Connecticut's data-center fight just opened a second front. A state lawmaker introduced a bill this week seeking an outright moratorium on new data centers, according to the Hartford Courant — not a power-sourcing condition, a full stop. The Courant's report does not name the sponsor beyond describing them as a state legislator concerned about residents and the environment; we're not filling in a name the record doesn't give.

That's a jump from where the debate stood all summer, when the state's main proposal was a bring-your-own-power requirement — any data center pulling 20 megawatts or more would have to bring its own generation instead of leaning on the grid. Now there's a bill asking to skip that negotiation and block new projects outright. Separately, on September 4, ctnewsjunkie ran a piece from a legislator identified as Fazio calling the state's data-center tax-incentive program "extreme" and asking colleagues to end it.

For contractors, that's the difference between a market that's hard to build in and one that might not open at all. A bring-your-own-power rule still means construction — somebody has to build that on-site generation. A moratorium means no permits, period. And killing the incentive program means whatever does get built loses the tax break that made the deal pencil for the developer in the first place. Two bills, same direction: Connecticut is making data centers harder to finance and harder to permit in the same legislative session.

Compare that to New York, where Executive Order 62 froze new 50-megawatt-plus projects in July but exempted anything already under construction or with a DEC application filed before the order. Connecticut hasn't drawn that line yet, because none of this is law yet — nothing here is grandfathered.

Track the moratorium bill's committee referral and the incentive-repeal push together. Either one changes the math on a Connecticut data-center bid, and neither has passed as of this week.