Gov. Gavin Newsom signed seven data center bills on Sept. 21. The laws require proposed data centers to disclose water and electricity use to local governments and water suppliers, make the facilities pay for grid and water-supply upgrades rather than shifting those costs to other ratepayers, and — through SB 887 — make data centers ineligible for the blanket environmental exemptions and judicial streamlining that had been available to designated leadership projects.
The bills are AB 1577 (Bauer-Kahan), AB 2383 (Zbur), AB 2469 and AB 2619 (Papan), SB 886 and SB 887 (Padilla), and SB 1168 (McNerney). The governor’s office framed the package as giving communities the information they need to weigh a project’s costs and benefits.
Sen. Steve Padilla, D-San Diego, whose district contains the Imperial County project, said the largest proposed data center in California sits in his district “with the developer cutting a backroom deal to circumvent critical environmental review without any community input.” He said the laws make industry commitments legally enforceable. Padilla’s office reported SB 886 passed the Senate 28-10 and the Assembly 62-7; SB 887 passed 30-8 and 59-11.
The effect is contested. Mark Toney of The Utility Reform Network said the measures protect ratepayers from subsidizing data centers’ energy use. Sam Uden of Net Zero California argued the package makes local moratoriums unnecessary — “We don’t need moratoriums if we have the leadership to put strong protections in place” — a view Imperial County, which has twice tried to impose one, has not adopted.
The laws were signed after a judge overturned the county’s approval of that project on Sept. 9 and do not apply retroactively to it. The earlier pair of tentative rulings set that case up. Farms and markets in the affected area are listed on the Imperial County page, alongside regenerative producers across the ten-county region.
Why this matters for SoCal: Water and power disclosure is now a legal requirement rather than a courtesy, which changes what a farming county can demand before an industrial buyer sets up next to its irrigation district.
Sources: Governor Newsom signs most comprehensive data center laws in the nation — Office of the Governor, Sept. 21, 2026; State senator says new data center laws will protect consumers — KPBS / City News Service, Sept. 21, 2026