I wrote about the July 27 City Council meeting in advance of the meeting…

The Otsego City Council unanimously approved a one-year moratorium on data center projects Monday…

On July 27, the Otsego City Council will address a proposal for a one-year moratorium on new data center applications. The aim is to allow time for uniform zoning regulations that will dictate the locations permissible for data center construction.

The Star News reports the meeting results…

The Otsego City Council unanimously approved a one-year moratorium on data center projects Monday.

I have written about this meeting earlier, but this article from Free Press Mankato gives the time and place….

North Mankato City Council will hold a public hearing Monday on a proposed interim ordinance that would impose a one-year moratorium on new large-scale data centers while the city studies how to regulate the facilities through its zoning code.

The hearing is set to take place at the beginning of the 7 p.m. council meeting at City Hall. Afterwards, members will vote on authorizing a formal study and temporarily prohibiting the construction or expansion of qualifying data centers for up to 12 months, unless the moratorium is repealed earlier.

The proposed ordinance states that the moratorium is intended to protect the city’s planning process while staff, consultants and the Planning Commission evaluate the impacts of large-scale data centers and recommend potential zoning regulations, city documents state.

The proposal defines a large-scale data center as a facility primarily used for storing, managing, processing or transmitting digital data that exceeds 250,000 square feet or uses 50,000 gallons of water per day or more. The definition also includes related infrastructure such as cooling systems, substations, generators and water storage facilities but excludes computing facilities that are accessory to another principal use.

If approved, the ordinance would prohibit new data centers throughout North Mankato during the study period. The city would not accept, review or approve applications for construction or expansion of covered facilities while the moratorium is in effect.

The MN Daily (University of Minnesota student newspaper) reporter, Madina Elmi, talks with environmental activists, students and Minnesota Daily reporter Shayne Tarquinio about the status of data centers in Minnesota and the dangers they pose to the environment. They are speaking to environmentalists, not data center developers so there is a perspective to consider, but it’s an easy 16 minute podcast that covers a lot of ground. And a good look at what youth are thinking about. Here’s a description of the talk from the website…

Hi everyone, I’m Madina Elmi with the Minnesota Daily. Welcome back to another episode of In The Know, a podcast dedicated to the University of Minnesota. 

This year, our environment has been the center of attention in the news, social media, and in political landscapes. A couple weeks ago, wildfires in Canada and Northeast Minnesota caused the air quality in the Midwest to plummet.

But one of the largest concerns are AI data centers and the ongoing national discussion about their environmental repercussions. Over the last few months, environmental activists across the country have attended local city council hearings and made their voices heard to stop the construction of future data centers, and Minnesota residents are a part of that fight.

I wanted to better understand the impact these data centers could have and the legal battles being brought against them. So for this episode, I spoke to a recent environmental engineering graduate from the University of Minnesota, an attorney from the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, and a local reporter who has been investigating the local impact of data centers themselves.

Shane Tarquinio is an investigative reporter here at The Daily. She recently wrote a piece exploring the consequences of these data centers in Minnesota. Tarquinio said data centers have been around for years to store digital footprint, but as AI technology develops, it demands more from our environment.

The Minnesota Star Tribune reports…

A Virginia-based data center developer signed a purchase agreement for the Minnesota Star Tribune’s former printing plant, one of the last remaining large industrial sites in Minneapolis’ North Loop.

A Star Tribune spokesman on Wednesday confirmed the company reached a deal with Legacy Investing, the firm that transformed part of downtown’s Sleep Number Building into a data center for artificial intelligence and cloud computing.

A similar data center is at the heart of Legacy’s plans for the Star Tribune’s 13 acres, located at 800 N. 1st St., just west of the Mississippi River at the north edge of downtown Minneapolis. Managing partner Daniel English said the firm is envisioning a mixed-use development, incorporating elements such as housing or retail buoyed by anticipated profits from a data center. …

Demand for data centers has exploded in recent years to meet the vast computing needs of artificial intelligence. The boom is sparking controversies across the country, pitting economic promises against fears about water use, energy use and noise. This response is prompting state and local governments, including Minneapolis, to weigh new regulations for the rapidly expanding industry.

Harmony has an upcoming City County meeting in Harmony (Aug 5) to discuss data centers. In the meantime, people are talking. KAAL TV reports…

Harmony residents said the project has caused friction even before a data center ordinance has been approved.

“I’ve heard a lot of hesitancy. I have not heard too many for it at all,” Harmony resident, Kris Torgerson said.

Right now, the proposal is in its early stages with the city planning to write up rules for how a data center could operate in Harmony.

When talking with ABC 6 News many people expressed concerns about a potential project, especially when looking at other towns and the challenges they have had to face after approving plans for data centers.

“It’s a small town. Everything moves at a slower pace, so I think it’s kind of scary knowing that a data center is coming,” Harmony resident Jacquelyn Bernard said.

Harmony’s mayor said the city is working to make sure that any potential data center project would help the community, not hurt it. He emphasized that data center in Harmony would be much smaller than other data centers like Project Skyway in Pine Island.

Brookings looks at data center moratoriums versus oversight…

Data center construction is exploding amid the artificial intelligence (AI) boom—and so is the community backlash against these projects. Protests across the country and community concerns have prompted legislators to consider moratoriums on data center construction. At least 15 states have weighed pauses on data center development, and at least 100 localities have already approved their own.

While these efforts might be successful in affording communities the time they need to craft community benefit agreements or consider whether they want local data centers, they are not a complete solution to the problem at hand. Data centers require meaningful accountability and oversight in both the short and long term. These measures may temporarily quiet communities’ resistance, but they will not slow the national momentum behind projects that are being built or are already underway. For moratoriums to work, there must also be time spent gathering data, enhancing transparency, and creating greater collaboration among legislators, industry, and community residents. If these factors, at a minimum, are not achieved, community upheavals are likely to persist.

They look at proposed or passed legislation in fifteen states. Here’s what they noted about Minnesota…

Minnesota
HF 4888 / SF 4298
Prohibits issuing a permit for a data center until one calendar year after the Public Utility Commission submits a report that assesses various possible scenarios for data center development in the state, or until at least July 1, 2027.
Failed

KAALl Channel 6 News reports…

Residents in Pine Island continue voicing concerns about the proposed Project Skyway data center, with low-frequency noise emerging as one of the biggest issues.

Experts say the sound produced by large data centers has been linked to short-term effects such as sleep disruption, stress and difficulty concentrating. While the long-term health impacts remain unknown, researchers say those short-term effects are well documented.

“It’s not about how loud it is, but how impossible it is to escape,” Dr. Heidi Ahonen, Founder of the Resonance Research Institute said.

In a statement, Google said it is working to comply with Minnesota law and take steps to prevent noise from becoming an issue. However, experts note that if problems arise, Google would ultimately be responsible for addressing them.

The response has left the community divided. Some residents say they are not convinced the company will follow through if issues develop.

I’m going to keep this at the highest level, but the article doesn’t; check out MinnPost to get the details…

1. They use enormous amounts of water

2. Researchers know little about water pollution

3. Rezoning battles are becoming more common

4. Most projects are planned for rural areas

5. AI is expanding faster than regulations

I was in the car at the right time today to learn all about community response to data centers on 1A (locally on MPR). They point out that there are 3,000 data centers in the US and spoke with varied and passionate people about their experience. Turns out near Washington DC (hometown to 1A) is a hotbed of data centers. They don’t talk about what’s happening in Minnesota but sometimes it’s easier to take in the information when I’m not invested in the characters.

This is the first of a two-part series. (Listen online.) You can also listen to part two next Tuesday (Aug 4 2026) from 11am to noon on MPR. Below is the description from 1A…

Data centers are everywhere in the news right now and for good reason. Many projects are planned or under construction across the country. They’re backed by hundreds of billions of dollars in investment from the biggest tech companies in the world. They power not just artificial intelligence, but pretty much everything that happens online – your streaming, your email, your cloud storage.

But they’re not without their drawbacks. They consume a lot of electricity and water. They’re showing up in communities whose residents don’t always feel they had a say in green lighting their construction.

Opposition across the country is growing. Billions of dollars worth of projects were blocked or postponed in just the first three months of 2026 alone.

What are data centers costing communities and what are they delivering? And when people push back, is it about the facilities? Or what these facilities represent?

I wrote about the Whitehouse Ratepayer Protestor Pledge earlier today. Red Lake Nation News reports…

President Donald Trump announced a non-binding pledge by U.S. power producers and ‌data centers on Thursday to fund or build energy infrastructure that would meet massive AI-related power needs while shielding consumers from high electricity costs.

Consumer advocacy groups and other administration critics, however, dismissed the pledge as an empty promise to consumers as Trump tries to balance his support for power-guzzling data centers against public anger over rising utility bills.

MinnPost reports…

This summer, across Minnesota and the country, concern over data centers has grown into a full-blown movement, capturing the press, focusing alarm at emerging AI technology and becoming a litmus test for political candidates.

But while opponents are channeling much of their energy into turning the court of public opinion against these projects, Pine Island’s case shows that rulings coming out of actual courtrooms can alter the trajectory of developments.

Courts have long been arbiters for major issues in the United States, noted Sam Temple of Faribault. As a candidate for Rice County Board this year, he welcomed a recent ruling slowing down a data center development in the city.

People place hope in the judiciary when they lose it in elected officials, he said. “(The court is) not the ideal tool, but it certainly is a tool, and it’s a tool that is a result of local organizing.”

More about the lawsuits…

Legal arguments against data center projects vary. Lawsuits allege that cities allowed lax environmental reviews, withheld information from public records requests, and that leaders discussed secret plans in defiance of open meeting laws.

The article details specifics in a number of communities in Minnesota and points out that the data center issue might be in the courts now but they started with elected officials and may swing back to that…

Courts weren’t the first place Minnesotans in these communities turned to in their quest to stop data centers.

Before courtrooms, they went to city hall. Elected officials were more OK with data centers than they were.

They went to the Capitol. Every bill to rein in data centers last session failed.

They’re turning data centers into an election issue this fall, although any electoral shifts will take months to be reflected in policies.

KVRR (Out of Fargo/Moorhead) reports…

President Donald Trump on Thursday announced the addition of Republican governors, legislators, utility services and tech companies into his voluntary pledge aimed at keeping data center construction and operation costs off the shoulders of American consumers.

The Ratepayer Protection Pledge, first signed by the president in March, requires companies that build and use data centers to pay for any new infrastructure upgrades and generation resources that serve them.

Tech giants Google, Microsoft, Meta, Oracle, xAI, OpenAI and Amazon all signed onto the initial pledge. Now, the measure is expanding to include nearly 200 more stakeholders, including multiple governors.