Scope
Kentucky Executive Order 2026-494, signed by the Governor on 6 August 2026, orders that data center project developers demonstrate three commitments: submit an energy plan to the Energy and Environment Cabinet showing how residential ratepayers are protected without imposing additional costs on other utility ratepayers; accept that the Public Service Commission shall not allow a utility to raise rates paid by other ratepayers to recover costs caused by a data center; and, through the Energy and Environment Cabinet, face denial of permitting applications where a data center would negatively impact air quality, water use, water quality, water supply, federal jurisdictional wetlands or natural resources. It also asks developers to commit to paying state and local taxes and to engage transparently with local communities, and it states that it does not affect local decisions about data centers.
- Geographic scope
- Kentucky
- Jurisdiction
- State
- Authority type
- Executive
- Issuing authority
- Governor of Kentucky
Dates
- Adopted
- 6 August 2026
- Effective
- 6 August 2026
- Scheduled expiration
- See completion condition
- Ended
- Not recorded as ended
- Completion condition
- The order states an effective date and no end date; it remains an executive order that a later executive order or law could change.
- Source document
- 6 August 2026
- Last checked
- 23 September 2026 (earlier than tracker date 5 October 2026; not an automatic status change)
Summary
Kentucky Executive Order 2026-494, dated 6 August 2026 and effective that day, requires data center project developers to submit an energy plan to the Energy and Environment Cabinet showing how residential ratepayers will be protected, states that the Public Service Commission shall not allow a utility to raise other ratepayers' rates to recover costs caused by a data center, and directs the Cabinet to deny permitting applications where a data center would negatively impact air quality, water or other natural resources. It also calls for commitments on paying state and local taxes and on transparent community engagement, and says it does not affect local decisions on data centers.
What this does not establish
- The official PDF is a scanned image with no text layer; quotations were taken from an OCR text made from that PDF and have not been re-read against the image.
- The order directs executive branch agencies and states commitments developers must demonstrate; how the Energy and Environment Cabinet and the Public Service Commission apply it to any particular project is not established by this record.
- The order is not a statute or regulation, and it does not approve or deny any named data center.
Unresolved questions
- Whether the Energy and Environment Cabinet has published a form or procedure for the required energy plan was not checked.
Relationships
Supersession means a later instrument replaces the earlier legal effect. Repeal links identify the repeal instrument and the measure it ends. A later implementation or related letter is not treated as a replacement unless the record says so.
- No related action is recorded.
Sources
https://governor.ky.gov/attachments/20260806_Executive-Order_2026-494_Related-to-Data-Centers.pdf