Ohio Dems Abroad Can Act and Urge Friends at Home, Too!

A range of Ohio groups are helping pass the petition to get a ban on large data centers on the November  ballot. Below find information on calling/emailing state legislators THIS WEEK from Save Ohio Parks (anti-fracking under parks, and more). If you need more information, read on. 

Urgent Call from ‘Save Ohio Parks’

Ohio Senate Energy Committee will meet three times this Tuesday and Wednesday (June 9-10) to consider and likely vote on major data center legislation.

Please call your Ohio state senator and house representative.  Find your Ohio legislators and their phone numbers here.

Data centers are now driving an enormous increase in fracking our state parks and public lands for gas to provide them with power. This is thanks to last year’s House Bill 15, which allows data centers to get fast-track approval for their own gas plants with no community notification, no public hearing, and no consultation with local officials.

Save Ohio Parks report, Data Centers that Work for Ohioans, including these recommendations:

• Place a moratorium on data center approvals until regulations on energy, water use, and community benefits can be established.
• Prohibit the use of non-disclosure agreements.
• Require local consultation in siting decisions for both data centers and power plants that provide their energy.
• Require data centers to meet or offset their energy demand with 100% solar, wind, and battery storage, through utility-scale, community energy, or residential energy projects.
• Require data centers to implement best practices for energy efficiency and workload flexibility.
• Pass laws enabling community energy and offsite generation through virtual net metering.
• Ensure parity in Ohio law among all sources of energy, with the same provisions for state control and local input regardless of generation type.
• Make the suspension of sales tax exemptions for data centers permanent.

The Ohio House has already passed House Bill 646, which sets up a data center study commission. The Select Committee on Data Centers usurped that role. Now the Senate Energy Committee is poised to introduce a Substitute HB 646 with completely new provisions about data centers. Anything new will have to go to the Senate floor and back to the House before getting to Gov. DeWine.

Opponents Gave Ohio Lawmakers an Earful
By: Nick Evans – Ohio Capital Journal - June 3, 2026 
More than a hundred Ohioans submitted testimony ahead of state lawmakers’ Select Committee on Data Centers’ single hearing for public comment. Lawmakers heard an array of concerns about the proliferation of data centers around the state — the environmental impact, the cost of tax breaks, and the use of nondisclosure agreements to avoid public scrutiny.
https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2026/06/03/data-center-opponents-give-ohio-lawmakers-an-earful/

Microsoft rejects NDAs, tax abatements in Ohio data center expansion 
By Maria DeVito  -  Columbus Dispatch – June 4, 2026

• Microsoft pledged to stop using non-disclosure agreements and seeking tax abatements for its Ohio data centers.
• Other tech giants like Meta, Google, and Amazon did not make similar promises during testimony at the Ohio Statehouse.

Background: Petitions to Ban Large Data Centers
By Haley BeMiller  - Cincinnati Enquirer – March 17, 2026
This one covers the early stages of the opposition. Signatures are still being gathered to get this issue on the November ballot. Find out more here.

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