KTTC reports…

As talks for data centers continue to expand across Minnesota, communities in the southeast corner of the state are grappling with how to balance technological growth with local oversight.

On Thursday, DFL state lawmakers Sen. Liz Boldon and Rep. Tina Liebling hosted a virtual town hall to hear directly from Rochester-area constituents regarding potential policies and regulations surrounding large-scale data center facilities.

During the forum, residents raised concerns over data privacy, long-term environmental impacts, and skepticism regarding promised local economic benefits. Similar pushback has already placed a planned data center development in Pine Island on hold amid an ongoing lawsuit.

Lawmakers noted that the public’s unease is part of a broader national trend. A recent survey conducted by the Pew Research Center found that more than half of Americans believe data centers are mostly bad for the environment, while 6 in 10 respondents said they would not feel comfortable having a data center built in their own community.

They spoke about data center in past legislative sessions…

Over the past few legislative sessions, Minnesota lawmakers have taken steps to rein in industry incentives and impose stricter environmental guardrails. Recent legislation eliminated a $140 million state sales tax exemption on electricity for data centers and instituted requirements that facilities using more than 100 million gallons of water coordinate directly with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

They spoke about sticky issues…

Another major policy point under discussion is the prohibition of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) in municipal negotiations with developers. Local governments are already moving in that direction; the city of Harmony included an NDA ban in the latest draft of its data center ordinance, which is currently before its planning and zoning committee.

The Monticello Times reports…

Monticello Tech LLC, the developer proposing a large data center campus in Monticello, will hold a community open house from 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 29, at River City Extreme, 3875 School Boulevard.

The event is being organized by the developer and is not a city-hosted public meeting. Representatives are expected to present information about the proposed development and answer questions from community members.

It will be the second open house hosted by the development team, following an event held at the same location in January.

Doors will open at 6 p.m., with the Monticello Tech presentation beginning at 6:15 p.m. A question-and-answer session will follow, along with small-group breakout sessions for additional questions.

The proposed campus would encompass up to 3 million square feet on land south of 85th Street Northeast and east of Highway 25.

The open house is free and open to the public. Appetizers, water and soda will be provided.

Nnorthern News Now reports…

Google representatives shared updates on its proposed data center in Hermantown Monday night including changes after the public raised environmental concerns.

A company spokesperson said they’ve acted on the public’s main concerns, hoping to reduce the impact on well water, trout streams, and wetlands.

“I want to again thank the public for their continued comments at past council meetings, at past open houses, at neighbor meetings, etc,” said Google Representative Liz Schwab. “It has certainly helped us to shape and improve the project.

Google says those actions include monitoring wells and reducing the impacts to wetlands by 37 percent.

The company is also creating a decommissioning agreement if the site becomes obsolete in the future.

As a part of their philanthropy efforts, Google will also be donating $2.5 million to local grants and nonprofits.

Some residents at the meeting say they shouldn’t have had to beg for Google to take action.

It sounds as if things have been getting heated in Hermantown. The meeting included a reminder of public decorum at meetings as well as mention of a preliminary report of its internal investigation, which was initiated after disparaging remarks of data center opponents were leaked and posted by the Duluth Monitor.

Fox21 reports…

The Duluth News Tribune and WDIO also covered the story.

SouthernMinn.com reports on a recent event in Eden Prairie…

rom job loss to nudification technology, data centers to the end times, a recent southwest metro forum on artificial intelligence underscored the low-boil anxiety of Minnesotans about this unsettling technological change — and myriad policy questions emerging from it.

The recent campaign forum-style event at New Prairie High School in Eden Prairie was moderated by Dr. Krish Subrahmanian, a Hennepin Healthcare pediatrician who is also the   Democratic-Farmer-Labor nominee to succeed state Sen. Steve Cwodzinski in a district covering parts of the southwest Twin Cities metro. He was joined by Attorney General Keith Ellison, as well as representatives from academia, business and labor.

The article goes on to highlights views and comments from presenters and attendees.

The Fillmore County Journal reports…

During the public forum portion of the September 8 Harmony City Council meeting, Harmony resident Ann Lyons spoke about the recent joint planning session at which community feedback was discussed in regards to the proposed data center ordinance. “I find it very disingenuous that residents were not able to speak at the meeting,” Lyons stated. She noted that a lifelong friend of hers, who works on the regulatory side of data centers, cautions the city not to sign anything as the proper regulations aren’t in place yet for data centers since they’re so new.