Colorado lawmakers have pulled the plug on a bill to offer steep tax breaks for data centers, the energy-hungry facilities behind the artificial intelligence boom and other cloud-based software products.
After rescheduling its hearing three times, state Rep. Alex Valdez, D-Denver, presented the legislation, House Bill 1030, to its first committee on Thursday along with a substantial amendment to strengthen some environmental guardrails. Valdez then proposed his bill be postponed indefinitely, and the House Energy and Environment committee voted down the legislation 11-2, putting an end to the measure first introduced in January.
Valdez expected the outcome. After months of negotiations with environmental groups backing a dueling data center bill, he said it was clear that his approach — supported by labor groups and the data center industry — wouldn’t survive the final weeks of the legislative session.
“Nothing satisfied the ‘enviro’ coalition. What would have been the most robust framework in the nation has now become a signal to industry that Colorado remains closed,” Valdez said ahead of the hearing. “We will watch our neighbors in Wyoming reap all of the economic benefits.”
State Rep. Alex Valdez, D-Denver, talks on the phone during House floor work at the Colorado Capitol in Denver on Thursday, May 7, 2026. (Jesse Paul, The Colorado Sun)The bill’s failure comes as elected officials nationwide are rolling back deals with data center companies amid mounting public opposition. Concerns over the facilities’ massive demands on natural resources, rising utility bills and limited job creation have cost some lawmakers their seats over their support for the industry. Denver is considering a moratorium on data center development; Larimer County already has one.
While there are 56 data centers in Colorado, according to Data Center Map, industry experts say the state does not have many large-scale facilities seen in neighboring states.
Valdez’s bill, meant to incentivize data center development in Colorado, was similar to a proposal from last year that lawmakers rejected. House Bill 1030 would have offered 20- to 30-year sales and use tax exemptions to data center companies for computer equipment, software, energy storage and environmental control systems.
In exchange for the tax breaks, data center companies would have had to invest $250 million in infrastructure in the first five years and create an unspecified number of jobs that pay at least 110% of the average local wage. In the Denver Metro area, that would have been roughly $46.65 an hour, based on the most recent salary estimates from the Federal Reserve.
The centers would have had to meet certain environmental requirements — like using a closed-loop cooling, or similar system, that recycles water to cool their massive computer networks — and ensure that the data center didn’t increase costs for other energy users.
Valdez’s amendment, introduced Thursday, beefed up those environmental requirements but was not enough to sway his colleagues into voting yes.
“There’s a humongous difference between where we landed and where we started,” he said about the amended version. “Unfortunately we have to continue with the status quo, and that’s not good for us.”
Rep. Junie Joseph, D-Boulder, raised concerns about the tax breaks in the bill and the energy data centers use. She called for a moratorium on development until Colorado puts more strict regulations in place.
“We cannot build Colorado’s economic future around highly automated facilities that extract public resources while creating limited, sustained employment opportunities for working people,” she said. “We should not allow ourselves to become so desperate for the promise of economic development that we fail to ask whether the deal is actually good for working families, taxpayers and future generations.”
House Majority Leader Monica Duran, D-Wheat Ridge, and state Sen. Kyle Mullica, D-Thornton, originally sponsored the bill along with Valdez. Last month, Duran asked that her name be taken off the bill. She said she preferred to work on negotiations behind the scenes with labor, environmental and industry groups.
The rival data center bill from state Sen. Cathy Kipp, D-Fort Collins, and Rep. Kyle Brown, D-Louisville, does not offer any tax breaks. Instead, Senate Bill 102 would put more robust environmental rules on development to make sure data centers coming to Colorado do not raise electricity prices or blow the state’s greenhouse gas emission reductions targets needed to stave off the worst effects of climate change.
Kipp has said she is negotiating with labor groups to get them on board with her bill. The bill would have to pass committee and get preliminary approval by the Senate on Monday to have enough time to be passed by the full legislature.
“The negotiations are still in flux,” Kipp said. “We’re trying to see if we can get there or not.”
This story was produced by the Capitol News Alliance, a collaboration between KUNC News, Colorado Public Radio, Rocky Mountain PBS, and The Colorado Sun, with support from news outlets throughout the state. Startup funding for the Alliance was provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Hence then, the article about effort to attract data centers to colorado with tax incentives fails was published today ( ) and is available on Colorado Sun ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Effort to attract data centers to Colorado with tax incentives fails )
Also on site :