{"id":340265,"date":"2026-07-14T23:38:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T23:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/340265\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T23:38:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T23:38:11","slug":"no-moratorium-in-jacksonville-but-donna-deegan-is-a-data-center-skeptic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/340265\/","title":{"rendered":"No moratorium in Jacksonville, but Donna Deegan is a data center skeptic"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jacksonville<\/a> is not currently considering a moratorium on data centers<\/a> like other cities and counties in the state have imposed this year, but the city\u2019s Mayor is nonetheless skeptical of the facilities.<\/p>\n

Speaking during a radio interview<\/a> Tuesday with WJCT<\/a>, Mayor Donna Deegan<\/a> said she needed to be convinced data centers would not be a \u201cdrag on the electric grid\u201d and that they wouldn\u2019t \u201cconsume natural resources like water that we just can\u2019t afford to lose.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUntil the community and the folks in Jacksonville can be convinced that this was a good thing, I just don\u2019t think it\u2019s a place we\u2019d want to go. I think it\u2019s always important to remain open-minded (regarding) new technology, but right now, I don\u2019t think that is a place that we can stand and say, this is something that is good for our community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Local governments are moving in that direction<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Some jurisdictions, such as Wakulla and Walton counties, have permanently banned data centers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In Northeast Florida, Clay and Nassau counties have imposed one-year moratoriums, along with Citrus, Hernando and Lake counties. Pasco County commissioners are set to take a final vote on a moratorium of their own Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Still other counties are considering bans on new facilities.<\/p>\n

Data centers are known to drain resources, including potable water and electricity, while creating noise pollution and other adverse environmental impacts. And it isn\u2019t just a local issue. Tallahassee has also offered guidance.<\/p>\n

SB 484<\/a> cleared this year, giving local governments the power to plan and pass land development regulations on data centers. Under the measure, data centers must cover their own utility services costs and infrastructure expenses instead of passing them on to Florida consumers.<\/p>\n

The centers may be required to use some reclaimed water instead of surface or ground water \u201cif reclaimed water is environmentally, economically, and technically feasible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Commerce Secretary Alex Kelly argued during the bill signing that while the companies \u201ccome to towns, cities, counties with a big shiny economic development object \u2026 there\u2019s a lot of catches.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 2026 election cycle has been marked by robust debate about the future of data centers.<\/p>\n

Backed in part by the AI industry<\/a> itself, Republican gubernatorial front-runner Byron Donalds<\/a> has argued the technology is improving to where it will be less of a drag on electrical and water resources. He is skeptical about moratoriums and has suggested domestic opposition is animated by Chinese propaganda<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Opponents have attacked Donalds on his position, with some candidates, such as James Fishback and Paul Renner, advocating for statewide bans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jacksonville is not currently considering a moratorium on data centers like other cities and counties in the state…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":340266,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[66845,445,139820,5890,139821,116,118,117],"class_list":["post-340265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-ai-data-centers","tag-byron-donalds","tag-data-center-moratorium","tag-donna-deegan","tag-florida-secretary-of-commerce-j-alex-kelly","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=340265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340265\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/340266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}