Missouri

Energy/Power is the dominant stressor: Ameren told lawmakers it expects 2,000 MW of new load and approved new gas/battery buildout partly for data centers, while Hawley and SB 1750 focus on preventing utility customers from subsidizing grid upgrades. Water/Geology is the next major issue: Independence and Montgomery County opposition repeatedly cite water use, and SB 1750 explicitly requires water-usage disclosure and shortfall planning.

Independence mayor: Bridget McCandless (D/municipal), who backed Nebius tax incentives, vs. Kevin King (D/municipal), who signed a petition for a public vote; data center opposition was a central campaign issue. Independence City Council at-large: Jared Fears (incumbent, supported tax incentives), Cody Atkinson (pro-project), Jackie Dorman (opposed), and Lucy Young (pro-project). Festus city council: anti-data-center sentiment helped oust incumbent council members after approval steps for a CRG Clayco project; Mayor Sam Richards and defeated incumbents Bobby Benz, Jim Collier, Brian Wehner, and Jim Tinnin were part of the local reckoning. No clearly identified Missouri state/federal 2026 candidate has made data centers the dominant named issue beyond these local races.

No statewide moratorium or ban has been enacted in Missouri as of May 2026. A bill to pause new data-center-related facility applications, HB 3369, would halt acceptance, processing, or approval of applications for data center creation or expansion until Aug. 28, 2027, but it remained introduced/pending in the House. A separate Senate proposal, SB 1750, does not impose a pause; instead, it creates a regulatory framework for large load facilities. Locally, St. Louis is not imposing a moratorium but is tightening zoning rules through an updated framework and public-hearing process, and the city’s interim approach remains in place until new rules are approved and signed.

Missouri’s main 2026 cost-shift response is SB 1750 (introduced by Sen. McCreery), which defines ‘large load facilities’ and requires disclosure, studies, utility contract terms, and explicit protection that upgrade/interconnection/study costs ‘shall not be shifted to ratepayers in a general rate proceeding’; it also requires the facility to pay for network upgrades, capacity, and mitigation costs. In parallel, U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) has pushed legislation to require data centers to pay their own electricity and water costs, and he said similar bills have been filed in the Missouri House, though the specific House bill numbers were not identified in the sources reviewed. Missouri also has utility planning/rate implications through Ameren’s Big Hollow approval and the state’s construction-work-in-progress cost-recovery framework.

None identified.

1) Nebius AI data center, eastern Independence — proposed hyperscale project on nearly 400 acres; approved for billions in tax incentives and facing resident opposition and legal challenge; status: contested/proceeding. 2) CRG Clayco data center, Festus — local project whose approval steps triggered a backlash and a wave of anti-data-center election outcomes; status: contested/locally constrained. 3) Montgomery County I-70 data center proposal — massive proposed project opposed by Preserve Montgomery County LLC in litigation; status: contested. A related but not identical power-side project is Ameren’s Big Hollow Energy Center in Jefferson County, approved partly to serve anticipated large data-center load.

Stop the AI Data Center in Independence (Facebook-based coalition), Preserve Montgomery County LLC, local Festus anti-data-center organizers/residents, St. Louis-area neighborhood and planning commenters pushing stricter zoning, and assorted county-level resident/farmer/business coalitions opposing large projects.

None identified at the state political-surface layer as of May 2026. Talent and workforce dynamics in Missouri surface primarily at the sub-state and labor-market level — county and municipal proceedings on named projects, regional building trades council positions, and utility commission workforce testimony — which are out of scope for the tracker's state-political-surface read. Request a full RAIL briefing for sub-state and labor-market analysis.

Growing cluster. Missouri is not yet a national top-tier hub, but it has multiple large proposed hyperscale projects, at least one major utility buildout tied to expected load, and roughly 2,000 MW of new load under contract discussions cited by Ameren. Active project count and operational MW are not fully consolidated in public sources.

‘I think we ought to say in the law that the data centers have to pay for their own electricity, the data centers have to pay for their own water supply’ — U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, as reported by Missourinet on Feb. 27, 2026.

Missourinet on Josh Hawley and cost-shift legislation, Missouri Senate SB 1750 PDF, KCUR on Independence data center election guide, KCUR on Festus election backlash, KCUR on Ameren Big Hollow, St. Louis Post-Dispatch on zoning update