Gov. Tina Kotek said Tuesday she now supports a statewide moratorium on new data centers. In a significant escalation of her position on an issue that is prompting voter outrage around the country, Kotek appeared at an anti-data center rally outside the Capitol building in Salem, lending her support to calls for lawmakers to pass a temporary data center ban when they convene next year.

Democratic Gov. Tina Kotek and her Republican opponent, Sen. Christine Drazan, both called for statewide moratoriums on data centers Tuesday, converging on the same position within hours of each other after years of more cautious stances on the hot-button issue.

Roughly 100 people showed up outside the Oregon State Capitol on Tuesday to call for a three-year pause on new data center development in the state.

Earlier this year, Amazon purchased more than 1,000 acres near Boardman, Oregon. As reported by The Oregonian/OregonLive.com, it could be the site for the state’s first “exascale” data center. Listen to OPB’s Think Out Loud Broadcast to learn more.

In the Hermiston and Boardman area, there are more than seven active data centers owned and operated by Amazon Web Services. Last year, the city of Hermiston annexed 800 acres of land to AWS, paving the way for more in the future. And while some have shared concerns about the environmental impact these data centers have, they have brought their communities millions of dollars. For the city of Hermiston, Amazon’s operations have funded renovations to the library, a new city hall and most recently, a water treatment facility for Umatilla County. Mark Morgan is the assistant city manager of Hermiston. He joins OPB’s Think Out Loud to share the impact Amazon dollars have had on the community.

In May, state Sen. Janeen Sollman, D-Hillsboro, area lost her bid for reelection to the legislature, the first such incumbent loss since 2018. Multiple reasons contributed to Sollman’s loss to union-backed challenger Myrna Muñoz, but a pivotal and new factor was data centers.

A nonprofit is starting a petition, calling for a moratorium on data center development in eastern Oregon.

ORA Launches Petition Calling for Eastern Oregon Data Center Moratorium

Calls to Rein in Runaway Growth Mount as Big Tech Plans Massive “Exascale” Project, Expansion of State’s Largest Data Center Hub

Oregon Rural Action ha lanzado esta semana una petición en la que exige que se detenga de inmediato la expansión de los centros de datos en el noreste de Oregón, alegando los perjuicios que esto sigue causando a las comunidades rurales en el mayor núcleo de centros de datos del estado.

For nearly four decades, families in the Lower Umatilla Basin have been drinking contaminated water while billion-dollar companies expanded around them.

The Oregon Department of Justice filed civil charges against the eight defendants a year ago, following an investigation by The Oregonian/OregonLive. The news organization found that the directors of a local nonprofit had arranged to sell Windwave to themselves and that the assumptions they used to set the purchase price didn’t account for the value of Windwave’s business with Amazon.

Across the country, Amazon, Google and other tech companies have stocked up on diesel generators to keep their data centers humming during power outages. Like diesel-powered buses, these generators chug out black exhaust full of air pollutants that can cause cancer, asthma and heart disease.

We all deserve to trust that our water is safe to drink, but Lower Umatilla Basin locals have been forced to live without safe drinking water for decades.

A federal judge has cleared the path for a lawsuit accusing the Port of Morrow, a power company, and agricultural businesses of polluting the groundwater in the Lower Umatilla Basin to move forward.