Oregon governor orders pause on environmental permits to build or expand data centers

Oregon Capital Chronicle | by Alex Baumhardt

An explosion of data center facilities, including the one pictured here in northeast Oregon on May 18, 2026, have been built along the Columbia River Gorge during the last few years. (Photo by Jordan Gale/Oregon Capital Chronicle)

Oregon’s governor has effectively issued a moratorium on new data centers and data center expansions in the state by ordering environmental regulators to pause approving new state and federal air and water pollution permits for data center projects until next July.

Kotek issued the order Friday in a letter to Leah Feldon, director of the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality. The La Grande-based nonprofit Oregon Rural Action, which has called for a statewide three-year data center moratorium, shared the news in an email on Tuesday.

“This time limited pause will provide an opportunity for me to evaluate and digest recommendations forthcoming from the Advisory Committee, and to provide space for policy and/or regulatory reforms that may be considered in the upcoming 2027 session of the Legislature with my support,” Kotek wrote in her letter to Feldon.

Kotek’s seven-member Data Advisory Committee has held seven fact-finding meetings over nine months and in mid-September issued a 20-page “preliminary learnings and questions” report, a departure from the cost-benefit analysis of data centers in the state it was tasked with providing when it was established. The public has until 5 p.m. Oct. 24 to submit comments based on the report.