AIBRIEF
Lombardo's order requires new applicants to cover their own power costs, but leaves the 76 facilities already planned or built untouched.
Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo signed an executive order Friday placing two guardrails on the state's data center tax break program: new applicants can no longer receive relief on the tax that funds local schools, and any data center receiving state tax breaks must commit to covering its own power costs.
The order takes effect immediately and applies only to companies applying for new state tax breaks. The 76 data centers already planned or built in Nevada, along with existing deal holders, are not retroactively affected.
State officials must also propose how to limit delays in meeting what the order calls exponential growth in data center power needs over the next decade.
The order lands less than two months before the November 2026 election, and tracks a Republican pollster memo obtained by The Nevada Independent. The memo, written by strategist Tony Fabrizio, argued that "unqualified support for building more AI data centers is a losing position" and recommended requiring developers to pay for their own power, guaranteeing ratepayer protection, and stipulating "no blank checks."
Nevada has given out about $461 million in expected tax breaks to data centers over the past 11 years, according to state program tallies cited by Carson Now, with 76 facilities planned or built per the online tracker Data Center Map.
Environmental advocacy groups want the legislature to enshrine the guardrails in state law. The governor's office said it would have to review any legislation before commenting, but reaffirmed that data center costs will not be passed down to ratepayers.