thing to do is to pause the approval of new data centers,” Mayes said.

“Data centers are power- and water-intensive, and Arizona is challenged on both fronts right now,” the attorney general said.

Mayes cited a 2025 study from Ceres, a green energy nonprofit, showing data centers’ water consumption will increase from 2.9 billion gallons to more than 14.5 billion gallons in the coming years.

“Arizona may be one of the most exposed states in the country to the negative impacts of excessive data center development,” she said.

“We owe it to our communities, homeowners and future generations of Arizonans to better manage our water and power needs before any new data center approvals are issued,” she noted.

Courtney Coolidge, the executive vice president of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce & Industry, said Mayes raised legitimate concerns about data centers.

However, the Arizona Chamber disagrees with the attorney general on the conclusion, Coolidge said, noting the answer to these questions is to “solve these problems.”

“Data centers are not popular right now, so I don’t relish being the data center defender, but it’s politically expedient to call for a moratorium, especially when it's not going to happen right now,” Coolidge explained.

She noted data centers need to be a part of Arizona’s “economic ecosystem.”

“Every industry is more and more reliant on technological advances. Our modern economy needs a place to store its data. The cloud isn’t real; it exists at a data center,” said Mayes, who is seeking reelection in a race against Republican candidate Warren Petersen, currently the Arizona Senate president.

Jason Hayes, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation’s Center for Energy, Climate and Environment, said Arizona should look for “innovative ways” to address data center-related problems rather than impose a temporary moratorium on them.

If Arizona temporarily bans new data center development, the state would lose significant business, Hayes said.

The amount of money data centers contribute in tax revenue helps pay for road projects and schools, he told The Center Square.

According to Hayes, the potential loss of tax revenue from data centers could have a major impact on Arizona’s economy.

The debate shouldn’t be about if Arizona builds data centers, but rather how the state can build them responsibly, Coolidge noted.

Data centers will be built, Coolidge said, adding that “it is good to have things built in [Arizona’s] backyard” because it provides the state with tax revenue, jobs and data security.

If Arizona does not build the data centers, they will be built in another state or a different country, she explained.

Hayes called data centers “essential digital infrastructure” that America needs to “be competitive in world markets.”

China will outcompete America if it shuts down data center construction, Hayes noted.

He said China has made it clear that it wants to control these data center-related markets.

Coolidge added that Arizona is aware of concerns about water and electricity and noted the state is “tackling these challenges head on."

Hayes said new data centers have closed-loop systems and use “far less water than is being reported.”

Coolidge added that Arizona uses less water than it did in 1957, “despite enormous growth in industry and population.”

Data centers rank seventh among all industrial users in water use, according to Coolidge. She noted that Arizona’s industrial users account for an estimated 7% of the state’s total water use.

Hayes said agriculture uses more water than data centers in Arizona. According to the Arizona Department of Water, agriculture uses 72% of the state’s water supply.

If Arizona is concerned about grid reliability because of the amount of electricity data centers use, the state should focus on “building more reliable and affordable generation, such as nuclear or natural gas plants," Hayes explained.

Instead, he noted the state has been prioritizing solar energy, which he described as being an unreliable source for grid reliability.

A recent Arizona poll showed a majority of registered voters want the state to pause construction of large data centers.

No local governments in Arizona have implemented a temporary moratorium on data centers. At least six local governments have implemented data center regulations.