Oregon Governor Discusses Need for Data Center Regulations
The governor said that the state has become a 'cheap date' for data centers
WASHINGTON, July 7, 2026 – Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek, D, is working to advance safeguards against the expansion of data centers in the state.
“Oregon needs to stop being a cheap date and making it too easy for them,” Kotek said in a Thursday press conference, regarding the data centers serving Amazon, Meta and Google. She discussed the need for regulations but did not provide any specific information on what they would look like.
The governor said that she would await recommendations in a January advisory committee. Kotek explained, “I try not to preclude or project where I want them to go, but I think that what we’re seeing is we will have some very specific actions.”
Oregon has seen a rapid expansion of data centers. There are roughly 125 facilities in the state, including around the Portland metro area, near the Columbia River and the high desert of Central Oregon.
The state’s lawmakers passed a bill last year requiring high energy users like data centers and cryptocurrency mining outfits to pay higher rates. Portland General Electric is the first of the state’s investor-owned utilities to recommend a 29% increase in power rates for data centers and a decrease of about 1% for residential customer rates.
Initially, the governor balked at cutting data center projects from a proposed bill that would have provided special property tax breaks for companies that make major capital investments in the state. Kotek changed her position, later supporting a one-year moratorium on tax breaks for data centers.
Recently, the governor has pushed to ensure that existing data center tax breaks are not overly generous and that energy and water use from data centers does not come at the expense of Oregon residents.
Advocates are pressing for more government action regarding data centers, including the Director of Oregon Climate Solutions, Nora Apter. Oregon Climate Solutions is a non-profit that focuses on finding clean energy alternatives.
