Cheyenne City Council to consider a pause on new data centers

Republished with permission from Wyoming News Now, a TV news outlet covering the Cheyenne and Casper areas. 

Cheyenne City Council has introduced a temporary moratorium, or pause, on new data center construction.

“The end goal is to actually have regulations in place, to have really heavy public involvement with this with data centers,” said Councilman Mark Moody.

The proposed ordinance is not a permanent ban on data centers and would not affect data centers currently under construction.

Councilman Moody says this is a bipartisan issue.

“I just want to make this clear, I’m not against data centers. We do need them from a national security perspective,” he said.

He said there needs to be more public input and regulations regarding data centers in Cheyenne.

The ordinance would require city staff to study data center impacts such as electricity usage, electricity tariffs, closed-loop cooling systems, groundwater impacts, agricultural impacts, and land value.

Cheyenne LEADS, the economic development corporation for Cheyenne and Laramie County, reported in November 2025 that there are 12 operational data centers in Wyoming, five under construction and plans for 43 data centers announced across the state.

“There needs to be more public input with this, and also to see how many we can sustain here in this community, cause there are talks of 43, and then another day 70. How many can we sustain here?” said Councilman Moody.

The proposed moratorium will now go to the Public Services Committee on Monday, May 18 at noon in the Municipal Building.