Tell Oregon’s data center committee what you think before October 24

Why this Matters

Governor Kotek's Data Center Advisory Committee has spent nine months studying how Oregon should handle data centers, and it has published what it has learned so far. It is asking Oregonians to respond by 5 p.m. on Saturday, October 24, 2026.

The document is not a set of final recommendations. The committee describes it as a summary of what members have learned, the gaps in what they know, and the questions they want the public to answer, on water, land use, energy costs, tax incentives, and transparency. The committee expects to give its recommendations to the governor by December 2026.

Your own words matter here. The committee reports more than 700 substantive written comments so far, and about 90 percent of the ones it reviewed oppose continued or expanded data center development. It also says about 70 percent of the comments were near-copy form letters, that most came from the Portland area, and that comparatively few came from Morrow, Umatilla, and Crook counties, where data centers are being built and proposed. A comment in your own voice from your own town adds what that record is missing.

You do not have to be an expert. The questions on water reporting, utility rates, and Tribal water rights are statewide ones, and the people who live with the answers get to weigh in.

Steps to Take

Step 1

Read the questions. The committee's Preliminary Learnings and Questions document ends each section with a list headed Questions for Consideration, covering water stewardship, land use, energy and affordability, tax incentives, and transparency. You only need the sections you care about.

Step 2

Pick one or two questions and answer them in your own words. Two examples from the document: how Oregon could require standardized public reporting of data center water use and water quality, and whether ratepayers are adequately protected from rate increases related to data center development.

Step 3

Add a sentence about your own place: your well, your bay, your power bill, the creek behind your house. That sentence is the one that gets read.

Step 4

Submit your comment through the committee's comment form. It asks for your name, zip code, and county, and it has a box for your comments. The form is not anonymous, and the page says to enter 00000 if you would rather not give a zip code.

Step 5

Send it before the deadline, which is 5 p.m. on Saturday, October 24, 2026. The state's page does not name a time zone, so do not wait for the last hour.

Step 6

If you would rather speak, the committee's page says you can email datacenter.ac@oregon.gov to request a two-minute slot for topical public comment at a meeting.

Sample Text

Option 1

I live in [your town] on the Oregon Coast, and I am responding to the Data Center Advisory Committee's Preliminary Learnings and Questions document. On water, I support a requirement that every data center report its water use, direct and indirect, and the quality of what it discharges, publicly and in a standard form, so that communities and downstream users can read the numbers. On power, I ask the committee to protect ratepayers: no household's electric bill should rise because of a data center, and tax breaks should be tied to measured water and power performance. [Add a sentence about your own place here.] Thank you for the work, and for asking.

Option 2

Oregon's Data Center Advisory Committee wants public comments by 5 p.m. on October 24. It says most of the comments so far were form letters from the Portland area, so a note in your own words from your own town matters. The committee's form: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/DCAC-Comments

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