Florida lawmakers took “a pretty balanced approach” to data center regulation during the session that ended last week, a spokesman for a nonprofit energy industry alliance says. The action isn’t likely to lead to a flood of new data center applications coming into the state, but it won’t scare any off, either.
“A lot of eyes were on Florida,” says Kevin Doyle, vice president for southeast state operations for the Consumer Energy Alliance. “Had Florida gone a way that was going to be more restrictive and saying no to some of the opportunities that are here, I think some states would have probably jumped on that to be honest, and said, ‘Okay, if Florida’s closed for business, we’ll take it here.’”
If Gov. Ron DeSantis signs SB 484, Floridians should be less likely to see the costs for powering data centers — the giant edifices packed with racks of computers and servers enabling cloud application and artificial intelligence engines — added on to their monthly electric bills. (See “Power Search,” Florida Trend March 2026 https://www.floridatrend.com/feature/2026/03/12/power-search/)
DeSantis called for the legislation last December, saying that Floridians needed to be protected “from footing the bill for Hyperscale AI Data Centers” and that local governments should have the authority to turn them down. The bill, which ultimately passed the House 92-16 and the Senate 31-6, calls for the Public Service Commission to “prevent shifting the costs of serving large load customers to the general body of ratepayers.” It also lets local government “maintain the authority” to regulate where data centers can go.
The bill was stripped of a provision preventing local government officials from entering into non-disclosure agreements to keep information about preliminary exploration from the public. Such secrecy is needed to protect proprietary information about projects that cost hundreds of millions of dollars to build, Doyle says.
But it’s not likely to assuage increasing public resistance to data centers. Public opposition is a problem, he acknowledges, because “it’s kind of an unknown.” Those concerns about electricity bills or water use or health issues will dissipate once a project or two come to successful completion. “As folks get more familiar with issues they’ll get to a spot where, ‘Okay, this isn’t the thing that I was worried about. This is actually something that can create jobs,’” and generate tax revenue, Doyle says.