In January 2026, Governor Kehoe signed Executive Order 26-02, which establishes a strategic framework for Missouri to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) towards improving state government efficiency, accelerating statewide economic growth, and creating high-skilled jobs for Missourian. The Executive Order also emphasizes protecting Missourians from potential high energy rates and grid impacts from energy intensive AI data centers.
The Executive Order directs Missouri’s agencies to develop a framework for integrating AI within state government operations, complete with consumer protections, data and privacy guardrails, human decision-making for high-impact use cases, and a transparent use policy. Specifically, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (Missouri’s State Energy Office) and Public Service Commission are tasked with ensuring that energy regulations and infrastructure are suitable for hosting data centers and their large power demand. The State Energy Office must also ensure that costs and natural resource supply adequacy associated with data center construction and operation do not result in higher energy rates for Missouri residences and small businesses, potentially requiring data centers and large users to cover their own cost of electricity and service infrastructure, and to develop their own dispatchable power solutions.
The full Executive Order can be found here.