Minnesota data center and energy bills

What it would do: Prohibits local government officials and employees from entering nondisclosure agreements restricting public disclosure of information about potential data center development within their political subdivision, and voids any such agreements while preserving other contract provisions.

What it would do: Requires municipalities to hold at least two public hearings before approving data center rezoning or conditional use permits, and to disclose petitioner name, end user, location, size, security guard details, and utility requirements at least 48 hours before hearings, regardless of nondisclosure agreements.

What it would do: Establishes definitions for emergency backup generators and data centers, exempts combinations of emergency backup generators at data center sites with 50,000+ kilowatts capacity from certain energy facility permitting requirements, and adds environmental review procedures for emergency backup generator projects.

What it would do: Repeals the sales and use tax exemption for enterprise information technology equipment and computer software used in qualified data centers, qualified refurbished data centers, and qualified large-scale data centers, effective July 1, 2026. Repeals the contingent $250,000,000 reduction in special education aid appropriations.

What it would do: Appropriates money from the renewable development account to the Public Utilities Commission to contract with the Great Plains Institute to conduct a study by June 30, 2027 evaluating factors affecting future construction of nuclear-powered electric generating facilities in Minnesota.

What it would do: Requires users proposing new or additional industrial or commercial water use exceeding 100,000,000 gallons per year or 50 percent of a municipality's authorized annual appropriation to apply for their own water-use permit instead of modifying a municipal permit. Establishes public notice and comment procedures and aquifer testing requirements for such permits.

What it would do: Modifies data center sales tax exemptions by removing the qualified refurbished data center category, redefining qualified data center to require fewer than 25,000 square feet, and creating a new qualified large-scale data center category requiring at least 25,000 square feet and $250,000,000 investment within 60 months.

What it would do: Establishes a moratorium prohibiting the state or local governments from issuing permits for data centers until the Public Utility Commission submits a comprehensive report by July 1, 2027 assessing data center development scenarios, energy and water usage, economic impacts, and suitable locations.

What it would do: Allows utilities to include nuclear-powered electric generating plants as an optional resource in integrated resource plans filed after September 1, 2026, and requires the state department to monitor and apply for all available federal funding for nuclear power projects, reporting results annually to legislative committees.

What it would do: Requires the Environmental Quality Board to amend Minnesota Rules to mandate that construction of a data center requires preparation of an environmental impact statement, including qualified large-scale data centers.

What it would do: Exempts qualified large-scale data centers filed before January 1, 2025, or located in eligible communities from water appropriation preapplication evaluations, clean energy tariffs, solar energy standard calculations, and annual fees. Exempts electricity purchases for such data centers from sales tax.

What it would do: Establishes requirements for data centers including 65% carbon-free energy by 2030 and 100% thereafter, imposes a fee per megawatt of peak demand, exempts data centers from utility energy savings goals and conservation plan contributions, requires environmental impact statements for new data centers, and mandates the Public Utilities Commission create a separate clean energy tariff for data centers.

What it would do: Modifies environmental and energy regulations for data centers, establishes a clean energy tariff requirement, creates a qualified large-scale data center category with sales tax exemptions and a tiered annual fee, and requires prevailing wage and green building certification for large-scale data centers.