Ohio proposal to ban large data centers advances toward November ballot
BY JEFF SKINNER
STATEWIDE - A grassroots effort to ban construction of large data centers in Ohio cleared a significant hurdle Thursday when Attorney General Dave Yost certified a petition for a proposed constitutional amendment, moving the measure closer to a potential vote this fall.
The amendment would prohibit new data centers that use more than 25 megawatts of electricity a month — a threshold that would block most modern facilities, particularly those powering artificial intelligence operations. It was filed by five residents from southwest Ohio counties who formed the group Ohio Residents for Responsible Development.
Yost’s certification allows the proposal, titled “Prohibition of Construction of a Data Center,” to advance to the Ohio Ballot Board. The board must determine whether it qualifies as a single issue before organizers can begin collecting signatures. They need 413,487 valid signatures from at least 44 of Ohio’s 88 counties by July 1 to qualify for the November ballot. Organizers expect to submit far more — as many as 700,000 — to account for invalidations.
“It’s on like Donkey Kong,” Austin Baurichter, a Georgetown attorney in Brown County who co-wrote the petition and is one of the filers, said in an interview. “We’re stoked and ready to roll it out.”
Baurichter said the group has been mapping supporters across rural Ohio and plans to appoint county captains. He emphasized that frustration extends beyond a single county or region.
“Ohioans need to have their voice heard in this,” Baurichter said. “It certainly feels like we very quickly got to the eleventh hour.”
Rural residents have increasingly opposed data centers, citing heavy demands on electricity and water supplies, noise from cooling systems and relatively few permanent local jobs. At least 15 Ohio communities have enacted moratoriums on new projects. A federal announcement earlier this month highlighted the boom: a planned 10-gigawatt data center and natural gas plant on former U.S. Department of Energy land in Piketon in southern Ohio. Industry representatives pushed back sharply.
“When communities decide to go forward with a moratorium, it effectively sends a very clear message that that is not going to be a predictable place for data center development,” said Dan Diorio of the Data Center Coalition. “It would be important that the state not close off everywhere to that development opportunity.”
Diorio warned that the amendment would put Ohio at “a very competitive disadvantage” as demand for data centers surges nationwide to support AI and cloud computing. The proposal comes as state lawmakers have preserved tax incentives for data centers amid lobbying from big tech companies and unions. Supporters of the industry argue the facilities bring economic development to areas eager for investment, while opponents say the costs to local infrastructure and quality of life outweigh the benefits.
The Ballot Board has not yet scheduled a meeting on the proposal. If it reaches voters and passes, the amendment would take effect immediately upon certification of the election results, halting future large-scale data center construction across the state.
