Republican state legislators in several states across the country want to pause new data center construction, a break with President Donald Trump and most congressional Republicans.
Republicans in Washington have broadly backed the explosion of the tech industry in the U.S. But in their home states, the hasty spread of massive data centers has led to backlash from constituents who have a range of complaints about the developments.
And now some Republican state lawmakers want to, at minimum, slow the spread of those developments by crafting new energy usage agreements. In other states, they want more, going so far as to propose a pause in the construction of new data centers in their state altogether.