Data center development is moving fast, faster than the laws meant to regulate it.

Now some cities are calling for a pause to catch up.

We sat down with a councilmember from the state's largest city to find out why he's proposed and passed a moratorium on large scale data centers, right as utilities and municipalities brace for a surge in electricity demand.

We did not and do not have a definition of data centers in our land-use code.

So what that means is they are largely unregulated at this point.

And so we needed the time to build in to study the issue, put in the appropriate regulation.

In Washington, there are approximately 126 data centers and related facilities with a footprint of nearly 7 million square feet, according to the research firm Baxtel.

Along with Seattle, ten other cities or counties have passed moratoriums on the building of data centers.

Lawmakers and residents worry the electricity demand coming from current and future data centers will strain the already stretched power grid, increasing rates for everyone else.

Water usage and noise are also raising concerns.

I think there's a potential win win if these data, large scale data center companies can help us build the the electric grid, the transmission lines to power their needs, but also that can power our cities and region more generally.

Like that's a potential win win.

But if they if we're not regulating it correctly and they're just soaking up all the energy or making our climate goals even harder to achieve that, that would be pretty devastating for our region.

Up next on the News feed, as we cover the data center boom in our state, we take you inside one of the facilities.

I'm Paris Jackson.

Thank you for watching The Newsfeed.