Findings
What the legislation shows
A systematic scan of all fifty state legislatures identified 196 data center energy bills across 48 states in the 2025–26 sessions, of which 151 were scored on eight policy dimensions. Scores describe introduced legislation, not enacted law. See the methodology for how scores are built.
01 · Regulatory models
Ratepayer protection dominates the field
Each bill carries one or two regulatory-model labels. Counting only each bill's primary (first-listed) label, ratepayer protection accounts for roughly a third of all legislation — more than the next three models combined. Despite heavy introduction activity, few bills have been enacted.
Share of bills by primary regulatory model. Live from the database: n = 0 labelled bills.
02 · Party and policy dimension
The partisan divide is narrow — and concentrated in two dimensions
Republican- and Democratic-sponsored bills differ only marginally in net orientation, and the difference is not statistically distinguishable given the sample. Both are pulled negative by the same provisions: cost allocation, utility tariff structure, and environmental conditions. Only on tax incentives and self-supply authorization do Republican bills score net-positive. Siting shows no meaningful partisan difference. Ratepayer protection remains the most consistent priority across both parties.
Mean bill score by sponsor party and dimension, −2 (protective) to +2 (pro-development). Scored bills with a single-party sponsor only (Republican n = 3–16 per dimension; Democratic n = 15–51); bipartisan and unlabelled bills excluded.
03 · Regions
Regions agree on direction, differ on mechanism
The South, Northeast, West, and Midwest average within roughly a tenth of a point of one another, and no region is net pro-development. The Northeast pairs the most generous tax treatment with the steepest cost-allocation protections. The Midwest records the most restrictive siting provisions, driven by moratorium and permitting-freeze activity, and is the most heterogeneous — Illinois and Michigan produce structurally innovative bills in both directions. The South is the most internally varied, with incentive-seeking bills in Texas and Virginia alongside several of the most restrictive states. Western states, led by California, carry some of the most demanding environmental provisions.
Bills by primary regulatory model and U.S. Census region. Live from the database.
04 · National orientation
Every state is net-protective
Averaging each state's bill scores gives a national mean of about -1.18 on the −2 to +2 scale. No state scores net-supportive; the least restrictive, Minnesota, reaches only -0.09. The homepage map shows both an absolute view and a view relative to the national mean.
Many states rest on only one to four scored bills; treat individual state scores as approximations.