Cheyenne data center opponents are scrambling to garner at least 2,700 valid petition signatures—10 percent of the city’s registered voters—by Aug. 2 to get a referendum on November’s ballot asking residents to adopt a 12-to-18-month pause on approving new server factories in Wyoming’s capital city. The petition drive was launched in the wake of the Cheyenne City Council’s 6–3 approval of a 3,460-acre annexation to accommodate Microsoft’s planned multi-year expansion southeast of the city despite overwhelming opposition from residents during a seven-hour public hearing on July 13. Microsoft, Cheyenne’s largest taxpayer, operates four data center campuses in the city. According to Cheyenne LEADS, the city’s economic development agency, 10 data center locations are active, five more are under construction, nine are in the planning pipeline, and more than 30 developers are at least preliminarily engaged in potentially building data centers there....