From the Arkansas Advocate:
Little Rock and Pulaski County haven’t paused approvals of data centers — despite months of trying — even as they’ve faced community pushback over two major facilities planned in the area. But across Arkansas, other cities and counties aren’t having the same problem.
Independence County’s quorum court unanimously passed a five-year moratorium on Monday, the latest — and longest — adopted in the state. Russellville passed a six-month pause on approving the facilities last month. Union and Carroll counties each passed a one-year pause in June.
“We would not be able to support the needs of a data center, nor would we want to,” Independence County Justice of the Peace Brad Covington, a Republican, told the Advocate. “It’s not something that the citizens want or need, and it doesn’t do anything for the citizens of Independence County.”
The county’s moratorium was first reported by White River Now.
While there are no known data center projects planned for the area, Covington said a recent wind turbine development “absolutely” contributed to the quorum court’s decision this week. The county passed a three-year ban on wind turbines in October 2025 — only to find out about two months ago that a company had dozens of contracts to build turbines that predated the court’s measure, he said.
“It just raised our eyebrow as to all these things that can be going on behind the scenes, that there’s not anything in place that requires these companies or people to come before any local authorities,” he said of the wind turbine situation and how it related to the data center pause.
“They can just, willy nilly, sell land and build data centers or crypto mines or any of this stuff.”
That realization, combined with worries about water and power and what Covington said was a relative lack of jobs and money that would accompany a possible data center, prompted the county to act.
While efforts to halt data centers have been more successful in areas of Arkansas where Republicans are dominant compared to Democrats, the pushback nationally has been bipartisan. Texas’ Republican governor ordered a temporary halt on the approval of new data centers, weeks after New York enacted the first statewide moratorium in the nation.
Meanwhile, Americans have flooded local government meetings and social media with messages of opposition to data centers.
The advent of artificial intelligence sparked a boom in announced data center projects across the country. Companies like Google and Meta are racing to build out the computing capabilities required by the most advanced AI models, which in turn have resulted in larger and more energy-intensive data center projects.
The move by the quorum court in Independence County and other Republican-leaning counties comes as Little Rock and Pulaski County have repeatedly failed to pass moratoria on data centers since May.
The latest votes highlight the political dynamics surrounding data centers in Arkansas. Republicans hold a majority of seats on the Carroll, Independence and Union county quorum courts. Democrats hold a majority on Pulaski County’s quorum court while Little Rock’s city board seats are technically nonpartisan.
Mixed opinions, limited information about $6.6 billion data center in Arkansas River Valley
Proposals for regulating the facilities have seen warmer reception among the local governing bodies for the state’s capital city. Little Rock passed regulations in June after fierce social media blowback. The Pulaski County Quorum Court’s agenda committee voted Tuesday night to advance proposed regulations to the full court.
Meanwhile, Fayetteville passed regulations on data centers in June, while Fort Smith’s city council planned to discuss them Tuesday night.
There are currently six large data center projects proposed in Arkansas — two of which are already under construction.
Independence County doesn’t have any proposed centers, according to County Judge Kevin Jeffrey, but he said the quorum court was following the developments around the country and state.
“The question marks, or the questions, seemed to have gotten more intense than the answers,” he said.
The Republican judge said he believes the outstanding questions about the facilities in other parts of the state and the country warranted the pause.
“It’s responsible, for the citizenry, to not have regrets but rather be on the front end of it and be prepared. I think over time, a lot of these questions should be answered,” Jeffrey said. “In the meantime, it just gives us some breathing room to take everything in.”
