Morrow County

Moratoriums and bans

1. Aug. 27, 2024 Morrow County: Zoning change (proposed). The planning commission voted unanimously to recommend requiring a conditional use permit for data centers where they had been allowed outright; the county planner's April 2026 slides list conditional-use review as not adopted by the county. (Morrow County Planning Commission, Aug. 27, 2024; Morrow County Planning Department (to the Governor's Data Center Advisory Committee), April 24, 2026)

Updates, newest first

1. Oct. 13, 2026 Amazon (AWS) campuses in Morrow County · Oregon Rural Action said the governor's permit pause could affect a proposed Amazon hyperscale facility in Boardman whose air permit was under review. (Oregon Capital Chronicle (via Washington State Standard), Oct. 13, 2026)
2. Sept. 10, 2026 Amazon (AWS) campuses in Morrow County · OPB reported more than 50 data centers online in Morrow and Umatilla counties and a DEQ comment period on an air permit for another AWS project in the Boardman area. (OPB, Sept. 10, 2026)
3. July 22, 2026 Amazon (AWS) campuses in Morrow County · OPB reported 14 hyperscale data centers, all Amazon's, in the Lower Umatilla Basin, and estimated that their diesel generators in a large blackout would emit about twice the pollution of all Oregon road traffic over the same period; Amazon called such a blackout unlikely. (OPB (First Look newsletter), July 22, 2026)
4. April 24, 2026 Amazon 1,300-acre site, Boardman (exascale overlay) · Morrow County's planning director told the governor's advisory committee the county has 10 approved data center campuses, one application under review, a 1,300-acre data center overlay and a separate 300-acre overlay. (Morrow County Planning Department (to the Governor's Data Center Advisory Committee), April 24, 2026)
5. March 31, 2026 Amazon data center campus, Boardman Airport (tax lot 136) · The planning commission approved the continued application 5-2 with amended findings, according to draft minutes; a business journal reported conditions on stormwater, wastewater and runway lighting. (Morrow County Planning Commission, March 31, 2026; Morrow County Planning Commission, April 28, 2026; Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business, April 14, 2026)
6. March 31, 2026 Amazon (AWS) campuses in Morrow County · The plaintiffs' lawyers announced that Amazon agreed to a $20.5 million settlement with the residents suing in Pearson v. Port of Morrow over nitrate-contaminated groundwater, with no admission of guilt; the residents are still suing other defendants. (Oregon Capital Chronicle (via OPB), March 31, 2026)
7. March 30, 2026 Amazon 1,300-acre site, Boardman (exascale overlay) · GeekWire, citing The Oregonian, reported Amazon bought 1,300 acres near Boardman where a Johnson Economics land-use proposal filed with the county described 16 to 20 buildings of about 250,000 square feet each and up to 1 GW; Amazon said its plans were not final. (GeekWire, March 30, 2026; DatacenterDynamics, March 31, 2026)
8. Feb. 24, 2026 Amazon data center campus, Boardman Airport (tax lot 136) · The planning commission heard Amazon's application; neighbors and Oregon Rural Action raised bird-strike, nitrate, air and water concerns, and one commissioner said he would vote against these data centers if he could. The record was held open. (Morrow County Planning Commission, Feb. 24, 2026)
9. May 30, 2025 Amazon (AWS) campuses in Morrow County · Local officials said Amazon has five data centers in Morrow County, three still tax-exempt, and pays more than $19 million a year in county property taxes. (East Oregonian (via Hermiston Herald), May 30, 2025)
10. March 27, 2025 Amazon (AWS) campuses in Morrow County · DEQ took comment on swapping a diesel backup generator at PDX109, 75242 Gar Swanson Rd., Boardman, with no increase in emission limits. (East Oregonian, March 27, 2025)
11. Aug. 27, 2024 Amazon data center campus, Boardman Airport (tax lot 138) · The planning commission approved land use decision LUD-N-68-24 4-3, with a condition that Amazon show two DEQ permits for its water demand; the same night it voted to recommend making data centers a conditional use. (Morrow County Planning Commission, Aug. 27, 2024)
12. Aug. 27, 2024 Morrow County: Zoning change (proposed) · The planning commission voted unanimously to recommend requiring a conditional use permit for data centers where they had been allowed outright; the county planner's April 2026 slides list conditional-use review as not adopted by the county. (Morrow County Planning Commission, Aug. 27, 2024; Morrow County Planning Department (to the Governor's Data Center Advisory Committee), April 24, 2026)

Statewide

HB 3546 (2025), the POWER Act (2025 Or. Laws ch. 323), tells the Public Utility Commission to put data centers that use or can use 20 MW or more into their own customer class at the investor-owned utilities, to assign them the cost of serving them, to require service contracts that protect other customers, and to report to the Legislature every even-numbered year; it took effect on passage and sunsets Jan. 2, 2035. The House passed it 41-16 on April 22, 2025. (Oregon State Legislature (OLIS), 2025; KATU, April 22, 2025; Oregon Public Utility Commission, Sept. 1, 2026) PUC docket UM 2377 (Portland General Electric): in Order No. 26-154, entered May 7, 2026, the commission created Schedule 96 for data centers and other large loads, set contract terms that charge a customer for grid investments it does not end up using, required enough clean power to be available before service starts, and added a 1-cent-per-kWh surcharge for Schedule 96 customers with 100 MW or more of allocated capacity to fund residential and low-income programs. The commission approved PGE's compliance rates at its July 7, 2026 public meeting (memorialized in Order No. 26-239, entered July 10), with new rates from July 8: data center rates rose an average 29% while residential rates fell 1.3%, commercial 2.1% and other industrial 1.4%. (Oregon Public Utility Commission, May 7, 2026; Oregon Public Utility Commission, July 10, 2026; Oregon Public Utility Commission, May 2026; Oregon Public Utility Commission (FlashAlert), June 9, 2026; Oregon Public Utility Commission, July 7, 2026; Oregon Public Utility Commission, Sept. 1, 2026) Pacific Power (PacifiCorp): the PUC approved a large-load tariff in the utility's 2024 general rate case (docket UE 433); a data-center-specific tariff proposed to implement the POWER Act (docket UE 463, Advice No. 25-015, Schedule 401) was pending, with a decision expected in late 2026. The PUC says Idaho Power is covered by the act but serves no qualifying data center in Oregon, that no other utility is covered, and that it has little visibility into data center load outside investor-owned utility territories. (Oregon Public Utility Commission, May 2026; Oregon Public Utility Commission, Sept. 1, 2026) The PUC's 2026 report estimates data centers at about 15% of investor-owned utility load in Oregon, rising to about 25% by 2030, with data center load growing about 36% a year since 2021; citing regional power planners, it expects consumer-owned utilities and the Bonneville Power Administration to host most of the region's data center load growth through 2030. (Oregon Public Utility Commission, Sept. 1, 2026) Property tax breaks: data centers have used standard enterprise zones (in Hillsboro, a 100% local property tax abatement for three to five years on new investment, with a community service fee and school support fee), long-term rural enterprise zones (up to 15 years, used by Amazon in Umatilla County with payments in lieu of taxes), and the Strategic Investment Program (for Google's newest The Dalles buildings, taxable value limited to $100 million for 15 years, plus a community service fee of 25% of the savings capped at $2.5 million a year). Citing The Oregonian, the Oregon Capital Chronicle reported data center companies got two-thirds of $68 million in standard enterprise zone breaks, and OPB put their benefits at more than $45 million last year and $85 million this year (March 2026); the figures cover different periods and are forgone taxes, not payments. (City of Hillsboro, May 2026; East Oregonian, Nov. 14, 2020; East Oregonian (via Hermiston Herald), May 30, 2025; Columbia Community Connection, March 6, 2026; Oregon Capital Chronicle, March 2, 2026; OPB (via KLCC), March 2, 2026) HB 4084 (2026), Gov. Tina Kotek's economic development bill (2026 Or. Laws ch. 50), bars new data centers from enterprise zone property tax exemptions until 90 days after the 2027 session adjourns; projects already approved keep their breaks and the Strategic Investment Program is not affected. Sources give its start as June 5 or June 6, 2026. Hillsboro received 17 data center enterprise zone applications before the cutoff, which are now challenged in court. (Oregon State Legislature (OLIS), 2026; Oregon Capital Chronicle, March 2, 2026; Davis Wright Tremaine (law firm blog), June 12, 2026; City of Hillsboro, May 8, 2026; OPB, June 23, 2026) SB 1586 (2026), which would have added 373 rural acres just south of U.S. 26 to Hillsboro's urban growth boundary and allowed data centers as an accessory use, was not advanced by its sponsor, Sen. Janeen Sollman, after opposition; OLIS shows it left in the Senate Finance and Revenue Committee. State land-use staff say Hillsboro cannot expand onto the rural reserves designated in 2014. (Oregon State Legislature (OLIS), 2026; OPB, March 4, 2026; Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development, June 11, 2026) Executive actions: Kotek convened a Data Center Advisory Committee in January 2026; on July 30, 2026 she had the state cancel a land sale to Verrus in Salem; on Sept. 8 she ordered agencies to pause all work on requests involving state land for data centers until July 1, 2027 unless statewide action directs otherwise, and called on the 2027 Legislature to pass a statewide moratorium; and in an Oct. 9 letter she asked the Department of Environmental Quality to stop handling and granting air and water permits for data centers being built or expanded until July 1, 2027. (Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development, June 11, 2026; KATU, July 31, 2026; Willamette Week, Sept. 8, 2026; OPB, Sept. 10, 2026; KPTV (FOX 12), Oct. 13, 2026; Oregon Capital Chronicle (via Washington State Standard), Oct. 13, 2026) For the 2027 session, Sens. Jeff Golden and Courtney Neron Misslin and Reps. Lesly Muñoz and Farrah Chaichi proposed a three-year moratorium on new large data centers; no bill number or size threshold was given in the source reviewed. (Oregon Capital Chronicle (via Washington State Standard), Aug. 4, 2026) Land and water: state land-use staff counted 123 data center buildings in Oregon in 2025 (44% in the Umatilla Basin, counting Google's The Dalles sites, 40% in Hillsboro/Washington County and 12% in Central Oregon) and estimated about 9,100 acres of future data center land demand outside Hillsboro. No statewide water rule specific to data centers was found; Hillsboro reports its data centers used about 111 million gallons in 2025 (about 1.76% of city demand). (Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development, June 11, 2026; City of Hillsboro, May 2026) Oregon data centers →