Data center restrictions tracker · Tennessee

Knoxville City Council, Tennessee: data center moratorium (2026)

Data snapshot 2026-08-15 · part of Pricing the Fear of Data Centers

Knoxville City Council, in Knox County, Tennessee, adopted a data-center moratorium on July 7, 2026. Its status in this snapshot is enacted.

The record reads: "Knoxville City Council passed a one-year moratorium on large data centers (>=10 MW), following Knox County's own June 22 moratorium. (datacentertracker.org)."

Details

ActionClassStatusDateMW thresholdScopeSource
MoratoriumrestrictionenactedJuly 7, 2026not county-widedatacentertracker.org

Jurisdiction type: municipality. County: Knox County. Dataset: datacentertracker. Snapshot August 15, 2026; documented actions, not a census.

Elsewhere in Knox County

Tennessee context

Tennessee has 41 documented local actions across 36 jurisdictions in this snapshot. At the state level, the state has a ratepayer-protection law (enacted).

A town that says no to a data center gives up local tax revenue, not jobs: one large campus pays $2M to $90M a year depending on the tax regime, against roughly 50 permanent jobs. The parent piece prices it and lists the conditions that beat a ban.

Sources

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