Colorado fails in data center bill

Colorado's Senate Bill 102, designed to introduce new environmental regulations and ensure data centers cover their full power costs and do not hinder the state's greenhouse gas emission targets, has failed to pass. State Sen. Cathy Kipp, D-Fort Collins, who sponsored the bill, requested an indefinite postponement after the measure was significantly altered to include tax incentives for data centers. The Senate Transportation and Energy committee then unanimously voted down the revised legislation. Despite this setback, Senator Kipp has pledged to reintroduce the bill in the next legislative session, emphasizing the need for the data center industry to address community concerns regarding water usage, air quality, electricity rates, farmland preservation, and grid strain. She stated that "the industry needs to understand the moment" and "come to the table understanding the harms their operations can cause the communities and to our grid." The article draws a parallel with Oklahoma, where similar concerns about data center energy demands led to the recent enactment of HB2992, the Data Center Consumer Ratepayer Protection Act of 2026. Sponsored by Rep. Brad Boles and signed into law by Gov. Kevin Stitt, this legislation aims to protect consumers from higher utility costs by establishing guidelines for managing the growing energy demands of large-scale users like data centers, cryptocurrency mining, and AI facilities.