Iron County

Moratoriums and bans

1. May 26, 2026 Iron County: Moratorium. The county commission unanimously adopted Ordinance 2026-13, a 180-day halt on accepting or processing applications for data centers, data center power plants and solar power plants, effective May 26; applications already deemed complete (Antelope) were exempt and the incomplete Red Butte application was put on hold. The planning commission recommended a Strategic Development Zone overlay to replace the county's data center chapter on Oct. 8, covering data centers of 50 MW or more of IT load, with a water-use threshold of about 50,000 gallons a day (56 acre-feet a year) above which extra groundwater study is required; the county commission took comments Oct. 12 without acting. The moratorium is set to expire Nov. 22, 2026. The ordinance PDF on the county site carries an unsigned 'passed and adopted' date of June 8, 2026; the county's Aug. 2026 notice and all reporting give the effective date as May 26, 2026. In August the commission considered an amendment exempting battery storage projects that already held permits. Iron County's data center page has not been updated since early June 2026. (Iron County, June 8, 2026; Iron County Commission (Utah Public Notice Website), Aug. 2026; The Salt Lake Tribune, May 26, 2026; Iron County Planning, June 2026; St. George News, Aug. 30, 2026; KUER 90.1, Oct. 9, 2026; Iron County Planning Commission (Utah Public Notice Website), Oct. 8, 2026; St. George News / Cedar City News, Oct. 11, 2026; St. George News / Cedar City News, Oct. 12, 2026)

Updates, newest first

1. Aug. 30, 2026 Red Butte Energy and Data Center Campus · County officials said BrightNight still wants to build its approved solar component but may not pursue the data center at the site. (St. George News, Aug. 30, 2026)
2. July 7, 2026 Antelope Data Campus (Project Antelope) · New Project Media reported that residents west of the site had appealed the CUP and that a hearing officer would set the schedule. (New Project Media, July 7, 2026)
3. June 4, 2026 Antelope Data Campus (Project Antelope) · The Iron County Planning Commission unanimously approved the CUP with 62 conditions for up to five buildings, phased over 8 to 10 years. (St. George News / Cedar City News, June 5, 2026; The Salt Lake Tribune (republished by Iron County Today), June 8, 2026; Pronghorn Development LLC (news release via Utah Policy), June 10, 2026)
4. June 3, 2026 Antelope Data Campus (Project Antelope) · KUTV previewed the planning commission vote; proposed conditions included a dedicated gas plant and noise mitigation, and the project projected 670 direct jobs. (KUTV, June 3, 2026)
5. May 26, 2026 Antelope Data Campus (Project Antelope) · The Tribune reported the Antelope application was complete, so the county's new data center moratorium would not pause it. (The Salt Lake Tribune, May 26, 2026)
6. May 26, 2026 Red Butte Energy and Data Center Campus · The county's 180-day moratorium put the incomplete Red Butte application on hold. (The Salt Lake Tribune, May 26, 2026; Iron County Planning, June 2026)
7. May 26, 2026 Iron County: Moratorium · The county commission unanimously adopted Ordinance 2026-13, a 180-day halt on accepting or processing applications for data centers, data center power plants and solar power plants, effective May 26; applications already deemed complete (Antelope) were exempt and the incomplete Red Butte application was put on hold. The planning commission recommended a Strategic Development Zone overlay to replace the county's data center chapter on Oct. 8, covering data centers of 50 MW or more of IT load, with a water-use threshold of about 50,000 gallons a day (56 acre-feet a year) above which extra groundwater study is required; the county commission took comments Oct. 12 without acting. The moratorium is set to expire Nov. 22, 2026. The ordinance PDF on the county site carries an unsigned 'passed and adopted' date of June 8, 2026; the county's Aug. 2026 notice and all reporting give the effective date as May 26, 2026. In August the commission considered an amendment exempting battery storage projects that already held permits. Iron County's data center page has not been updated since early June 2026. (Iron County, June 8, 2026; Iron County Commission (Utah Public Notice Website), Aug. 2026; The Salt Lake Tribune, May 26, 2026; Iron County Planning, June 2026; St. George News, Aug. 30, 2026; KUER 90.1, Oct. 9, 2026; Iron County Planning Commission (Utah Public Notice Website), Oct. 8, 2026; St. George News / Cedar City News, Oct. 11, 2026; St. George News / Cedar City News, Oct. 12, 2026)
8. May 22, 2026 Red Butte Energy and Data Center Campus · The county deemed the application incomplete. (Iron County Planning, June 2026)
9. May 13, 2026 Red Butte Energy and Data Center Campus · BrightNight described a roughly 2,600-acre campus with up to 10 buildings, about 500 permanent jobs and a phased 300 MW-to-1.5 GW build. (St. George News / Cedar City News, May 13, 2026)
10. May 4, 2026 Red Butte Energy and Data Center Campus · BrightNight submitted the Red Butte data center application to Iron County. (Iron County Planning, June 2026)

Statewide

Utah exempts purchases of machinery and equipment by qualifying data centers (new operations built since July 2016 with 150,000 sq ft or more) from sales and use tax under Utah Code 59-12-104(84); the qualifying data center definition in 59-12-102 was last amended by S.B. 114 (2020). (Utah Office of Legislative Research and General Counsel, Aug. 12, 2026) S.B. 132 (2025), Electric Utility Amendments, effective May 7, 2025, created Title 54, Chapter 26 for customers expecting 100 MW or more: utility large-load contracts that the PSC must approve or reject within 60 days, or private generation, with the large customer paying its incremental costs; it covers service starting by Dec. 31, 2034. (Utah Legislature, 2025; Public Service Commission of Utah, May 9, 2025) The PSC opened rulemaking docket 25-R318-01 in May 2025 to write rules for S.B. 132's large-load service requirements. (Public Service Commission of Utah, May 9, 2025) In docket 26-035-05 the PSC on April 10, 2026, approved a settlement and a Rocky Mountain Power large-load service contract with an unnamed customer of more than 100 MW, finding other customers would not bear its costs. (Public Service Commission of Utah (Rocky Mountain Power filing), Feb. 10, 2026; Public Service Commission of Utah, April 10, 2026) H.B. 76 (2026), Data Center Water Transparency Amendments, effective May 6, 2026, requires new data centers withdrawing 75 acre-feet a year or more to report expected and actual water withdrawals to the Division of Water Rights, which must publish the data. (Utah Legislature, 2026) H.B. 507 (2026), effective May 6, 2026, bars political subdivisions from giving incentives to large-load data centers (100 MW or more) from May 6, 2027, unless they sit in a regionally significant development zone, and creates an optional county energy excise tax. (Utah Legislature, 2026; Utah Office of Legislative Research and General Counsel, Aug. 12, 2026) Operation Gigawatt, launched by Gov. Cox in 2024, aims to double Utah's power generation capacity within a decade. (Utah Office of Legislative Research and General Counsel, Aug. 12, 2026) Executive Order 2026-03 (May 29, 2026) set a state Data Center Framework covering water, air, wildlife, ratepayers, rural growth and public comment, which agencies must apply. (Utah Office of Legislative Research and General Counsel, Aug. 12, 2026; Deseret News, May 29, 2026) H.B. 325 (2013) lets the MIDA board levy an energy tax of up to 6% of the delivered value of energy in MIDA project areas; Data Center Knowledge reported it would apply to the NSA Utah Data Center at Camp Williams. (Utah State Legislature, March 2013; Data Center Knowledge, May 20, 2013) Utah data centers →