Who lobbied Kentucky lawmakers on data centers?

Kentucky lawmakers failed to pass data center regulations, despite bipartisan support for some form of ratepayer protections.

Olivia Krauth

June 2, 2026

Rep. Josh Bray, center, spearheaded a bill to protect ratepayers from data centers during Kentucky's 2026 legislative session. Photo credit: LRC Public Information.

When Kentucky’s 2026 legislative session ended in April, lawmakers went home without passing any data center regulations—even though there were multiple bipartisan attempts to do so.

A look at lobbying records gives some insight into the forces at play behind-the-scenes in Frankfort that likely caused efforts to protect ratepayers from data center costs to fail at the last second.

A Hellbender Newsroom analysis of public lobbying records found dozens of entities—nearly 60—lobbied at least one lawmaker, on at least one data center-related bill, at least one time during the 2026 legislative session. About two-dozen of the entities lobbied lawmakers on multiple data center bills.

They range from water and natural resource advocates, economic development groups, and big tech companies like Meta, Amazon, and Google to utility providers like Kentucky Power,LG&E, and KU Energy.

Businesses tied to data center projects in Kentucky also made the list, including Poe Companies—which is building a data center in Louisville—and OTN Group, which is behind a Franklin-based data center project.

In Kentucky, lobbyists are required to disclose what bills they’re lobbying lawmakers over and what month those conversations took place, but they’re not required to say if they were for or against (or neutral) on a bill. This can make it difficult to tell exactly what caused a bill to stall, change, or die completely.

Kentucky lawmakers filed five data center specific bills during the legislative session, each tasked with some form of regulation meant to help consumers or address environmental concerns tied to data centers.

House Bill 593, a Republican-sponsored bill which focused on protecting ratepayers, easily passed out of the House before stalling in the Senate. At the last second, some of the bill’s components were added to a different bill—Senate Bill 197—but were ultimately stripped out on the last day of the session.

Up to 30 data centers could be in the works in Kentucky, according to estimates from utility providers. Without state regulations, local city and county leaders are left to set their own policies as many Kentuckians grow concerned about the potential downfalls of data centers.

Rep. Josh Bray, the Republican who sponsored HB 593, told Hellbender he plans on bringing back the bill in the 2027 legislative session in some way. He “felt the bill was good as written,” but plans on using the summer and fall to study how other states are handling data centers to tweak the bill. He anticipates the topic coming up in a November interim committee meeting ahead of the legislative session.

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Who lobbied lawmakers on data centers? Check our list: