Washington County holds the second-highest concentration of data centers in Oregon, and a new state report shows the public wants that growth reined in.

Gov. Tina Kotek's Data Center Advisory Committee released a 20-page preliminary findings report on Thursday, Sept. 10, after seven fact-finding meetings over nine months.

Of more than 700 written comments and nine hours of verbal testimony the committee collected, roughly 90% expressed opposition to data centers, the Valley Times reported.

Utility affordability was the top concern. Most comments came from the Portland metro area.

The findings hit close to home for Tualatin, where 4,930 high-tech manufacturing jobs anchor the local economy and the 847-acre Basalt Creek industrial corridor bordering Wilsonville is being planned for future growth.

The public can submit written comments on the report through Saturday, Oct. 24, at 5 p.m. via the Oregon Department of Energy website.

What the report found

The committee's report does not include policy recommendations. Instead, it catalogs the scale of the industry's expansion and the questions that remain unanswered.

Oregon now hosts between 123 and 144 data center facilities, up from eight 25 years ago, according to an ECOnorthwest analysis cited in the report.

Almost one in every 100 Oregon jobs is tied to data centers. Approximately 9,000 acres statewide are proposed for new development, much of it in rural areas or on city outskirts.

Of 31 data centers currently being sited in Oregon, eight are hyperscale facilities handling large-scale data storage and AI processing.

The report also found that Oregon's surface and groundwater resources are already fully allocated, meaning new facilities must obtain existing water rights.

Data centers in Oregon will receive nearly $500 million in property tax breaks in 2026 alone, according to reporting from The Oregonian.

In Morrow County, the assessor told the committee that the $7.2 billion estimated value of tax-exempt data center property in 2025 exceeded the combined value of all taxable property in the county by $3 billion.

Rates, politics and the local angle

Residential electricity customers in Portland General Electric's service territory, which includes Tualatin, saw rates drop an average of 1.3% under Oregon's POWER Act. Data center rates rose 29%, according to a Sept. 2 report from the Oregon Public Utilities Commission. Data center electrical load in the state has grown roughly 36% per year since 2021.

A July 2026 DHM Research poll found two-thirds of Oregon voters support a pause on new AI data centers. Nearly three-quarters oppose property tax incentives for data centers.

The issue has become part of the governor's race. On Sept. 8, Kotek announced a roughly one-year pause on approvals for data centers on state land, running through July 1, 2027. "This is what I can do right now under Oregon law, but we need to do more and the legislature needs to step up next year," she told KGW. Her Republican challenger, state Sen. Christine Drazan of Canby, has called for an immediate statewide moratorium including on private land.

Closer to Tualatin, Wilsonville's planning commission recommended in August that data centers in the Basalt Creek area require Development Review Board approval rather than a staff-level decision. As we reported Aug. 22, Wilsonville planning official Chris Meyers said the change would add an extra layer of analysis and oversight.

Committee co-chair Margaret Hoffmann stressed the need for better data at the committee's Aug. 5 session, as reported by the Valley Times. She said the state needs a disclosure database before it can understand the scope of what's happening.

What comes next

The committee's final public meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 23. Final recommendations are expected before the end of 2026. Four Democratic lawmakers, including state Sen. Courtney Neron Misslin of Wilsonville, plan to propose a three-year moratorium on new large data centers during the 2027 legislative session.