House Democrats have formally joined a Senate effort to halt the growth of artificial intelligence data centers.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., introduced the House companion to Sen. Bernie Sanders‘ (I-Vt.) AI Data Center Moratorium Act on Tuesday, expanding a bicameral effort to halt new development pending federal safeguards.
Hyperscaler capex is poised to set records in 2026, as cloud giants scramble to build enough compute capacity to meet growing demand. Energy remains a key constraint – and point of public contention – but an upcoming regulatory decision is poised to offer either grief or relief.
There are two key energy issues: power generation and years-long interconnection queues, and how large-load customers like data centers impact other users on the grid. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is poised to act on both sometime this month.
It’s not yet clear what changes FERC will make to existing regulations. But in a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking issued in October, FERC said it was seeking input on rule changes that would speed interconnection study timelines to 60 days for customers that agree to flexibly curtail usage and whether large load customers should pay the full cost of any grid upgrades needed for their interconnection.
The Daily Yonder published a commentary comparing the potential closures of data centers with nuclear power plants. The author has worked with host communities in planning for and managing the impacts of nuclear plant closures as well as with developers who site large-scale energy infrastructure projects grounded in durable community partnerships. So he has a unique perspective. I appreciate the very long term look at how such large projects can impact a community…
Across the United States, communities are evaluating whether to host a new generation of infrastructure: hyperscale data centers. These projects are often framed as low-impact, high-value opportunities: quiet neighbors that promise reliable tax revenue, infrastructure upgrades, and a foothold in the digital future. They are being sold as clean, quiet, and high-tech.
But a critical blind spot remains in how potential host communities evaluate these facilities: what happens at the end of their lives?
The experience of communities that host nuclear power plants—documented in Socioeconomic Impacts from Nuclear Power Plant Closure and Decommissioning—offers a valuable framework for those who may consider hosting new digital infrastructure.
Here’s a view at the nuclear power plant experience…
The experience of nuclear plant host communities points to a clear conclusion: the consequences of closure are not hypothetical—they are predictable, repeatable, and, if unaddressed, can be deeply disruptive.
For potential data center host communities, the lesson is not to avoid development, but to plan deliberately for its full lifecycle—before the first shovel hits the ground. In that context, here are some practical considerations for potential host communities.
And fleshes out the following specific aspects…
An appeals court has decided that the City of Faribault must undertake a more thorough environmental review of a proposed hyperscale data center before the project can move forward.
The Minnesota Court of Appeals ruling stems from a lawsuit filed by the nonprofit Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy (MCEA), challenging the adequacy of an environmental assessment worksheet that was approved by Faribault officials, and demanding an in-depth environmental impact statement to better analyze potential impacts of the Archer Datacenters project.
The article includes a concise summary of the saga of the data center plans in Faribault/
The Institute for Local Self Reliance (aka Community Networks) reports…
As reported by Telecompetitor, Bolton said, there are now over 1,500 active fiber providers operating nationally, with 42 new market entrants and 715 providers that doubled their footprints in just the past six months.
Meanwhile, he said, independent ISPs, electric cooperatives, and municipal networks together accounted for about 40 percent of all fiber deployment in 2025 – “a sign that the buildout is increasingly being driven by community-rooted operators, not just national giants.”
But the conference’s panel sessions made it clear that translating increased fiber demand into deploying networks is getting harder and more expensive, with one panelist describing it like going “from a sprint into a marathon.”
During a Broadband Breakfast Live event at the conference, Josh Summit, director of outside plant engineering and construction at Glo Fiber/Shentel, said that there has been a roughly 300 percent increase in pole make-ready costs over the past five years and that rural fiber deployments that once cost between $20,000 and $25,000 per mile are as expensive as $100,000 per mile, which he attributed to stricter pole loading requirements and “preexisting noncompliance being charged to new attachers.”
The conference also highlighted the mounting opposition and tensions related to the construction of AI hyperscale data centers, which panelists said are increasingly following cheap rural electricity away from traditional hubs like Loudoun County, Virginia while running into local opposition in communities across the country, as some states consider data center moratoriums.
Still, despite the challenges, there was an air of optimism from conference organizers, as the FBA said it is seeing record membership growth – up 16 percent year-over-year, with more than 8,000 broadband professionals now represented.
Minnesota Star Tribune columnist compares growth of AI and data centers with expansion of broadband in 2000. He starts with the history…
Everyone in business these days seems to be searching for a tale from history to meaningfully describe the growing importance of AI. I personally think it will transform the way people work with their digital devices and information. But we’re at a very confusing time in its development.
So the tale in history I’m going to invoke comes from the late 1990s and early 2000s: the time when the internet was in its hockey-stick period of fast adoption.
The buildout of the commercial internet had enormous effects on company valuations, but also on the nation’s physical environment, just as AI now does. Many people have forgotten how much the nation was ripped up to build what was initially called an “information superhighway” but eventually became known as the broadband network.
In July 2001, the longtime tech writer of the Star Tribune, Steve Alexander, wrote, “The information superhighway is getting wider in the Twin Cities.” He then described plans to lay fiber-optic lines along Interstate 94 and Interstate 35E in St. Paul — at a cost of around $10 million.
How quaint that seems when set against the multibillion-dollar expense of a single data center in 2026.
And talks about what he sees today…
Today, I’m very reluctant to say AI is being overhyped or overbuilt. And I wouldn’t even try to predict the effect AI will have on jobs and the environment.
AI may very well turn out to be overinvested in, however. The entire case for massive data centers may be overturned by an advance in software programming or by the decentralization of processing power as chip technology advances. AI companies’ debt loads may become too much to bear, even if the companies turn fabulously profitable. I remember stories about broadband buildouts appeared not long before a big crash in internet-related stocks.
The commercial internet did justify its investment, despite the bursting of an initial bubble that wiped out billions in shareholder value.
At the moment, however, the numbers on AI investments are jaw-dropping, even if you’ve got the mouth of a hippo.
The fiercest battles over data centers are no longer being fought in Washington. They’re playing out in county commissions, township zoning boards, and statehouses responding to grassroots revolt. From shots fired at an Indianapolis councilman’s home to Maine’s moratorium, Georgia’s legislative stalemate, and zoning fights from East Whiteland to Glynn County, municipalities have become the front line of America’s data center debate. What do local officials, industry voices and telecom and energy policy experts say about how zoning, preemption, and ratepayer concerns are reshaping where, and whether, data centers get built?
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An Op-Ed from Next City wonders why municipalities aren’t looking at broadband expansion as a talking point for data centers…
As data centers pop up across the country, communities are asking hard questions about their true value: megawatts of electricity used, gallons of water absorbed, tax abatements for developers, and the true number of jobs created.
The current debate positions data centers as a tradeoff between growth and strain, pitting economic development versus environmental and infrastructure impact.
These are important questions. They deserve scrutiny. But they are not the whole picture. …
For communities — especially in rural areas — who may still be working to install broadband networks, the data center debate is an opportunity for a structured and thoughtful broadband infrastructure transformation.
While discussions on water and power define where a data center will locate, it is the connectivity that will define what impact it will have on a community.
I have wondered why this hasn’t come up earlier in this current chapter of data centers. Around 2014, Eagan made very purposeful strides to connect broadband to data centers as an economic development strategy. And I remember (in 2011), when Duluth was trying to become a Google Fiber Community that the cold as an asset to data centers and the recent addition of the Involta data center was a plus. Clearly, this is a decade before the arrival hyperscale data center in Minnesota and hyperscale is a game changer. But this article got me looking at what happened years ago. I cannot say whether data centers are a good or bad idea for you community, but the advice I saw 10 years ago looks similar to the first step given in this article…
To create a robust plan for local connectivity, all stakeholders must be involved. That includes broadband providers that lay the fiber and build the infrastructure that connect our businesses, schools, and hospitals to the modern economy. These companies are core stakeholders, not background infrastructure.
However, these providers are often noticeably absent from such conversation. At a recent Columbus City Council hearing about data center development, for example, not a single internet provider or broadband expert was among the presentations. The room was filled, the news was filming, strong opinions were shared – and yet, broadband was not represented.
Not having all stakeholders at the table means that decisions about data centers are being made with incomplete information as to the whole picture of the costs and benefits of development.
MN House reports that the following will be discussed Tuesday April 14…
HF2862(Acomb)
Certificate of need exemption provided to certain electric generating facilities.
Interestingly, they seem to use two descriptions for the bill but the following document on the docket seemed to indicate that data centers will be a talking point…
HF 2862 – DE 1 -Data Center permitting and environmental review (4/11/2026)
Bob Frenzel runs Xcel Energy, headquartered here in Minneapolis. Xcel is one of the country’s largest energy providers, distributing electricity to 6.1 million electric and natural gas customers across eight states.
MPR’s senior economic contributor Chris Farrell spoke with Frenzel at a Tuesday luncheon event sponsored by the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management.
The biggest standout from the conversation was the sheer scale of investment going into data centers — the specialized facilities powering the rise of artificial intelligence. We’re talking $600 billion in investment this year alone. Frenzel put that in perspective.
“That’s real, physical factories — concrete, steel, wires, cables,” Frenzel said. “Last year, the entire electric utility industry spent $200 billion on transmission and distribution infrastructure. So just consider the size and scale of the investment getting made.”
Frenzel said if it’s done right, your electric bill should actually come down. He pointed to the Google data center recently announced in Pine Island. Google will ultimately want 1,000 megawatts of capacity — that’s 11 percent of the entire Upper Midwest load. However, the company will pay for the new generation themselves.
From the Institute for Local Self Reliance…
As Americans file their taxes this Tax Day, digital equity leaders across the nation will gather for a timely exploration of how public dollars can be used to strengthen communities – and how local advocates can negotiate better deals as AI data centers rapidly expand, lured with tax breaks.
Co-hosted by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance Community Broadband Networks Initiative and the National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA), the next Building for Digital Equity livestream – “Local Dollars, Local Solutions: Digital Equity Tax Money & How to Negotiate Better AI Data Center Deals” – promises to offer insights from frontline forces working to ensure broadband and technology investments serve public needs rather than distant corporate interests.
Sponsored once again by UTOPIA Fiber, the B4DE livestream is slated for April 15 at 3 p.m. ET and will bring together national policy experts, local leaders, and community advocates working in the trenches of digital inclusion.
Registration is now open above
The livestream will be available (and later archived) on Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn with live viewer questions answered by the invited speakers and presenters, which is still being finalized. We will also be live posting from the Community Broadband Networks Bluesky page.
A coalition of Minnesotans opposed to the development of data centers has a wishlist for the current legislative session with a hierarchy of priorities.
Banning local officials from signing non-disclosure agreements, or NDAs, would be nice, they say. Ditto for requiring public hearings and disclosures prior to the approval of data center permits.
What the group wants above all, though, is a moratorium on proposed projects in Hermantown, Pine Island, Monticello, Farmington, North Mankato and other cities.
“We’re begging, urging the state to pause,” said Rebecca Gilbertson, who lives about a half-mile from a planned Google data center in Hermantown.
There’s a discussion about NDAs…
NDAs are common tools — too common in the eyes of those advocating against them — used in economic development. They allow plans to simmer behind the scenes before any public scrutiny can boil over at public meetings. The normalization of NDAs prompted a St. Louis County commissioner to propose a ban on them last year.
Business groups, however, argue that NDA bans would stymie development.
“Without some level of confidentiality during those early conversations, companies may be unwilling to explore potential projects in Minnesota while evaluating investments across multiple states or competing communities within the same region,” wrote a group of economic organizations in a letter submitted to the Legislature.
And discussion on proposed moratorium on data centers…
A moratorium bill introduced by Sen. Jennifer McEwen, DFL-Duluth, would halt local permits for data centers until the state’s Public Utilities Commission submits a report to the Legislature on energy usage, water usage and other impacts. The bill would delay development until at least a year after the report’s submission, theoretically pushing back local approvals into 2029.
Only a third of Americans are supportive of data centers, which is less than their support of building a stadium or airport near their home, said Chris Jordan, the program manager of AI and innovation at the National League of Cities.
“Then if you ask that third of people, what if we increased your electricity bills by $10 a month? That number of supporters is basically split in half already,” Jordan said.
Jordan joined Moderator Chris Seidt and CTC Technology & Energy Principal Analyst and Market Intelligence Specialist Jacob Levin for a conversation on the landscape of data centers, including both the economic promises and pressure to move quickly. At the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors’ webinar Monday, the panelists spoke about residents’ concerns on environmental impact and community cost.
Something new to listen to on a long drive – Yonder Radio. Here’s a description from their newsletter…
This week’s hour opens with a look at what happens when major corporations like Meta and Amazon bring data centers to rural communities. Also in this episode: hear how rural films performed at this year’s Academy Awards, take a road trip through some of the wonders of roadside America, and step back in time to explore ancient folk pottery traditions still alive in North Carolina.
Plus, enjoy a mix of rock and blues, along with an interview featuring an artist from Blue Mountain Tribe, three-time winners of the Native American Music Awards.
The data center discussion happens in the first 10 minutes. The rest of the podcast is fun too – from scenic byways to the Oscars through a rural lens.
INVER GROVE HEIGHTS: Residents will have an opportunity later this month to learn more about a proposed data center project planned for a site along Carmen Avenue in Inver Grove Heights.
According to city information, the project developer will host a neighborhood meeting regarding a proposed data center at 5842 Carmen Ave. E., the former site of Travel Tags, Inc.
The meeting is scheduled for Thursday, March 26, 2026, from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at the Veterans Memorial Community Center, located at 8055 Barbara Ave.
City officials say the proposed data center building would be approximately one-third the size of the former Travel Tags facility that previously occupied the property.
The neighborhood meeting will be informal and hosted by the developer, allowing nearby residents to hear a presentation about the project and ask questions. Officials note that residents can provide comments during the meeting, but it is not a formal public hearing.