Moratorium petition & tax-break rollback

Oregon Rural Action launched a petition campaign — "secrecy, extraction and exploitation" — seeking a moratorium on new eastern Oregon data centers. The state enacted a law affecting data center tax breaks in June 2026, after 2025's POWER Act created a separate rate class so large users pay their share; Gov. Tina Kotek has said Oregon has been a "cheap date" for the industry. An industry group is running pro-data-center ads in Oregon and six other states. Update (Sept 2026): Democratic lawmakers proposed a three-year statewide moratorium for the 2027 session, Gov. Kotek’s advisers declined to endorse one, and hundreds rallied in Salem to deliver a statewide petition (Oregon Capital Chronicle). Update (Oct 2026): on October 9 Gov. Kotek directed the state Department of Environmental Quality to stop issuing new or expanded air and water permits for data centers until July 1, 2027 — effectively pausing most new hyperscale development statewide; Amazon objected, and Umatilla weighed a local emergency over lost revenue (OPB · Oregon Capital Chronicle).