Tenaska: The Omaha Power Developer Behind the Cass County, Nebraska Data Center Fight

A gigawatt scale data center is a power project before it is a computing project, and Nebraska is where that became visible to residents. Flatwater Free Press reported in March 2026 that Tenaska had optioned more than 2,600 acres across southeast Nebraska since December, including at least 1,000 acres in Gage County, at least 860 acres in Cass County, at least 450 acres in Lancaster County, and nearly 300 acres in Otoe County, for a Google project that documents indicated could be online as soon as 2029 and that would require 1,000 to 3,000 megawatts.

That structure has a practical consequence for anyone watching for a project near them. The first public paper trail was not a rezoning application from a technology company. It was land option agreements filed by an energy developer, and it appeared months before any hearing was scheduled. Cass County residents found it because they went looking in the county records, which Nebraska law lets any resident examine free of charge.

The county planning commission approved a moratorium at its July 13, 2026 meeting, three weeks after the Tenaska announcement. On August 11, the Cass County Board of Commissioners voted 5 to 0 for a twelve month moratorium on data center permits and tabled its proposed data center regulations to September 22, deliberately separating the pause from the rulemaking. On August 26, the village of Nehawka, population under 200, amended its zoning code to prohibit data centers in every district, along with the substations, transformers, and generators that serve them.

Nothing in that sequence required a lawsuit, a filing fee, or a judge. Our full report on the Cass County matter has the meeting by meeting record, the residents' group that tracked the land options, and the Nebraska statutes that set the deadlines if litigation ever does become necessary. The Nebraska state page covers the wider footprint and the state's public power structure.

A twelve month moratorium is a clock, not an outcome. The substantive questions in Cass County, what setbacks, sound limits, water conditions, and decommissioning security a data center must meet, were tabled to September 22, 2026 and remain open. Those regulation hearings are where the terms of any future Tenaska project get written, and they are the meetings worth attending.

The statewide backdrop has moved too. Governor Jim Pillen signed Executive Order 26-17 on July 20, 2026, barring new data centers from ImagiNE Nebraska Act tax incentives and creating a seventeen member task force whose membership includes the chief executives of the state's three largest public power utilities. LB1010, signed April 14, 2026, requires data center owners and operators to report annual electricity and water use, bear decommissioning costs, and enter community benefit agreements. By early September 2026, twelve Nebraska counties had approved temporary moratoriums.

If a project is being assembled near you, our guide to fighting a proposed data center covers the approval process, and our guide to who pays for data center power covers the utility questions a gas plant and campus combination raises. If a facility near you has already been built and is affecting your home, our free case review connects you with an independent attorney in our network who handles data center cases in your state, at no cost and with no obligation.