More than 20 state-based free-market think tanks are now helping lawmakers craft data-center policies that avoid both outright bans and taxpayer subsidies, according to a new report from the State Policy Network. The affiliates are coalescing around a framework summarized by Beacon Center President and CEO Justin Owen: "Don't ban data centers. Don't subsidize them, either." The approach seeks to accommodate the facilities and the electrical infrastructure they demand without forcing existing ratepayers or taxpayers to shoulder the costs of expansion.
The policy recommendations span electricity supply, financing mechanisms, and local land-use rules. The John Locke Foundation in North Carolina developed a "build, bring or buy" model that would permit data centers to construct their own generation, connect an existing power source to the site, or purchase electricity through voluntary agreements outside the traditional utility framework. The Goldwater Institute in Arizona has called for real-time electricity pricing that reflects actual grid conditions, giving large users an incentive to reduce consumption during periods of peak demand or scarcity. The Beacon Center examined ways Tennessee could accelerate power production through streamlined permitting, small modular nuclear reactors, and dedicated systems serving individual customers. Each proposal responds to the same tension: a data center can be planned and constructed in two or three years, but the power plants and transmission lines needed to serve it often take much longer.
Several affiliates have opposed targeted tax breaks and infrastructure subsidies, arguing that utilities' existing customers shouldn't pay for generation built to serve a single industry. In Georgia, the state Public Service Commission approved new electricity generation in late 2025 while requiring data centers to bear related infrastructure costs through minimum bills and longer contracts. The Georgia Public Policy Foundation then pushed for House Bill 1063, which would have mandated contracts preventing cost-shifting onto other customers; the measure passed the House on February 17, 2026, but stalled in the Senate before adjournment. The Commonwealth Foundation articulated a parallel standard for Pennsylvania: "No roadblocks, no special favors." The South Carolina Policy Council proposed long-term power-purchase agreements that would require data centers to finance the generation constructed for their use.
The report identifies two concrete wins and several ongoing efforts. Maine Policy supported Gov. Janet Mills's veto of a temporary statewide moratorium on large data-center development, and lawmakers declined to override it. The Frontier Institute developed and helped pass Montana's Right to Compute Act in 2025, the nation's first law protecting the ability to own and use computational resources. The Beacon Center's legal challenge to a Hawkins County, Tennessee, ban on data centers in all zoning districts remains in court, and North Carolina's John Locke Foundation continues advocating for consumer-regulated electricity legislation that would let data centers secure their own power. The report concludes that states can expand energy supply without socializing costs, protect communities without prohibiting an industry, and attract investment without offering special treatment—an alternative the affiliates describe as the practical application of "no roadblocks, no special favors."