Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek has asked the state’s environmental regulator to stop processing air and water pollution permits for new or expanded data centers until July 1, 2027 β a freeze that reaches every such project in the state, not only those on public land.
The instruction came in a one-page letter dated Oct. 9 to Leah Feldon, director of the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality. “I am asking you to exercise your existing administrative authority and discretion to pause processing and issuance of air or water discharge permit applications until July 1, 2027 that involve new or expanded data center facilities within Oregon,” Kotek wrote.
The letter names the specific permits: National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System and Water Pollution Control Facility water permits, and Air Contaminant Discharge and Title V air quality permits “relevant to construction and/or operation of new Data Center facilities.” It goes further, instructing DEQ to also pause “applications from municipalities seeking to renew or modify wastewater treatment plant facility permits in order to accommodate wastewater discharge from data center industrial facility sources” β closing the route by which a city could expand its own treatment capacity to serve a campus.
Kotek framed the freeze as time for policy work. “This time limited pause will provide an opportunity for me to evaluate and digest recommendations forthcoming from the Advisory Committee, and to provide space for policy and/or regulatory reforms that may be considered in the upcoming 2027 session of the Legislature with my support,” she wrote, referring to the Data Center Advisory Committee she established.
A broader intent, stated plainly
The letter is unusually direct about the governor’s wider aim. “I have been taking actions to both support local moratoriums and restrict development of new Data Centers until we can assure Oregonians that our laws will adequately protect our communities and the environment of our state,” Kotek wrote.
That sits awkwardly beside the letter’s opening paragraph, which thanks Feldon for “progress being made at DEQ to improve air quality permitting processes to align with the priorities of HB 4084 (2026)” β the economic-development measure that, per the Oregon Legislature’s record, establishes a Joint Permitting Council. The same letter praises faster permitting in general and suspends it for one industry.
Neither the governor’s office nor DEQ announced the order when it was sent. KPTV reported that the governor’s office declined on Oct. 13 to elaborate on it.
Amazon objects
Amazon, which Oregon Public Broadcasting reports operates more than a dozen hyperscale data centers in Morrow and Umatilla counties, pushed back. Shannon Kellogg, the company’s vice president of Amazon Web Services public policy for the Americas, told OPB the directive “was issued abruptly, without meaningful stakeholder engagement of the workers” and warned of lost construction and operations jobs.
Kaleb Lay, director of policy and research at Oregon Rural Action, which has pressed for restrictions, told OPB the group still wants statutory change: “What needs to happen at the Legislature, we need new laws to protect all of Oregon from these massive corporations.”
Why the mechanism matters
Kotek has said she lacks the authority to impose a statewide data-center moratorium without the Legislature, and this order does not claim to be one. It is a permitting action. But air and water discharge permits are gating items for large industrial construction, and a project that cannot get one cannot be built on schedule β which is the practical effect critics and supporters both describe, by different names.
The approach is now a recognizable template. Texas ordered its own environmental agency to stop issuing data center permits, a pause BloombergNEF estimated put as much as $15 billion in revenue at risk. Political support for restrictions has been building: a recent poll put local opposition at 69 percent as siting fights move into the midterm campaigns. In Oregon, both Kotek and her Republican opponent in the governor’s race, Christine Drazan, say they favor a moratorium, according to OPB.
The stakes for construction are large. Data centers accounted for $77.4 billion of this year’s $78 billion increase in commercial construction β meaning one asset class is carrying the sector, and the states hosting it are the ones now writing the rules.
Kotek’s September action had paused only state-land transactions for data centers, also through July 1, 2027. This one applies wherever a project needs a state pollution permit. What remains unclear is how DEQ will handle applications already in the queue; the letter does not say, and the agency has not published implementing guidance. Oregon’s Legislature convenes in January.
