Mendocino County Moves to Block Data Centers Before They Arrive
Staff directed to draft an urgency ordinance
The impact of artificial intelligence on electricity, water and land use reached Mendocino County on Tuesday as the Board of Supervisors considered declaring a temporary moratorium on new data center construction.
Mendocino County has no data centers, and no applications have been submitted to build one. The proposed ordinance would be a preemptive measure.
“This moratorium just provides us a tool to really explore what the issues are and come up with an ordinance that would be appropriate for what the people in Mendocino County want,” Supervisor John Haschak said. Haschak brought the item forward with Supervisor Ted Williams.
Opposition to data centers has grown across the country as concerns mount that the pace of data center and AI deployment is outstripping the development of safeguards to ensure transparency and minimize environmental impacts.
According to the International Energy Agency, data centers accounted for 1.5% of the world’s electricity consumption in 2024. In the United States, they accounted for 4.4% of electricity use, or 176 terawatt-hours — about 45% of global data center electricity consumption that year.
The agency estimates AI currently accounts for 5% to 15% of total data center power use, increasing to 35% to 50% by 2030. “By the end of the decade, the country is set to consume more electricity for data centres than for the production of aluminium, steel, cement, chemicals and all other energy-intensive goods combined,” the agency wrote in its report Energy and AI.
In Virginia, which has between 600 and 750 data centers — about 35% of the world’s hyperscale data centers — residential electricity bills are projected to more than double over the next 13 years, increasing from $142.77 today to $315.25 by 2039, according to Dominion Energy.
However, the impact of increased electricity demand extends far beyond higher utility bills, placing additional strain on the electrical grid and creating a range of indirect environmental and economic impacts. The International Energy Agency estimates the largest data centers consume as much electricity as 2 million households, while a typical hyperscale facility uses about as much electricity as 100,000 households.
Data centers also consume large quantities of water. According to the Environmental and Energy Study Institute, large hyperscale facilities can require up to 5 million gallons of water each day, primarily for cooling servers — roughly equivalent to the daily water use of a town with 10,000 to 50,000 residents.
Other potential impacts include air and noise pollution, thermal and chemical pollution, and habitat loss from large-scale development.
“We didn’t have anything on the books”
Williams, who acknowledged that some data center applications — such as those supporting early cancer detection research — provide clear public benefits, said his primary concern was ensuring the county has regulations in place before a project is proposed.
“What concerns me about this item is we’re putting more load on staff at a time that we have a transition in the planning department,” Williams said. “But we’ve seen other instances where something comes to the county and the public expects that we’re going to provide discretion and we say, ‘Well, we can’t. Our hands are tied. We didn’t have anything on the books to allow discretion.’ That’s really what we’re after here — we want some ability to ensure that we’re protecting our communities.”
Public comment reflected sharply different views.
Helen Sizemore, a Ukiah resident, urged the board to act quickly, warning that the Redwood Empire Fairgrounds could become a target for development.
“The people running the fairgrounds need money and so they might — they’re being challenged all over the state of California, and those environmental effects would be devastating to us,” she said.
Planning and Building Services Director Julia Krog noted, however, that the county has no authority over the state-owned fairgrounds, which are governed by their own board of directors.
Janet Rosen, a longtime resident of unincorporated South Ukiah, argued the county should distinguish between beneficial technology and what she described as resource extraction by a “billionaire class.” A longtime computer user dating back to the era of DOS commands and Netscape Navigator, Rosen said cryptocurrency and AI “offer no benefits to average citizens” and urged the county to focus on industries “conducive to creating a middle class here.”
Matthew Delbar opposed the moratorium, calling it “virtue signaling” and arguing the board was being inconsistent. He said “a single electric car takes the same amount of power as three to four houses while charging” and asked, “If the power is a concern, then where is a moratorium on electric vehicles?”
Financial impacts could cut both ways
The board also discussed the economic implications of data center development, reflecting a debate taking place in communities across the country.
Board Chair Bernie Norvell requested that staff evaluate “fiscal impacts, both positive and negative,” and the board voted to establish an ad hoc committee consisting of Haschak and Williams to work with staff on the analysis.
Krog said planning staff had already begun researching data center issues before any supervisor contacted her office.
“Staff is poised and ready to continue forward with this item,” she said.
Supervisor Maureen Mulheren said she was not concerned about the additional workload, noting that a temporary moratorium would give staff the ability to slow any proposal while permanent regulations are developed.
“This item does allow staff the opportunity to slow down any kind of project that might come forward,” she said.
The board voted 5-0 to direct staff to return with an urgency ordinance establishing a temporary moratorium. The ad hoc committee will work with staff to examine how other jurisdictions have addressed data center development and prepare an analysis of environmental, public health and fiscal impacts for the board’s consideration.
If adopted, the moratorium would temporarily prohibit the processing and approval of new data center applications while the county develops permanent regulations, joining a growing number of jurisdictions seeking to establish rules before large-scale data center projects are proposed.
Correction: The spelling of “signaling” was corrected. (July 7, 2026 6:29 p.m.)
I was going to comment about how the people advocating data centers are the same people asserting the grid can’t handle EV’s but it turns out somebody did that very thing in public comments.
There is no irony anymore. It died on the grave of satire.