Seattle, home to Amazon and Microsoft, poised to pass moratorium on new datacenters

Key points

• Seattle’s city government is on the verge of passing a year-long ban on the construction of new datacenters, the largest city yet in the US to consider such a moratorium as nationwide backlash grows.
• Four companies sought to build five large datacenters in areas serviced by Seattle’s public utility;
• if approved, they would have consumed approximately a third of the city’s current daily demand for electricity.
• On Wednesday, city council committees unanimously passed the moratorium and an accompanying resolution.
• A full council vote on both measures is expected on Tuesday, which activists see as a formality after weeks of engagement with city officials on the topic.