Colorado
Colorado lawmakers duel over data centers: Grant millions in tax breaks or regulate them without incentives?
Colorado lawmakers are deciding this year between two disparate approaches on data centers — one that aims to lure them to the Centennial State with millions of dollars in tax incentives and another that would implement some of the strictest statewide regulations in the country on the booming tech industry.
Either of the two competing bills would create the state’s first regulations specific to data centers. Sponsors of both bills say they hope to minimize environmental impacts from the power and water demands of the centers, while also ensuring that the cost of new infrastructure they need doesn’t wind up on residents’ electric bills.
Both bills are sponsored by Democrats but differ widely in what they’d do.
The bill supported by the data center industry — House Bill 1030 — would incentivize companies to comply with regulations in exchange for large tax breaks. The legislation would not regulate data centers whose owners forgo a tax break.
The other bill — Senate Bill 102 — would offer no incentives, instead imposing regulations on all large data center development across the state. It is supported by environmental and community groups.
“We want to make sure that as data centers come here, they come on our terms,” said Megan Kemp, the Colorado policy representative for Earthjustice’s Rocky Mountain office.
The bills have landed as debate over the future of data center regulation intensifies across the state. Data centers house the computer servers that function as the main infrastructure for the digital world. They crunch financial data, store patients’ health information, process online shopping, register sports betting and — increasingly — make possible the heavy data demands of artificial intelligence.
Several companies have begun construction on large data centers across the Front Range in recent years. A 160-megawatt hyperscale facility is under development in Aurora and could consume as much power as 176,000 homes once completed.
The construction of a 60-megawatt data center campus in north Denver has angered those who live by the site and prompted Denver city leaders last week to call for a moratorium on new data center development while they craft regulations for the industry. Larimer County and Logan County have enacted similar moratoriums.
Hundreds gathered Tuesday night at a community meeting about the northern Denver campus owned by CoreSite. Frustration in the crowd — which filled overflow rooms and the front lawn of the building that hosted the meeting — erupted as residents of the neighborhoods surrounding the center expressed concerns about how it would impact their air quality, power and water supplies.
Attendees said they did not know the data center was being built until they saw construction underway.
CoreSite leaders had planned to attend the meeting. But they pulled out of participating the day before because of safety concerns, company spokeswoman Megan Ruszkowski wrote in an email. She did not elaborate on the concerns. A Denver police spokesman said the department did not have any record of a police report filed by CoreSite in the days prior to the meeting.
CoreSite’s absence left officials from the city and utilities to answer the crowd’s questions and field their frustrations. City leaders told attendees that they had no say in whether the data center could be built because there are no city regulations specific to the industry.
“Data centers are proliferating quickly and we don’t know all the impacts,” said Danica Lee, the city’s director of public health investigations. “That’s why we need this moratorium.”
Promises of future regulation meant little to the residents of Elyria-Swansea, where the data center is scheduled to go online this summer. More than an hour into the meeting, a man took the microphone. He noted that so much of the conversation had focused on technicalities — but the information provided had not answered a question on many residents’ minds.
“How do we stop it now?” he asked, to a loud round of applause from the room.
Transformative opportunity?
Some in the state Capitol think more data centers would be beneficial for Colorado.
Supporters of the tax incentive bill in the legislature said luring the industry to Colorado would create high-paying jobs, help pay for electrical grid modernizations and strengthen local tax bases.
“This could be transformative for the state,” said Rep. Alex Valdez, a Denver Democrat who is one of HB-1030’s sponsors.
In exchange for complying with rules, data center companies would be exempted from sales and use taxes for 20 years for purchases related to the data center, like the expensive servers they must replace every few years. After two decades, the companies could apply for an extension to the exemption.
To earn the tax break, data center companies would have to meet requirements that include:
- Breaking ground on the data center within two years.
- Investing at least $250 million into the data center within five years.
- Creating full-time jobs with above-average wages, though the legislation doesn’t specify how many jobs would be required.
- Using a closed-loop water cooling system that minimizes water loss, or a cooling system that does not use water.
- Working to make sure the data center “will not cause unreasonable cost impacts to other utility ratepayers.”
- Consulting with the Colorado Department of Natural Resources about wildlife and water impacts.
While the bill would exempt data centers from sales tax on some purchases, they would still be on the hook for all other taxes, Valdez said, and would bring both temporary and permanent jobs. The bill does not specify how many permanent jobs must be created to qualify for the tax break.
Dozens of other states have enacted tax incentive programs for data centers. Such incentives are a key factor that companies weigh when deciding where to build, said Dan Diorio, the vice president of state policy for the Data Center Coalition, an industry group.
“Colorado is not competitive right now,” he said.
Figuring out the projected impact of the bill on the state’s finances gets complicated.
The legislature’s nonpartisan analysts estimated that the state would miss out on $92.5 million in sales tax revenue in the first three years, assuming a total of 17 data centers would qualify for the tax breaks in that time period.
But Valdez said that is revenue that the state otherwise wouldn’t see if the data centers weren’t built here. And the companies would still pay all other state and local taxes, he said.
“We see it as unrealized revenue, rather than a tax cut,” he said.
Some of that lost tax revenue would be offset by an increase in income taxes paid by low-income families, according to the bill’s fiscal note.
That’s because the projected decrease in sales tax revenue in the first year of the program would decrease the amount of money available for the state to provide its recently enacted Family Affordability Tax Credit. State law ties the amount available for the family tax credit to state revenue growth and whether the state collects money above a revenue cap set by the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights. TABOR requires money above that level to be returned to taxpayers.
If the state doesn’t have excess revenue, it can’t fund that tax credit.
In the next fiscal year, which begins in July, data center companies would avoid paying $29 million in sales taxes, which would trigger a change in the family tax credit. Low-income families would be made to pay a total of $106 million more, the fiscal note estimates.
Bill sponsors are planning to address the fallout for the tax credit in forthcoming amendments, Valdez said.
“We’re not out to trigger any negative impacts to low-income families,” he said.
Baseline guardrails
Forgoing tax dollars during a state budget crisis is a hard sell to Rep. Kyle Brown, a Louisville Democrat sponsoring the regulatory bill. He and other supporters of SB-102 aren’t convinced tax incentives are necessary to bring data centers to the state.
Major construction projects are already underway, he said. In Denver, CoreSite chose not to pursue $9 million in tax breaks from the city but continued construction on its facility regardless.
“The point of our policy is (putting) reasonable, baseline guardrails on this development so it can be smart,” Brown said.
Brown last session co-sponsored a failed bill with Valdez that offered tax incentives to data centers. Since then, however, he’s seen other states that offer tax incentives express buyers’ remorse, he said.
Brown pointed to concerns in Virginia about rising electricity costs due to data center demand and a proposal by the governor of Illinois to suspend the state’s tax credit so that the impacts of the data center boom it sparked could be studied.
His bill this session — co-sponsored by Sen. Cathy Kipp, a Fort Collins Democrat — requires that data centers over 30 megawatts:
- Draw as much power as possible from newly sourced renewable energy by 2031.
- Pay for any additions or changes to the grid needed to serve the data center.
- Adhere to local rules about water efficiency.
- Limit the use of backup generators that consume fossil fuels; if such generators are necessary, they must be a certain type that limits emissions.
- Conduct an analysis of the data center’s impacts on local neighborhoods, engage in community outreach and sign a legally binding good-neighbor agreement if the community is disproportionately affected by pollution.
Owners of data centers would also need to report metrics annually to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. They would cover the center’s annual electricity consumption, how much of that power came from renewable sources, the total number of hours backup generators were used and annual water use.
Utilities, too, would face additional requirements.
The legislation would ban utilities from offering discounted rates to large data centers. It also would prohibit them from supplying electricity to a data center if doing so would affect the utility’s ability to provide power to its other customers — or its ability to meet state emissions reduction goals.
Environmental groups supporting the bill say the state needs regulations to make sure the increased electrical demand generated by data centers doesn’t expand the state’s use of fossil fuels or slow the retirement of fossil fuel-powered plants.
If not done thoughtfully, the groups said, the increased electrical load could imperil the state’s climate goals.
“What we need to avoid is a race to attract data centers that turns into a race to the bottom,” said Alana Miller, the Colorado policy director for the Natural Resources Defense Council’s climate and energy program.
If the legislature enacts SB-102, it would implement the strictest data center regulations in the country and would ward off future data center development, Diorio said. He sees many of the rules as unattainable.
“It would make it nearly impossible to develop a data center in the state of Colorado,” he said.
Conversations between the sponsors of the two bills are underway, Valdez and Brown said. Both expressed hope that a consensus could be found between the two pieces of legislation.
Neither bill had been scheduled for a committee hearing.
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Colorado
Colorado faces LA in first round as Kings captain Anze Kopitar embarks on final Stanley Cup chase
DENVER — Anze Kopitar wrapped up the last regular season of his storied career. The Los Angeles Kings captain wants to prolong his final playoff run for as long as possible.
Kopitar, who announced in September his plans to retire, instantly becomes a postseason rallying point for the Kings. They have a tall task ahead of them against the Colorado Avalanche, the top team in the league, with the top goal scorer in Nathan MacKinnon and one of the best defensemen in the game in Cale Makar. Game 1 is Sunday at Ball Arena, where the Avalanche are 26-9-6.
“Playoffs,” said the 38-year-old Kopitar, a two-time Stanley Cup winner with the Kings. “I’m not going to say anything can happen, but we’ll go in and we’ll play hard and we’ll see where that takes us.”
This will be the third postseason series between the two teams and the first in 24 years. Colorado won in seven games during both the 2002 conference quarterfinals and the 2001 conference semifinals.
It’s been a record season for the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Avalanche as they amassed the most points (121) in franchise history. That broke the mark set by the 2022 team, which went on to win the Stanley Cup title. MacKinnon had a career-best 53 goals.
Goaltenders Scott Wedgewood and Mackenzie Blackwood shared the net this season and surrendered a league low in goals. They earned the William M. Jennings Trophy, which is presented to the goalies who have played a minimum of 25 games — Wedgewood suited up in 45 and Blackwood 39 — for the team with the fewest goals allowed. The other goaltender to win that honor for Colorado was Hall of Famer Patrick Roy (2001-02).
“We’re in a good spot,” Colorado forward Brock Nelson said. “The mentality of this group throughout the year, right from the start of training camp, (was) set on a mission to be the best team.”
Colorado Avalanche’s Nathan MacKinnon (29) celebrates the goal against Edmonton Oilers goalie Connor Ingram (39) during shoot-out NHL action, in Edmonton on Monday, April 13, 2026. Credit: AP/JASON FRANSON
Record against each other
The Kings went 0-3 against Colorado this season and were outscored by a 13-5 margin.
“You hear the hype. They have good players,” Kings defenseman Brandt Clarke said. “We’re a scrappy team. We keep it close with everybody. That can really frustrate them.”
Leading after two
The Avalanche were 41-0-0 when leading after two periods. They’re the first squad to have a lead after two periods on 40 or more instances and capture each one, according to team research.
“Even though we’ve been smart, we’ve been committed, we’ve been relentless at times, it’s going to have to go to a whole new level now,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. “I have faith in our guys.”
Los Angeles Kings’ Anze Kopitar, who is retiring after this season, acknowledges the crowd after being recognized after losing to the Vancouver Canucks during overtime NHL hockey action in Vancouver, on Tuesday, April 14, 2026. Credit: AP/DARRYL DYCK
Remember the season opener?
Six grueling months ago, the Avalanche and Kings opened the season against each other. The Avalanche won 4-1 in Los Angeles behind a pair of goals from Martin Necas, who would go on to register his first 100-point season (38 goals, 62 assists).
The two teams join an exclusive club by becoming the fifth pair since 2015-16 to open the regular season and the playoffs against each other, according to NHL Stats. The other pairs to do so were Montreal and Toronto (2020-21); Colorado and St. Louis (2020-21); St. Louis and Winnipeg (2018-19); and Los Angeles and San Jose (2015-16).
Of those teams that won the season opener only San Jose went on to win the series. It’s a trend Kopitar and the Kings wouldn’t mind joining.
Kopitar and the playoffs
Kopitar helped the Kings to the Stanley Cup title in 2011-12 and 2013-14 along with goaltender Jonathan Quick, who now is with the New York Rangers and recently said he’s retiring. Kopitar has played in 103 postseason games with 27 goals and 62 assists.
“The intensity ramps up, everything ramps up,” Kopitar said of the postseason. “Every mistake, every little play, magnifies now.”
Familiar faces
Kings goaltender Darcy Kuemper was in net for the Avalanche when they won the Stanley Cup in 2022. In addition, Kuemper and Drew Doughty were teammates with MacKinnon, Makar and Devon Toews when Canada won silver at the Milan Cortina Olympics.
Colorado
U.S. Women’s National Team Closes Three-Game Series Against Japan With Emphatic 3-0 Victory in Colorado
COMMERCE CITY, COLO. (April 17, 2026) – Naomi Girma, Rose Lavelle and Kennedy Wesley scored second-half goals to lead the U.S. Women’s National Team to a 3-0 victory over Japan in the third and final match of the series between the two sides.
Wesley recorded her first international goal and assist in her sixth cap to become the 27th player to score under U.S. head coach Emma Hayes. Girma scored her third international goal and Lavelle scored her 29th, marking her 10th goal contribution in her last 10 appearances.
Precision in the final third had been a key point of emphasis for Hayes heading into the match, and even though the USA did not score before the break, it showed flashes of what was to come in the second half, dominating 70% of possession and firing nine shots. The USWNT then broke through with three goals in the first 20 minutes of the second half to record its largest victory over Japan since 2017.
For the first time in this three-game series, the match went into halftime scoreless, but the Americans came close on several occasions. Off one of the USA’s four first half corner kicks, the most dangerous look came in the 21st minute from a Lavelle service that was headed around the box before defender Tierna Davidson nodded the ball down to Sophia Wilson, who had her back to goal. The forward chested down the ball and smashed a turnaround half-volley that forced a point blank save from Japanese goalkeeper Chika Hirao. Girma leaped up to get her head on the rebound, but her shot went over the crossbar.
In the 39th minute, Lavelle received the ball just past half field and played a long switch over to Alyssa Thompson on the left side. The forward beat her defender before playing a pass centrally to midfielder Claire Hutton at the top of the box. Her first-time shot from just outside the penalty box clanged off the crossbar and out for a goal kick. In one of the final plays before the half, forward Trinity Rodman cut inside the box and sent a cross in that deflected off defender Toko Koga, nearly causing an own goal before Hirao collected the ball.
As it did in the first match of the series, the USA came out hot to start the second half and scored almost immediately. On April 11, the USA scored 141 seconds into the half and tonight the goal came 155 seconds after the half began. The USA earned a corner kick after Wilson blasted a shot from outside the box that forced another leaping save from Hirao. Lavelle sent in service from the right corner that drifted towards Wesley at the back post. Wesley headed the cross back in front of goal for Girma, who redirected the ball with a powerful header into the back of the net. The goal was a combination of two center backs and former Stanford University teammates for Girma’s first goal since October of 2024.
Less than 10 minutes later, Wesley started the counterattack that led to the second goal. The defender picked off a pass in the USA’s defensive third and played captain Lindsey Heaps in the midfield. Heaps passed the ball forward to Rodman, who nutmegged her defender with a long pass, splitting two more Japanese players to send Lavelle in on a breakaway. Lavelle dribbled to the top of 18-yard box and then slotted a low shot into the bottom left corner with class to double the lead.
The squad kept the momentum rolling following substitutions just after the hour mark. A few minutes after entering the match, midfielder Jaedyn Shaw stepped up to take the USA’s sixth corner kick of the match. She sent a cross to the center of the box where Wesley leaped to hit a shot with the outside of her right foot, redirecting the ball through traffic and into the left side goal for the third of the night and the first of her USWNT career.
The USA held Japan scoreless for the first time in the series with goalkeeper Claudia Dickey making three saves to earn her eighth clean sheet in her 10th appearance.
Goal Scoring Rundown:
USA –NAOMI GIRMA (KENNEDY WESLEY),47th minute: Rose Lavelle lofted a corner kick from the right to the back post to Kennedy Wesley, who drifted under the ball and headed it back in front of the face of goal. Naomi Girma was in perfect position to redirect the cross with a forceful header into the back of the net at the center of the six-yard box. USA 1, JPN 0
USA – ROSE LAVELLE (TRINITY RODMAN), 56th minute: Kennedy Wesley intercepted a pass in the USA’s defensive third and played Lindsey Heaps near the center circle. Heaps played the ball forward to Trinity Rodman, who split two defenders with a pass up the field as Lavelle made a run inside. Lavelle dribbled toward the 18-yard box before slotting her shot to the bottom left corner of the goal. USA 2, JPN 0
USA – KENNEDY WESLEY (JAEDYN SHAW), 63rd minute: Jaedyn Shaw sent a corner kick toward the center of the box. Around eight yards out, Kennedy Wesley connected with the cross using the outside of her right foot, sending her shot through traffic into the back of the net. USA 3, JPN 0 FINAL
Additional Notes:
- Emma Hayes made 10 changes to the Starting XI from the last match against Japan on April 14 with Claire Hutton as the only player to start two games in a row. However, this Starting XI had only two changes from the Starting XI on April 11 in the first game against Japan. From the first match, Tierna Davidson replaced Kennedy Wesley on the back line and Hutton stepped in for midfielder Sam Coffey.
- With her cap today, Colorado native Lindsey Heaps tied Shannon MacMillan for 18th most caps in USWNT history with 176, making her one of only 19 women to reach the milestone. Heaps will return to her hometown to play professionally as a member of the NWSL’s Denver Summit upon the completion of her contract with OL Lyonnes in July.
- The other starter from Colorado was forward Sophia Wilson. The last time Wilson and Heaps played in Colorado was on June 1, 2024, vs. Korea Republic. The U.S. also won that match 4-0, which was also Hayes’ first match as head coach of the USWNT and the fourth-to-last match before of the 2024 Paris Olympics. Wilson hails from Windsor just an hour from Commerce City and Denver proper while Golden, a suburb of Denver, is Heaps’ hometown.
- Davidson earned the start, her first since Feb. 23, 2025, in a 2-1 win over Australia. In the WNT’s previous match on April 14, Davidson entered as a substitute in the 65th minute, her first appearance in more than one year following her recovery from an ACL injury she suffered in March of 2025. Tonight, she played the first 45 minutes before coming out on pre-planned sub.
- Center back Naomi Girma scored her third international goal – and all three have been headers. She scored her first two international goals on Oct. 30, 2024, against Argentina.
- Girma was assisted on her goal by fellow center back and Stanford Cardinal Kennedy Wesley, who replaced Davidson at halftime. Girma and Wesley played two full seasons together on the backline over three overlapping school years (2019-2022) as Girma took a redshirt season for her junior year (2020-21) due to injury. It was Wesley’s first international assist in her sixth career cap.
- Rose Lavelle’s goal in the 56th minute tonight was her 29th career goal and second goal of the week after recording one goal and an assist in the April 11 match against Japan. Lavelle now has 10 goal contributions in her last 10 matches for the USWNT.
- Lavelle was assisted by forward Trinity Rodman, who recorded her 11th international assist.
- Wesley scored her first international goal in the 64th minute. She is the 27th player to score a goal under head coach Emma Hayes. The center back ended her 45 minutes of play with two contributions, a goal and an assist, and was voted Woman of the Match.
- Jaedyn Shaw recorded her fifth career assist on Wesley’s goal with her service on a corner kick.
- Two of the three goals scored by the U.S. tonight came off corner kicks.
- The USWNT recorded its first clean sheet of the April window and its eighth shutout win in its last 10 matches.
- With the temperature at 38 degrees at kickoff and patches of snow pushed outside the edges of the pitch, it was the coldest WNT game since February 2022, which kicked off in Frisco, Texas.
- With the new FIFA substitution rules in effect (eight are now allowed in friendly matches), and Japan making use of a concussion sub, which gave the USA an extra substitution opportunity, the USA made its most ever substitutions in a single game over the 778 matches in program history with nine.
- Japan also made nine substitutions.
– U.S. WOMEN’S NATIONAL TEAM MATCH REPORT –
Match: United States vs. Japan
Date: April 17, 2026
Competition: International Friendly
Venue: DICK’S Sporting Goods Park, Commerce City, Colo.
Attendance: 17,589
Kickoff: 7 p.m. MT / 9 p.m. ET
Weather: 38 degrees, mostly sunny
| Scoring Summary | 1 | 2 | F |
| USA | 0 | 3 | 3 |
| JPN | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| USA — Naomi Girma (Kennedy Wesley) | 47th minute |
| USA — Rose Lavelle (Trinity Rodman) | 56 |
| USA — Kennedy Wesley (Jaedyn Shaw) | 64 |
Lineups:
USA: 1-Claudia Dickey, 23-Emily Fox, 4-Naomi Girma (5-Lilly Reale, 83), 12-Tierna Davidson (25-Kennedy Wesley, 46), 22-Gisele Thompson (3-Avery Patterson, 62), 10-Lindsey Heaps (Capt.) (17-Sam Coffey, 63), 15-Claire Hutton (7-Lily Yohannes, 82), 16-Rose Lavelle (13-Olivia Moultrie, 73), 2-Trinity Rodman (20-Michelle Cooper, 73), 11-Sophia Wilson (9-Ally Sentnor, 73), 21-Alyssa Thompson (8-Jaedyn Shaw, 63)
Substitutes not used: 6-Emily Sams, 19-Emma Sears, 24-Phallon Tullis-Joyce
Not dressing: 14-Emily Sonnett, 18-Jane Campbell
Head Coach: Emma Hayes
JPN: 12-Chika Hirao, 2- Risa Shimizu (24-Maya Hijikata, 74), 6-Toko Koga (3-Moeka Minami, 60), 4-Saki Kumagai, 13-Hikaru Kitagawa (21-Miyabi Moriya, 25), 19-Momoko Tanikawa (20-Manaka Matsukubo, 46), 16-Yuzuki Yamamoto (17-Maika Hamano, 46), 14-Yui Hasegawa (Capt.) (10-Fuka Nagano, 74), 15-Aoba Fujino (22-Remina Chiba, 74), 9-Riko Ueki (11-Mina Tanaka, 46), 7-Hinata Miyazawa (18-Honoka Hayashi, 60)
Substitutes not used: 23-Akane Okuma, 1-Ayaka Yamashita
Head Coach: Michihisa Kano
Stats Summary: USA / JPN
Shots: 15 / 5
Shots on Goal: 7 / 3
Saves: 3 / 4
Corner Kicks: 6 / 2
Fouls: 7 / 5
Offside: 0 / 2
Misconduct Summary:
None
Officials:
Ref: Myriam Marcotte (CAN)
AR1: Mijensa Rensch (SUR)
AR2: Stephanie Yee Sing (JAM)
4TH: Carly Shaw-Maclaren (CAN)
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