Will Missouri enact a data center moratorium by December 31, 2027?

- [2026-06-05] Rep. Mike Costlow said his bill and others regulating data centers failed to get a vote in the Missouri legislative session that ended May 15, 2026. None of the state-level bills addressed a statewide moratorium; they focused on water/electricity tariffs, transparency, and permitting. https://missouriindependent.com/2026/06/05/theyre-already-here-regulating-data-centers-stalls-in-missouri/ - [2026-06-05 reporting] Missouri's 2026 session produced House Bills 3362 and 3364, aimed primarily at utility regulation and customer protection, which never made it to the House floor for debate , and no bill established a statewide construction moratorium. https://missouriindependent.com/2026/06/05/theyre-already-here-regulating-data-centers-stalls-in-missouri/ - [2026-05-15] HB3390 ("Hyperscale Data Center Siting Board" bill, not a moratorium) was introduced 02/24/2026, reached committee, and died 05/15/2026 without passage. https://www.billtrack50.com/billdetail/1978449 - [2026-08-11] Missouri lawmakers pledged a new push for data center and AI guardrails in 2027 , with Future Caucus members saying they will reintroduce regulatory legislation next session; none of the members who appeared openly backed a call for a special legislative session on data centers . https://spectrumlocalnews.com/mo/st-louis/news/2026/08/11/missouri-data-center-reform - [2026-09-16] Around 200 people crowded inside the Missouri Capitol rotunda demanding a statewide moratorium on hyperscale data center construction, while the legislature has yet to act on data centers, with one bill only getting a House hearing last year. 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 scheduled House hearing on data centers, timed to coincide with the rally and veto session, was supposed to be the same day as a House hearing on data centers, but that hearing 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] It is unclear if lawmakers will address data centers when the 2027 session convenes in January. https://www.kbia.org/missouri-news/2026-09-17/data-center-protesters-fill-missouri-capitol-seeking-a-statewide-construction-moratorium - [2026-09-17] Gov. Mike Kehoe has continued to signal opposition to a statewide approach: "It's got to be right for the community... You don't want the state forcing them to look at something," Gov. Mike Kehoe said. https://krcgtv.com/news/local/surge-in-data-center-projects-statewide-spurs-controversy - [2026-09-17] Protesters/organizers acknowledged timing constraints: lawmakers won't return for their next legislative session until January; however, members of the Missouri Legislature can prefile legislation beginning in December. https://fox2now.com/news/missouri/protesters-seek-moratorium-on-data-centers-during-rally-at-mo-capitol/ - [2026-08-11] Rep. Collin Wellenkamp said his "AI Infrastructure, Grid Integrity and Water Resources Protection Act" came too late in last year's session to get traction and would return again in 2027 — this bill is a regulatory framework, not a blanket moratorium. https://spectrumlocalnews.com/mo/st-louis/news/2026/08/11/missouri-data-center-reform - [2026, ongoing] All enacted moratoriums to date are local, not statewide: e.g. St. Charles (permanent ban, May 2026), Jackson County (180-day pause, June 2026), Columbia (one-year pause to April 2027), and others — none meet the statewide threshold required by this market. https://www.kctv5.com/2026/06/22/jackson-county-legislature-passes-180-day-moratorium-data-center-applications/ ; https://krcgtv.com/news/local/surge-in-data-center-projects-statewide-spurs-controversy - [August 2026 tracker] A national policy tracker shows a statewide Missouri measure requiring electric suppliers to keep separate tariffs for new data-center loads of 75 MW or more, effective July 1, 2026 — this is a rate/tariff rule, not a moratorium, and would not satisfy the market's resolution criteria. https://dcmap.us/insights/policy/ BOTTOM LINE: As of October 2026, Missouri has enacted no statewide data center moratorium and no such bill has even reached a floor vote; the 2026 session ended with multiple data-center bills (none a blanket moratorium) dying without hearings, a planned September House hearing was cancelled, and legislators/advocates are now aiming only at the January 2027 session for a renewed (non-moratorium) regulatory push, with Gov. Kehoe publicly opposed to state-imposed restrictions — all local moratoriums enacted so far (St. Charles, Jackson County, Columbia) are sub-state and would not qualify. NOT FOUND: No prefiled or pending bill for the 2027 session explicitly proposing a statewide moratorium (as opposed to regulatory/tariff measures) was found; no statement from Gov. Kehoe's office or legislative leadership committing to a 2027 moratorium vote; no ballot-initiative/referendum effort for a statewide moratorium was identified in the search results.

- [2026-09-16] Roughly 200 protesters rallied at the Missouri Capitol during the veto session demanding a statewide data center construction moratorium; the legislature has yet to act on data centers, with one bill on the topic only getting a House hearing last year , and a planned House hearing that day was cancelled. https://www.stlpr.org/government-politics-issues/2026-09-16/data-center-protesters-fill-missouri-capitol-seeking-a-statewide-construction-moratorium - [2026-06-05] State Rep. Mike Costlow said "legislation traditionally lags very far behind technology," and his bill and others regulating data centers failed to get a vote in the Missouri legislative session that ended May 15 , 2026. https://missouriindependent.com/2026/06/05/theyre-already-here-regulating-data-centers-stalls-in-missouri/ - [2026-08-11] Missouri House Future Caucus members pledged a renewed push on data center/AI regulation (grid cost allocation, new rate class) for the 2027 session, but none of the members openly backed a call for a special legislative session on data centers like another group of House members urged earlier that summer ; no moratorium bill was centered in this push. https://spectrumlocalnews.com/mo/st-louis/news/2026/08/11/missouri-data-center-reform - [2026-09-??] A Missouri "Hyperscale Data Center Siting Board" bill (HB3390) that would have created a state siting board (not a moratorium) was introduced Feb. 24, 2026 and died May 15, 2026 without passage. https://www.billtrack50.com/billdetail/1978449 - [2026-08-??, updated] A nationwide tracker (dcmap.us) lists 22 active statewide data-center policy actions across 25 states as of August 2026 (moratoriums, legislation, executive pauses) — Missouri's only listed statewide-level action is an unrelated 1-count entry that on inspection is actually a local ordinance (St. Charles), confirming Missouri has zero statewide legislative or executive moratorium enacted to date. https://dcmap.us/insights/policy/ - [2026-05-19] The only Missouri-specific "moratorium-style" policy action recorded nationally is local: St. Charles City Council passed Bill 14085 permanently banning data centers in the city, replacing a 2025 one-year moratorium — a purely municipal action, not statewide. https://dcmap.us/insights/policy/ - [2026-06-22] Jackson County, Missouri (local government) passed a 180-day moratorium on data center and battery storage land-use applications — again local, not statewide, and explicitly excluded from this market's qualifying definition. https://www.kctv5.com/2026/06/22/jackson-county-legislature-passes-180-day-moratorium-data-center-applications/ - [2026-02-??] National base-rate context: 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 , indicating state legislatures nationally have a low hit-rate on full statewide moratoria relative to bill introductions. https://www.multistate.us/resources/state-data-center-policy-101 - [2026-07-14] The only US state so far to impose anything resembling a statewide moratorium is New York, and even that was via gubernatorial executive order (EO 62, pausing permits ≥50MW), not a statute — which under this market's rules for Missouri would NOT qualify as "enactment" (executive orders are explicitly excluded). https://www.sheppard.com/insights/blogs/new-york-enacts-first-in-the-nation-statewide-data-center-moratorium - [2026-04-24] Maine's legislature passed a genuine statutory one-year moratorium (LD 307), the closest analog to a true statewide legislative moratorium, but it was vetoed by Governor Mills and not enacted — illustrating that even where a state legislature acts, gubernatorial veto has blocked enactment in the leading precedent case. https://www.rockinst.org/blog/updates-on-the-cloud-more-moratoriums-on-data-centers/ - [2027 session] Missouri's 2027 regular session runs January 6 to May 14, 2027 Session Dates: 1/6/27... Intro Deadlines: 5/14/27 , with bill prefiling from December 1, 2026 — giving one full legislative cycle before the market's December 31, 2027 deadline, plus a possible September 2027 veto session. - [general] Missouri's Republican Governor Mike Kehoe has consistently championed data center development as an economic driver and has not signaled support for any moratorium, reducing the odds a moratorium bill would survive a gubernatorial signature even if passed by the GOP-controlled legislature. https://www.stlpr.org/government-politics-issues/2026-09-16/data-center-protesters-fill-missouri-capitol-seeking-a-statewide-construction-moratorium BOTTOM LINE: Across the entire US in 2026, dozens of statewide data-center moratorium bills have been introduced but none has been enacted as binding statute (only New York's non-statutory executive order and local/county-level pauses exist, and Maine's statutory moratorium was vetoed); Missouri's own 2026 session saw multiple regulatory and moratorium-adjacent bills die without a floor vote, and its pro-development governor has given no indication of support. This outside-view base rate — essentially 0 of many state attempts succeeding as enacted statutory moratoria nationally, and Missouri specifically failing even to get a bill out of committee — implies a low likelihood of statutory enactment in Missouri by the end of 2027. NOT FOUND: No Missouri-specific statewide moratorium bill that has passed either chamber; no polling or betting-market history specific to Missouri legislation on this topic; no official Missouri legislative tracker confirmation of a prefiled 2027 moratorium bill as of this search.

YES means: Missouri's General Assembly passes, and the measure becomes law (by gubernatorial signature, veto override, or law-without-signature), a statewide statutory or constitutional provision that by default prohibits approval, permitting, construction, interconnection, or operation of all new data centers (or of a 100MW+ subset) — or voters approve such a measure via initiative/referendum — before December 31, 2027. - [2026-06-18] A sitting Republican state representative, Tricia Byrnes, speaking at a Jefferson City data-center forum, is "calling for a statewide moratorium on future hyperscale projects until concerns can be addressed by local communities," showing that explicit statewide-moratorium advocacy exists inside the GOP caucus, not just among outside protesters. https://www.ky3.com/2026/06/17/protesters-rally-against-data-centers-missouri-officials-meet-discuss-projects/ - [2026-06-24] House Speaker Jon Patterson approved convening a Special Committee on Intergovernmental Affairs for Sept. 16, 2026, explicitly to study data-center legislation before year's end, giving Byrnes's "People Before Powerful Interests Act" a formal, Speaker-sanctioned vehicle rather than a backbench bill. https://www.newstribune.com/news/2026/jun/24/missouri-lawmakers-will-look-into-data-center/ - [2026-06-23] A coalition of at least 16 House Republicans, led by Rep. Don Mayhew, formally petitioned Gov. Kehoe to call a special session specifically on data centers, indicating cross-factional GOP urgency that could accelerate action ahead of the normal 2027 calendar rather than waiting for a slow committee process. https://fox4kc.com/news/coalition-of-state-representatives-urge-kehoe-to-call-special-session-over-data-centers/ - [2026-06-05] The Missouri Coalition for the Environment's session recap confirms the 2026 push already produced six distinct data-center bills across both parties and both chambers, showing broad-based legislative infrastructure (sponsors, drafts, committee familiarity) ready to be refiled quickly for 2027 rather than starting from scratch. https://moenvironment.org/blog/missouri-2026-legislative-session-in-review/ - [2026-09-16] At the Capitol rally, organizer Gabe Cotton invoked the precedent that Festus voters had already ousted pro-data-center council members, explicitly framing the statewide moratorium push as backed by demonstrated electoral consequences for officials who resist — a mechanism that increases pressure on legislators facing 2027 primaries. https://www.stlpr.org/government-politics-issues/2026-09-16/data-center-protesters-fill-missouri-capitol-seeking-a-statewide-construction-moratorium - [2026-09] Missouri's constitution provides a citizen initiative-petition process (per the Secretary of State's guide) by which a statutory or constitutional moratorium could reach the ballot independent of the Governor or legislature, and Missouri voters just approved the Nov. 2026 "Respect Missouri Voters" measure strengthening the durability of voter-passed initiatives — a favorable environment if a moratorium initiative petition were filed for the 2028 cycle (though no such statewide petition has yet been filed, this is a legally available path that bypasses Gov. Kehoe entirely). https://www.sos.mo.gov/CMSImages/Elections/Petitions/MakeYourVoiceHeard_02.07.2025.pdf ; https://www.stlpr.org/government-politics-issues/2026-09-03/respect-missouri-voters-initiative-petitions - [2026, local precedent] At least nine local Missouri jurisdictions (St. Charles city and county, Jackson County, Columbia, among others per a national tracker) have already enacted moratoriums or bans, demonstrating that the "mandatory, by-default-prohibited" legal template the market requires is already drafted, tested, and politically popular at sub-state levels in Missouri — a template legislators could lift directly into a statewide bill for 2027. https://programs.com/resources/data-center-moratoriums-tracker/ - [2026-09-16/17] Reporting notes that House Speaker Patterson's committee process and Byrnes's bill specifically target "countywide voter approval requirements" and disclosure mandates for incentive-receiving projects — a structure that, if amended during the 2027 session to default to "no approval absent a vote," could satisfy the market's "prohibited by default... until a specified condition is satisfied" clause without needing an outright ban, lowering the bar for a technical YES. BOTTOM LINE: The strongest realistic YES path is a Speaker-sanctioned Special Committee process (convened Sept. 16, 2026) that could produce a prefiled bill by December 2026, pushed by a documented coalition of 16+ House Republicans who already asked for a special session, with at least one sitting GOP legislator on record explicitly backing a statewide moratorium — giving a plausible, if still uncertain, legislative or initiative-petition mechanism to reach enactment before the 2027 regular session ends in May 2027. NOT FOUND: No bill text for 2027 session yet exists (Byrnes's bill details remain unrevealed as of the cancelled Sept. 16 hearing); no confirmation the Special Committee met or produced findings/report after Sept. 16, 2026; no filed Missouri statewide initiative petition for a data-center moratorium (2026 or 2028 cycle); no statement from Gov. Kehoe suggesting he would sign rather than veto any statewide moratorium bill.

YES means: Missouri enacts a statewide law or constitutional provision establishing a binding moratorium on new data centers (meeting the ≥100MW/all-new-facility threshold) between September 29, 2026 and December 31, 2027, via legislative enactment or statewide referendum/initiative vote. - [2026-06-27] Gov. Kehoe's office explicitly declined a special session on data centers, instead telling lawmakers the issue would be "worked with" only in the 2027 regular session, despite a formal letter from roughly 20 House Republicans demanding immediate action — confirming the Governor is actively deferring, not accelerating, any statewide measure. https://www.krmsradio.com/governor-kehoe-will-not-call-for-special-session-on-data-centers/ - [2026-06-27] Rep. Don Mayhew warned that waiting for the regular session "will be too late for any substantial measures to be put in place" because data-center agreements would be finalized before the legislature reconvenes — an admission from a pro-regulation Republican that the 2027 session timeline itself works against enactment. https://www.krmsradio.com/governor-kehoe-will-not-call-for-special-session-on-data-centers/ - [2026-05/07] The 2026 session's only two data-center bills to reach committee (HB 3362, HB 3364) were killed procedurally: Chairman Jeff Farnan, whose own district is courting a $4 billion data-center project, "refused to put them up for a committee vote," a concrete conflict-of-interest mechanism likely to recur in 2027 given the project pipeline. https://moenvironment.org/blog/missouri-2026-legislative-session-in-review/ - [2026, tracker] An independent national tracker (Programs.com) lists Missouri's "Statewide moratorium bills (2025–26)" count as "None," confirming that even among the six data-center bills introduced in 2026, zero were moratorium bills — regulatory/tariff bills, not moratoria, are the only state-level product to date. https://programs.com/resources/data-center-moratoriums-tracker/ - [2026-08-11] The House Future Caucus's 2027 agenda, previewed by members including Rep. Wellenkamp, centers on cost-allocation/rate-class reforms for large-load customers, not a construction moratorium, indicating the most organized legislative push for 2027 is explicitly non-moratorium in design. https://spectrumlocalnews.com/mo/st-louis/news/2026/08/11/missouri-data-center-reform - [2026-09-16/17] Multiple outlets reporting on the September 16 Capitol rally independently stress that "it is unclear if lawmakers will address data centers" in the 2027 session at all, and that a House hearing meant to precede action was itself cancelled the same day — showing institutional momentum is stalling rather than building toward any 2027 floor vote. https://www.kbia.org/missouri-news/2026-09-17/data-center-protesters-fill-missouri-capitol-seeking-a-statewide-construction-moratorium - [2026-09-17] Gov. Kehoe reiterated local-control framing at the rally's time, saying decisions on data centers should be made at the community level and that "you don't want the state forcing them to look at something" — a sitting Republican governor's standing position that would require him to sign any moratorium bill the GOP legislature might somehow pass. https://krcgtv.com/news/local/surge-in-data-center-projects-statewide-spurs-controversy - [2026, ongoing] Local-level activity (Columbia's pause to April 2027, Joplin's referendum/initiative petition drive requiring only 6,000 signatures, Ralls County, Oak Grove, Palmyra moratoria) shows that opposition energy is being fully absorbed into municipal and county channels rather than coalescing into a single statewide ballot campaign, reducing the odds of a competing statewide initiative petition reaching the ballot before late 2027. https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/joplin-group-plans-fight-data-233100296.html - [general] No statewide ballot initiative or constitutional-amendment petition drive targeting a Missouri data-center moratorium was identified in any search; Missouri's initiative-petition process requires signature gathering, Secretary of State certification, and placement on a 2027 special or 2028 general ballot — a mechanism that, even if launched today, is logistically very unlikely to produce a certified "Yes" statewide vote before December 31, 2027. - [procedural] Under Missouri's biennial calendar, the entire remaining window consists of one regular session (Jan 6–May 14, 2027) plus a September 2027 veto session; given that in the prior (2026) cycle not a single data-center bill escaped committee despite six being filed and extensive hearings, the structural "funnel" (committee referral, hearing, floor calendar, Senate concurrence, gubernatorial signature) has a demonstrated 0-for-6 failure rate on far weaker (non-moratorium) bills within one cycle. BOTTOM LINE: Every concrete, dated signal — Kehoe's refusal of a special session and his public opposition to state-imposed restrictions, a committee chair's self-interested blocking of hearings, a cancelled September hearing, a 2027 legislative agenda explicitly centered on rate reform rather than moratorium, and no statewide ballot-initiative mechanism underway — points to continued status-quo inertia, making enactment of a statewide moratorium by December 31, 2027 unlikely. NOT FOUND: No prefiled 2027 bill text (prefiling opens December 1, 2026) explicitly proposing a statewide moratorium; no statewide ballot-initiative petition for a data-center moratorium that has been certified or is actively collecting signatures; no evidence any Republican supermajority leadership has committed floor time to such a measure.