Nebraska: data centers & your electric bill
As of October 1, 2026, AI GridWatch tracks 19 data center moratoriums or pushback actions in Nebraska: 16 in force, 2 proposed, 1 expired, rejected or rescinded. The state has 42 tracked data center facilities using an estimated 2.1 TWh of electricity a year.
Everything GridWatch tracks in Nebraska on one page — proposed projects, moratoriums, permits, officials, and the 2026 ballot.
Subscribe by RSS — moratorium changes and community headlines for Nebraska.
As of July 2026 (3m ago) · changes over months · Source: U.S. Data Center Power Map by State — ElectricChoice.com compilation (updated July 2026; CC-BY 4.0). Underlying load research: LBNL 2024 US Data Center Energy Usage Report; rates: EIA
Facility counts vary by directory because each one draws the boundary differently — DataCenterMap lists 44 in Alabama where this table says 35, since it counts small network rooms alongside hyperscale campuses. Cite the TWh figure rather than the facility count when you can; it is the number that speaks to grid impact. Underlying load research is LBNL-2001637 (Dec 2024).
1Proposed data centers in Nebraska (5)
3 still live · 2 decided or withdrawn. Each name links to the full dossier — ownership, intelligence log, and where to read the paper trail.
| Project | Where | Size | Behind it | Stage | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kearney Data Center | Kearney | 368 MW | Worldwide Mission Critical | Awaiting decision | Source read 2026-08-19 |
| Google Lincoln | Lincoln | 141 MW | In review | Source read 2026-08-14 | |
| Google Omaha | Omaha | 237 MW | In review | Source read 2026-08-14 | |
| Google Papillion | Papillion | 237 MW | Under construction | Source read 2026-08-14 | |
| Meta Sarpy | Springfield (Sarpy County) | 80 MW | Meta | Under construction | Source read 2026-08-14 |
2Pushback already happening in Nebraska
| Where | Level | Status | Note | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seward County | Local | Enactedexpires 2027-06-30 | 12-month pause on all data center construction, permits and special-use conditions, unanimous with two commissioners absent. Ends early if the planning board and commissioners adopt regulations first. Board chair Misty Ahmic cited water and electrical infrastructure, noise, roads and decommissioning. One of at least ten Nebraska counties with a pause in place | SourceNews read 2026-08-23 |
| Gage County | County | Enactedexpires 2027-04-05 | Board of Supervisors approved 8-month moratorium on data center permits; P&Z Commission had recommended 18 months on Jun 16. Public hearing Sep 3 on extending to 18 months; board said decision within two weeks | SourceNews read 2026-09-11 |
| Lancaster County | County | Withdrawnterm not documented | County halted moratorium plans Sep 10 after Bold Nebraska filed zoning code text amendment application. Board formed data center and industrial zoning task forces instead. Commissioner Flowerday noted an effective moratorium already exists since very little land is zoned industrial | SourceNews read 2026-09-11 |
| Otoe County | County | Enactedexpires 2027-05-20 | One-year moratorium on data center permits; first Nebraska county to pass a moratorium. Board Chairman Jerad Sornson appointed review committee to update comprehensive development plan | SourceNews read 2026-09-11 |
| Butler County | County | Enactedfixed term, end date not recorded | Six-month moratorium on data centers; applies only to six townships under county zoning control (Hanover, Lemon, Madison, Milford, Oxford, Ross) | SourceNews read 2026-09-11 |
| Box Butte County | County | Enactedterm not documented | Data center moratorium; one of the first wave of NE county moratoriums (enacted before Jul 16 2026) | SourceRoundup read 2026-09-11 |
| Custer County | County | Enactedterm not documented | Data center moratorium; one of the first wave of NE county moratoriums (enacted before Jul 16 2026) | SourceRoundup read 2026-09-11 |
| Dundy County | County | Enactedterm not documented | Data center moratorium; one of the first wave of NE county moratoriums (enacted before Jul 16 2026) | SourceRoundup read 2026-09-11 |
| Furnas County | County | Enactedterm not documented | Data center moratorium; one of the first wave of NE county moratoriums (enacted before Jul 16 2026) | SourceRoundup read 2026-09-11 |
| Hayes County | County | Enactedterm not documented | Data center moratorium; one of the first wave of NE county moratoriums (enacted before Jul 16 2026) | SourceRoundup read 2026-09-11 |
| Harlan County | County | Enactedterm not documented | Data center moratorium; one of the first wave of NE county moratoriums (enacted before Jul 16 2026) | SourceRoundup read 2026-09-11 |
| Johnson County | County | Enactedterm not documented | Data center moratorium; one of the first wave of NE county moratoriums (enacted before Jul 16 2026) | SourceRoundup read 2026-09-11 |
| Kearney County | County | Enactedterm not documented | Data center moratorium on unincorporated land; one of the first wave of NE county moratoriums (enacted before Jul 16 2026). City of Kearney (Buffalo County) took opposite approach, allowing DCs with restrictions | SourceRoundup read 2026-09-11 |
| Logan County | County | Enactedexpires 2027-07-15 | 12-month moratorium on data centers, wind/solar energy systems, and cryptocurrency mining; 12th NE county moratorium. County redoing comprehensive plan and zoning regulations | SourceRoundup read 2026-09-11 |
| Cass County | County | Enactedexpires 2027-08-11 | 12-month moratorium on data center permits, 5-0 vote. Proposed regulations postponed to Sep 22 | SourceNews read 2026-09-11 |
| Cherry County | County | Enactedexpires 2027-01-14 | Six-month moratorium on all conditional use permits (not data-center-specific but intended to slow data center development) | SourceNews read 2026-09-11 |
| Nehawka | Town | Enactedno end date — permanent | Indefinite ban on data centers, crypto mining, blockchain computing, and power plants to run them; first municipality in Nebraska to pass an outright ban. Cited as blueprint by residents of Union, Murray, and Plattsmouth | SourceNews read 2026-09-11 |
| Garfield County | County | Proposedterm not documented | Planning commission voted in favor of moratorium; awaiting county board final vote | SourceNews read 2026-09-11 |
| Hall County | County | Proposedterm not documented | Board of Commissioners debated 180-day moratorium on data center rezoning and construction permits; vote outcome not confirmed | SourceNews read 2026-09-11 |
As of August 2026 (2m ago) · changes weekly — re-check before citing
Illustrative rather than exhaustive — dozens of localities churn weekly, and this tracks the ones we have read a source for. **Each row carries its own provenance.** Rows showing a verification date link to the ordinance, the enacting body's own page, or a datable report of the vote, and were read on that date. Rows marked *unverified* came from bulk compilation and have not been checked against a primary source — the locality, the year, and the status may all be off. Verify one of those with the town clerk before citing it as precedent. **Expiry is derived, not asserted.** A row with a documented end date flips to *Expired* on its own once that date passes. A time-limited moratorium whose start date was never documented keeps showing as enacted — that is a known gap, not a claim that it is still in force. Moratoriums are also routinely extended, so an expiry date is the earliest it could have ended, not proof that it did.
3Known data center campuses in Nebraska
| Operator | Location | Tenant | Filing LLC |
|---|---|---|---|
| Papillion | Land-acquisition shells: Jet Stream LLC, Sharka LLC | ||
| Omaha | Land-acquisition shells: Jet Stream LLC, Sharka LLC | ||
| Meta | Sarpy County | Meta | Codename shells: Greater Kudu, Raven Northbrook, Stadion, Wobniar, Pinnacle Mountain |
⏳ No verification date recorded · changes over months · Source: Operator ownership & filing-LLC naming patterns — compiled from operator releases and county filings, then checked against SEC EDGAR full-text search. Composite, not a single citation: look the entity up yourself before naming it in a filing
Each row carries its own attribution level — first-party rows come from the operator's own site, but colocation and REIT ownership was compiled from trade press and never passed an independent fact-check. Check the attribution column before citing a row.
4Every data center already built in Nebraska
The campuses above are the ones GridWatch tracks by operator and filing LLC. For the full inventory — street addresses of every existing facility, including the smaller colocation and network sites — DataCenterMap keeps a public directory for Nebraska.
Browse the Nebraska directory →
Two caveats before you cite it at a hearing: it lists facilities that already exist, so a newly proposed campus will not appear; and it counts a small network room the same as a hyperscale campus, so the facility count is not a measure of power draw or community impact.
5Your regulator
Nebraska Power Review Board — website · file a complaint
Official state energy data: EIA Nebraska electricity profile — generation, prices, and consumption from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
6Where the Nebraska paper trail lives
Air & environmental permits: Nebraska Dept. of Environment & Energy
No searchable register. Nebraska does not publish a permit database you can query. A public-records request to the agency is the only route to the file.
Grid interconnection queue: Southwest Power Pool (Plains)
A routing hint only — several states are split between markets, and the serving utility is the only authority on which queue a given site is in.
These are places to look, not evidence that anything has been filed. Links were checked on 2026-08-21; search links are queries, not records.
7Your federal delegation and governor
Grades cross party — this is an issue axis, not a partisan one. A blank grade means no documented action was located, never that the official is neutral.
| Grade | Official | Documented action (sourced) | Reach them |
|---|---|---|---|
| — | Jim Pillen Republican · Governor | No documented action on data centers located | site · contact |
| — | Deb Fischer Republican · Senator · next on the ballot 2030 | No documented action on data centers located | site · contact |
| — | Pete Ricketts Republican · Senator · on the 2026 ballot | No documented action on data centers located Mixed Says data-center decisions should be governed by local control and that communities should negotiate protections for power rates, water, and tax payments before approving projects. sources | site · contact |
| — | Mike Flood Republican · Representative 1 | No documented action on data centers located | site · contact |
| — | Don Bacon Republican · Representative 2 | No documented action on data centers located | site · contact |
| — | Adrian Smith Republican · Representative 3 | No documented action on data centers located | site · contact |
Roster: regenerated by scripts/refresh_officials.py (Senate XML + congress-legislators + current governors).
Write to your senators → Your senators in detail → Full officials scorecard → Find your state legislators →
82026 U.S. Senate race
PVI R+10 · Seat held by Pete Ricketts (Republican) · Incumbent renominated
Dan Osborn (Independent) Guardrails
Argues Nebraska should be investing in hospitals rather than data centers.
- Called for shifting investment away from data centers and toward hospitals. (2026 — source)
Record read 2026-08-25.
Pete Ricketts (Republican) · incumbent No record found
No documented statement or action on data centers located. Not scored — see how this page treats silence.
Tech & utility PAC money: $25,500 from 5 committees (FEC, cycle 2026, pulled 2026-08-26) — FEC record
Mike Marvin (Legal Marijuana Now) No record found
No documented statement or action on data centers located. Not scored — see how this page treats silence.
Ballot roster: state candidate list (read 2026-08-25).
92026 U.S. House races in Nebraska (3)
A documented data-center record exists in 2 of 3 districts. A candidate with no badge colour has said nothing we could locate — that is a gap in the record, not a neutral position. ★ marks an incumbent.
| District | PVI | Incumbent | Candidates |
|---|---|---|---|
| NE-1 | R+6 | Mike Flood | Chris Backemeyer Mike Flood ★ Nik Sandman |
| NE-2 | D+3 | Don Bacon | Brinker Harding Denise Powell Eric Foreman |
| NE-3 | R+27 | Adrian Smith | Adrian Smith ★ Becky Stille David Else Macey Budke Mark Cohen |
The documented records (2 districts)
NE-1
Chris Backemeyer (Democratic) Accelerate
Supports domestic data center construction framed as national security priority
- Expressed alarm at Saudi Arabia and UAE offering to host US data centers: 'That scares the bejesus out of me'; supports building data centers domestically (2026-08-26 — source)
Record read 2026-09-11.
Mike Flood (Republican) · incumbent Accelerate
Pro-data center at Nebraska energy summit; frames AI as requiring legal accountability but supports infrastructure
- At Nebraska energy summit, advocated for data centers as needed infrastructure; framed AI as requiring legal accountability — companies cannot escape discrimination laws by claiming 'that was in our large language model' (2026-08-12 — source)
- Voted yes on H.R. 9340, the Ratepayer Protection Act, which passed 417-3 (roll call 312). It directs state utility commissions to consider rate designs making data centers with 100 MW or more of peak demand at one site pay the full incremental cost of the generation and grid upgrades they require. A near-unanimous vote: shown on the record, not scored on its own. (2026-09-16 — source)
Record read 2026-09-11.
NE-3
Adrian Smith (Republican) · incumbent Accelerate
Pro-AI efficiency; advocates for data centers despite county moratorium wave
- At Nebraska energy summit: 'The efficiencies that can be achieved already with AI, it's amazing' and 'We should celebrate how much better lives can be with more economic efficiency'; advocated for data centers despite county moratorium wave (2026-08-12 — source)
- Voted yes on H.R. 9340, the Ratepayer Protection Act, which passed 417-3 (roll call 312). It directs state utility commissions to consider rate designs making data centers with 100 MW or more of peak demand at one site pay the full incremental cost of the generation and grid upgrades they require. A near-unanimous vote: shown on the record, not scored on its own. (2026-09-16 — source)
Record read 2026-09-11.
10Latest Nebraska data center news
A data center was proposed near you?
The free toolkit walks you through it in five steps: who's really behind the LLC, what it costs your community, what to do this week, and a downloadable action pack — speech, letters, flyer, and CBA targets included.
State municipal league: League of Nebraska Municipalities