Community resistance and statewide policy backlash spread across the West

Opposition is expanding from local moratoriums to statewide action, litigation, and broader regulatory frameworks. Oregon's state-land pause and proposed moratorium, conflicts in Hillsboro and Spokane-area communities, Wyoming scrutiny of Project Tembo, Utah's preliminary GoldMine proposal, New Mexico's competing incentive and moratorium debates, tribal opposition in Arizona and Navajo communities, and California's seven-bill framework show that consent, water, power, emissions, infrastructure costs, oversight, and sovereignty are decisive execution risks. AWS has confirmed it bought nearly 1,000 acres in West Richland for a possible data center, plans three initial buildings with potential growth to 21, and has not filed a site plan; its resource and jobs figures remain company claims. A congressional inquiry into plans involving 18,000 acres of public land adds an oversight signal, although locations and project implications remain unclear.