The Clark County Commission will be discussing potential new regulations and approval criteria for data center construction in the area.

Just weeks after a developer asked state energy regulators to let it build its own temporary natural gas plant to power Northern Nevada data centers, another developer is asking regulators to approve an even larger, permanent gas plant to power additional data centers.

While Henderson is considering a moratorium, other municipalities are pushing forward on the sale and construction of new centers across Clark County.

City staff will work in the coming months to craft a proposal that encompasses suggestions from the public, outside groups council members and regional officials who have been studying the issue for more than a year.

From the governor's race to a contest for a rural county commission seat, data centers have emerged as a central issue in elections up and down — and even on — Nevada ballots this year amid growing public opposition.

Even among council members who supported the moratorium, there are disagreements about how to proceed.

In what experts say is a first for Nevada, a data center developer is asking permission from state energy regulators to operate a new temporary natural gas power plant because NV Energy doesn't have the capacity to immediately serve it — potentially skirting parts of the state's regulatory process.

There are significant disagreements about whether the industry's economic benefits are worth the combined $457 million in projected tax abatements that Nevada has doled out over the past decade.

Companies have considerable sway over what information the public can access — which public records law experts said appears to violate state law.

Six years after Nevada voters approved a constitutional amendment requiring in-state utilities to get half of their power from renewable sources by 2030, NV Energy says it is on track to miss those clean energy standards for the first time because of overwhelming demand from data centers.