Luther Data Center, Luther, Oklahoma

Beltline Energy, a renewable energy firm, wants to build a data center on a 400-acre parcel near an Oklahoma Gas and Electric power plant in Luther, in Oklahoma County, Oklahoma. Its zoning and special-use permit applications are filed, but on June 17, 2026, before an estimated 300 to 400 people on a closed-off Main Street, the Luther Board of Trustees approved a moratorium that freezes any decision on new or pending data center applications, including Beltline's, through December 31, 2026.

Beltline's applications formally entered the town's review process in early June 2026. The site lies between North Triple X Road and North Luther Road, and a 40-mile transmission line from Luther to Piedmont is also planned, to be finished in 2027. Beltline, described by the Luther Register as a Georgia company, told the town it would build the data center and hand it to another company to operate; that operator has not been named.

Beltline's application says the town's drinking water would not be used for cooling; it proposes buying wastewater from Oklahoma City for that purpose, under an agreement it has not yet secured. Town Manager Rian Harkins said he would have "a hard time as zoning administrator and town manager recommending approval if they didn't have that."

Opposition began a year before any application. When Beltline first pitched the idea to trustees in May 2025, former mayor Jenni White, who lives about a mile from the power plant, called it "really an enormous concern," pointing to the town's past water troubles and battery fire risk.

At a January 2026 meeting, residents raised water use, pollution of water sources, who pays for the power, and round-the-clock noise and light. "We don't want it. We're here and we're going to make a stand," resident Shannon Hopkins said at the June meeting, as the crowd chanted "let us vote."

Records obtained by News 9 showed Mayor Terry Arps had signed a non-disclosure agreement with Beltline on May 29, 2025, a year before the company's application became public. The town said it never received proprietary information under the agreement, and Arps said the board never approved it, so it never took effect.

Oklahoma City and Edmond also have data center moratoriums in place while they write their own rules. Gov. Kevin Stitt signed the Data Center Consumer Ratepayer Protection Act in May 2026 to keep grid-upgrade costs for data centers off other customers' bills; critics say it does not address water, noise or rural character.

The Luther Board of Trustees decides Beltline's rezoning and special-use permit; Town Manager Harkins has said the permit process lets the town negotiate conditions and seek impact fees. The town is using the moratorium to review and possibly revise its zoning rules for data centers and battery storage before the moratorium ends December 31, 2026.