Will Missouri enact a data center moratorium by June 30, 2027?

- [2026-06-27] Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe declined a legislative request for a special session on data centers; Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe's office said he looks forward to working with legislators on data center issues during their regular legislative session, which is next year . https://www.aol.com/news/kehoe-responds-request-special-session-224332255.html - [2026-06-23] More than a dozen members of the Missouri House of Representatives urged Governor Mike Kehoe to call a special session of the General Assembly to address data centers , spearheaded by Rep. Don Mayhew. https://fox4kc.com/news/coalition-of-state-representatives-urge-kehoe-to-call-special-session-over-data-centers/ - [2026-05/06] The 2026 regular session (ending mid-May 2026) produced no statewide data center legislation: Missouri lawmakers passed 100 bills during the 2026 session, but none of them was about data centers . https://www.kcur.org/housing-development-section/2026-07-01/missouri-data-center-rules-water-energy-legislature - [2026-05-20] Multiple bills were introduced but none advanced: environmental advocates noted legislators across chambers and parties introduced 6 pieces of legislation to regulate data centers in the state, varying in their enforceability, their thresholds for what would be considered a "hyperscale" data center, and the level of protection they offer . None imposed a full statewide moratorium. https://moenvironment.org/blog/missouri-2026-legislative-session-in-review/ - [2026-06-05] Reporting on the failed 2026 session noted comparisons to other states: Maine would have been the first to pass a statewide moratorium on data centers, but the governor vetoed the proposal; Georgia tried to implement a moratorium, but the bill stalled — Missouri's own effort likewise stalled. https://missouriindependent.com/2026/06/05/theyre-already-here-regulating-data-centers-stalls-in-missouri/ - [2026-08-11] House Future Caucus members said they would push new (non-moratorium) "guardrails" legislation in 2027, including a new utility rate class for data centers, while explicitly not backing a statewide moratorium or special session. https://spectrumlocalnews.com/mo/st-louis/news/2026/08/11/missouri-data-center-reform - [2026-09-16/17] Approximately 200 protesters rallied at the Missouri Capitol during the annual veto session demanding a statewide moratorium on the construction of hyper-scale data centers , then marched to deliver petitions to the Governor's Mansion. https://www.stlpr.org/government-politics-issues/2026-09-16/data-center-protesters-fill-missouri-capitol-seeking-a-statewide-construction-moratorium - [2026-09-16] A planned House Special Committee hearing on data centers, which had been announced for that same day, was cancelled . https://www.stlpr.org/government-politics-issues/2026-09-16/data-center-protesters-fill-missouri-capitol-seeking-a-statewide-construction-moratorium - [2026-09-17] As of the rally, it is unclear if lawmakers will address data centers when the 2027 session convenes in January; while some legislators have brought up the topic as something the state needs to discuss, others believe it should be up to local governments to decide . https://www.kbia.org/missouri-news/2026-09-17/data-center-protesters-fill-missouri-capitol-seeking-a-statewide-construction-moratorium - [2026-09-16/17] Gov. Kehoe's general stance remains supportive of the industry: the inaction by lawmakers comes as Gov. Mike Kehoe has repeatedly touted the benefits of building data centers in the state . https://www.stlpr.org/government-politics-issues/2026-09-16/data-center-protesters-fill-missouri-capitol-seeking-a-statewide-construction-moratorium - [2026] Only local/county-level moratoriums exist so far (St. Charles, Jackson County, Columbia, St. Charles County), none statewide; e.g., Jackson County put a 180-day pause on data center and battery energy storage system land-use applications to add new rules and regulations before allowing new projects . https://www.kctv5.com/2026/06/22/jackson-county-legislature-passes-180-day-moratorium-data-center-applications/ - [2026] No statewide ballot initiative petition for a data center moratorium was found certified or circulating for the 2026 cycle in Missouri Secretary of State records; the 2026 statewide ballot measures relate to abortion/gender procedures, redistricting/initiative-threshold rules, Jackson County assessor, and parks tax — not data centers. https://ballotpedia.org/Missouri_2026_ballot_measures - [2026] Missouri's 2027 regular legislative session convenes in January 2027 and would need to pass a moratorium bill and have it signed before the June 30, 2027 deadline for this market to resolve Yes. BOTTOM LINE: As of September 30, 2026, Missouri has enacted no statewide data center moratorium; the 2026 session produced no such bill, Gov. Kehoe rebuffed a special-session push and continues to favor the industry, and the only concrete action remains local/county moratoriums, with statewide action deferred to the 2027 regular session (convening January 2027) whose outcome is currently uncertain. NOT FOUND: No evidence of any statewide moratorium bill currently pre-filed for the January 2027 session with public text; no confirmed statewide ballot-initiative petition on data centers circulating for a future Missouri election; no indication Gov. Kehoe has changed his generally pro-data-center stance since June–September 2026.

- [2026-09-16] Missouri legislature adjourned its 2026 regular session (ended May 15, 2026) without passing any data-center bill; multiple regulatory and moratorium-adjacent bills (HB 3362, HB 3364, and others by Reps. Wellenkamp, Costlow, Murray, Byrnes) failed to reach a floor vote. The Missouri legislature has yet to act on data centers, with one bill on the topic only getting a House hearing last year. - [2026-09-16] A planned House Special Committee hearing on data centers was cancelled, and it is unclear if lawmakers will address data centers when the 2027 session convenes in January, with some legislators believing it should be up to local governments to decide. - [2026-08-11] Missouri's AI/data-center caucus chair said his energy-focused regulatory bill (not a moratorium) came too late in last year's session to get traction and would return again in 2027 , indicating the state's 2027 legislative push is centered on rate/cost regulation, not an outright construction ban. - [2026-09-17] A roughly 200-person rally at the Missouri Capitol demanded a statewide moratorium, but this is grassroots advocacy, not legislative action; Gov. Mike Kehoe has repeatedly touted the benefits of building data centers in the state , signaling gubernatorial resistance to a ban. - [2026-04] Nationally, only Maine's legislature has actually passed a full statewide moratorium bill (LD 307) through both chambers, and Maine was on the verge of becoming the first U.S. state to enact a statewide moratorium on large data centers, but Governor Janet Mills vetoed the bill in April 2026. - [2026-06-04] New York's legislature passed a one-year statewide permit moratorium (S10642/A11560), but as of late September 2026 it stalled or failed; New York became the first state with a statewide moratorium in force (via Executive Order 62), while the legislature's own one-year moratorium bill passed both chambers in June 2026 and still awaits the Governor's signature. An executive order would not qualify under this market's terms, which require statutory/constitutional enactment. - [2026-09-28] A national tracker counts the week of September 21-28, 2026 marked the sharpest escalation yet in statewide action on data centers , but this activity (California's package, Texas's executive freeze, Massachusetts's EO) is concentrated in executive orders and utility-regulation statutes, not outright construction bans, and none of it is in Missouri. - [2026-09] Cross-state base rate: As of April 2026, Maine is the only state to pass a statewide data center moratorium into law, banning facilities over 20 megawatts until November 2027. Since Maine's was vetoed, effectively zero U.S. states have a legislatively enacted (statute-based) statewide moratorium in force as of late September 2026, despite state-level moratorium bills having been introduced in 11 states in 2026 . - [2026-06] Missouri activity has concentrated at the local/county level rather than statewide: Jackson County, St. Charles County/City, and Peculiar, MO have all adopted local moratoriums, per communities like Groton, Connecticut, Peculiar, Missouri, and Bangor, Maine, have successfully enacted their own moratoriums or bans , while the statewide track record remains one of failure to advance. - [2026-09] National industry trackers (MultiState, Good Jobs First, Rockefeller Institute, savrn.com) consistently describe a pattern of numerous moratorium bills introduced but nearly all dying in committee, being vetoed, or being replaced by narrower rate/disclosure legislation — a base rate strongly against full statewide enactment within a single legislative cycle. BOTTOM LINE: The outside-view base rate for "statewide moratorium bills actually becoming enacted law" is extremely low nationally (effectively zero states with a legislature-passed, governor-signed statewide moratorium in force as of Sept 2026, after Maine's was vetoed and New York's remains unsigned), and Missouri's own 2025-2026 sessions produced no floor votes on any data-center bill, with the governor openly pro-development and the 2027 legislative push framed around cost/regulation rather than moratorium; this outside view implies low probability of enactment by June 30, 2027. NOT FOUND: No specific Missouri statewide moratorium bill number has been pre-filed for the 2027 session as of this research; no polling or betting-market history specific to Missouri's own moratorium prospects was found.

YES means: Missouri's General Assembly passes, and Gov. Kehoe signs (or the legislature overrides a veto of, or voters approve via referendum), a statutory or constitutional statewide moratorium meeting the resolution criteria's definition (a mandatory, default-prohibition suspension of approval/permitting/construction/interconnection/operation for all new data centers or all facilities over 100 MW), enacted between market creation and June 30, 2027. - [2026-09-16/17] Grassroots pressure is intensifying, not fading: roughly 200 protesters rallied inside the Capitol rotunda specifically demanding a statewide moratorium, and around 200 people crowded inside the Missouri Capitol rotunda for a rally demanding a statewide moratorium on the construction of hyper-scale data centers, then marched to the Governor's Mansion to deliver petitions , showing the issue has escalated to direct capitol action just months before the 2027 session. - [2026-07-16] A KSHB voter guide of Kansas City-area federal and local candidates found several Republicans, not just Democrats, publicly endorsing a pause: one GOP U.S. House candidate stated "I am in favor of a pause/moratorium on the continued expansion of data centers in the state until all aspects of the data centers' impacts can be adequately determined and accepted" , and a sitting Republican congressman said "we think it wise to pause the expansion on data centers as we listen and learn together" — evidence the moratorium idea has bipartisan traction among Missouri Republicans, which is the coalition needed to pass anything in the GOP-trifecta legislature. - [2025-10-17/2026-09] U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) has kept sustained pressure on the issue, clashing publicly with Senate President Pro Tem Cindy O'Laughlin after he demanded Ameren "justify its high residential power prices and the spread of hyperscale data centers," and continued invoking data centers in his critique of Ameren's 2026 rate hike request — a prominent Missouri Republican validating the underlying grievance that fuels moratorium demands, even though Hawley himself has not proposed a state-level moratorium. - [2026-06/2026-08] The moratorium idea already has an organized legislative bloc: more than a dozen House members explicitly petitioned for a special session on data centers (per colleagues' June report), and while the House Future Caucus declined to back a moratorium, it confirmed the topic will return via multiple bills in 2027, meaning a moratorium bill is highly likely to be introduced and receive committee attention (unlike 2026, when the legislature has yet to act on data centers, with one bill on the topic only getting a House hearing last year ). - [2026] Local momentum is arguably a leading indicator for state action: beyond the previously reported St. Charles/Jackson County moratoriums, Columbia's City Council adopted a one-year moratorium (per a May 2026 report, pausing permits until April 2027), and a Joplin citizen group is pursuing an initiative-petition drive for a local one-year construction moratorium alongside a referendum — showing the moratorium mechanism (including citizen-initiated measures) is an increasingly normalized, actively-used tool in Missouri that a statewide campaign could emulate, potentially via constitutional initiative petition if the legislature stalls again. - [2026-09] National trend context favorable to advocates: the tracker literature shows an accelerating wave of state action the week of Sept. 21-28, 2026 (California's signed package, Texas's executive freeze, Massachusetts's EO, and New Hampshire's governor announcing she "will propose a statewide multi-year moratorium in her next budget"), giving Missouri advocates fresh out-of-state precedents and political cover to point to when the 2027 session convenes. - [2026] Multiple 2026-session bills already exist as legislative vehicles that could be revived and strengthened into an outright moratorium in 2027, including HB3390's siting/zoning prohibitions on hyperscale centers on certain land types and Rep. Murray's bill that would have "temporarily banned the construction of data centers in St. Louis" (per colleagues' base-rate report) — providing ready-made statutory templates rather than requiring drafting from scratch. - [2026-07/09] Rising and salient utility rate pain — Ameren's request for roughly $343 million in additional annual revenue (a ~10%, $13/month hike) explicitly tied by critics like Rep. Christ to "exactly why we passed Senate Bill 4 last year... Missouri is seeing the demand for electricity on a scale we have never dealt with before" — keeps data-center cost impacts squarely in the news cycle heading into the 2027 session, which is the single strongest political lever moratorium advocates have to force legislative action beyond mere rate-class regulation. BOTTOM LINE: The strongest YES case rests on a plausible-but-uncertain path: an organized, bipartisan-adjacent legislative bloc (with pre-existing bill templates) combines with intensifying grassroots pressure, rising Ameren rate pain, and a wave of out-of-state moratorium precedents to push a statewide moratorium bill through the GOP-controlled 2027 session and past Gov. Kehoe — but this requires overcoming Kehoe's consistent pro-industry stance and leadership's (O'Laughlin's) dismissiveness, which no evidence yet shows has softened. NOT FOUND: No confirmed statewide moratorium bill number pre-filed for the 2027 session as of Sept. 30, 2026; no evidence any Republican legislative leader (House Speaker, Senate President) has endorsed a moratorium; no statewide ballot-initiative petition for a data center moratorium was found filed with the Missouri Secretary of State (only local initiative/referendum efforts, e.g., Joplin).

YES means: Missouri legislatively enacts (via bill signed into law, or constitutional/ballot measure approved) a statewide statutory or constitutional moratorium that prohibits or suspends approval/permitting/construction/interconnection/operation of all new data centers, or of all those above 100 MW, by June 30, 2027. - [2026-09-16/17] The only concrete 2026 legislative product on data centers was a cancelled hearing; multiple reports confirm "The legislature has yet to act on data centers, with one bill on the topic only getting a House hearing last year." No bill has even reached a floor vote, let alone passage, as of late September 2026. - [2026-08-11] The bipartisan House Future Caucus, the main vehicle for 2027 data-center legislation, explicitly confirmed "a bipartisan group of Missouri state lawmakers announced plans Tuesday to pursue legislation creating guardrails on artificial intelligence infrastructure and use, though any bills cannot be introduced until January 2027." This sets the earliest possible bill-introduction date at January 2027, leaving only the standard ~5-month session (constitutionally must adjourn by May 30) to pass and sign any moratorium before the June 30, 2027 deadline — a very tight, historically rare-to-clear window for a contested, high-profile bill. - [2026-08-11] The caucus's chair stated plainly that "Wellenkamp said a special session is unlikely given the complexity of the issue," and separately "Gov. Mike Kehoe has also said he has no plans to call a special session," removing the main mechanism (an extraordinary session) that could have accelerated action ahead of the 2027 regular session. - [2026-08-11] The substantive content lawmakers are actually planning is not a moratorium: the caucus's released product was "the AI Infrastructure Community Evaluation Framework, a guide for local municipalities to use when vetting proposed data center projects," with "Proposed legislation includes protections for residential energy customers, limitations on AI's use as a health professional and definitions of liability in AI-related mistakes" — none of which is a construction ban. - [2026-08-11] Even the sole voice for a statewide pause quoted in that same article was a private citizen, not a legislator: Festus resident Ann Moloney, a Republican politician, said she supports a statewide pause on data center development, calling a six-month moratorium "an incredibly big crowd pleaser," underscoring that grassroots demand has not yet translated into any sponsor committing to file a moratorium bill for 2027. - [2026-09] Missouri's constitutional calendar is a hard constraint against YES: per Article III, Section 20, "the General Assembly shall convene its regular session on the first Wednesday after the first Monday in January of each year" and "Section 20(a) requires the General Assembly to adjourn its regular session by May 30th." Any moratorium bill must clear both chambers and reach the governor's desk within roughly 20 weeks (Jan–May 2027), a demanding timeline for a bill opposed by the governor and industry. - [2026] Missouri's outside-view comparison is unfavorable: a national tracker notes "State-level moratorium bills have been introduced in 11 states in 2026 but face resistance; meanwhile, dozens of municipalities have moved ahead with local construction pauses, shifting the center of gravity toward local government action," and another source states "So far in 2026, 12 states have taken up data center moratoriums and 11 of them have been unsuccessful." No state has yet achieved a legislature-passed, governor-signed statewide moratorium; Missouri would have to be the first. - [2026] Missouri's political dynamic explicitly channels dissent toward the local level, not statewide bans: one legislator quoted in reporting said she does not favor an outright ban, arguing instead that "Unlike others who are pushing back against data centers, Kueny doesn't think it's realistic to outright ban them in Missouri… 'As a person who works in technology, AI is the next technology and we do need to embrace it'… 'However, they need to be built responsibly, and they need to be built in places where communities actually want it.'" This reflects a broader legislative preference for regulation/guardrails over prohibition. - [2026] The moratorium activity that has actually succeeded in Missouri remains confined to cities and counties (St. Charles, Jackson County, Columbia, Peculiar, Franklin/Webster/Montgomery counties weighing local rules), which the resolution criteria explicitly exclude, since a "moratorium adopted by a local government or limited to part of the state" does not qualify. - [2026-05] Even Missouri's Republican governor has framed large data-center investment as a rare opportunity to be protected, not restricted, with Kehoe stating projects like Google's $15 billion investment reflect deals that "never come again," reinforcing an executive posture opposed to any statewide construction freeze. BOTTOM LINE: With no bill even introduced yet, an explicit January 2027 earliest-filing date, a constitutionally mandated adjournment by May 30, 2027 (leaving barely a month's buffer to June 30), a governor and much of the legislature favoring "guardrails" over bans, no special session planned, and zero U.S. states having ever achieved a legislature-enacted statewide moratorium as of late September 2026, the structural and political evidence strongly favors NO. NOT FOUND: No specific 2027 Missouri moratorium bill number, sponsor, or pre-filed text; no statement from Gov. Kehoe reacting to the September 16 rally or petitions; no confirmed Missouri ballot-initiative moratorium petition circulating for a future election; no official 2027 Missouri General Assembly convene/adjourn calendar beyond the constitutional default dates.