Attorney General Mayes Calls for Statewide Pause on Data Centers, Announces Town Hall on Ahwatukee Data Center Project
PHOENIX – Attorney General Kris Mayes today called for a statewide pause on the approval and construction of new data centers, particularly hyperscale AI projects, and urged lawmakers and Governor Hobbs to pass legislation to halt data center approvals until Arizona develops a plan to manage the industry’s growth. Mayes said a data center pause is necessary amid rising energy bills and after the Department of Interior cut Arizona’s Colorado River water supplies by almost 30 percent.
“The only sane thing to do is to pause the approval of new data centers,” Attorney General Mayes said. “Data centers are power- and water-intensive, and Arizona is challenged on both fronts right now.”
Earlier this year, Attorney General Mayes opposed double digit percentage rate increase requests from Arizona Public Service Company and Tucson Electric Power Company in their ongoing rate cases. These rate increases have been driven in part by the need to build infrastructure to serve existing and planned data centers. Arizona’s utilities are already seeing record electricity demand, and adding more energy-intensive data centers could stress Arizona’s electric grid and further raise power bills.
Data centers also require significant amounts of water to operate. Data centers can use tens of even hundreds of millions of gallons of water each year for cooling. New power plants built to provide electricity to new data center customers may also use significant amounts of water to operate. One 2025 analysis estimated that data center-related water demand could surge by more than 450% if all planned data center projects in the greater Phoenix area are built.
Data centers that instead use air to cool their operations can raise temperatures in nearby neighborhoods. A recent ASU study found that data centers can raise nearby temperatures by as much as four degrees Fahrenheit. Even a one-degree increase can increase air conditioning demand and power bills.
“Arizona may be one of the most exposed states in the country to the negative impacts of excessive data center development,” Mayes said. “The Colorado river is in serious distress, and Wall Street firms are seeking to ship La Paz County’s groundwater to Phoenix to fuel the Valley’s growth – against the wishes of the county’s residents and leaders. We owe it to our communities, homeowners, and future generations of Arizonans to better manage our water and power needs before any new data center approvals are issued.”
Mayes also noted that data centers have sparked intense opposition, especially where communities were not properly consulted and where developers are building onsite power generation in or near residential neighborhoods.
Attorney General Mayes will hold a town hall in Ahwatukee on October 14th to hear from concerned community members about Menlo Digital’s planned hyperscale data center project. Additional details on the townhall will be announced in the coming weeks.