Montana is under threat from AI Data Centers. As a Montanan that was raised on a farm in Eastern Montana, I believe stewardship of the land is the best way to conserve our natural resources, and care for our future generations by maintaining and improving a healthful environment. 

As Montanans, our constitution was written to protect us from unreasonable depletion of our natural resources to ensure the environment remains clean and healthful. 

Montana Constitution  

Article 9. Section 1.

 Protection and improvement.

(1) The state and each person shall maintain and improve a clean and healthful environment in Montana for present and future generations.

(2) The legislature shall provide for the administration and enforcement of this duty.

(3) The legislature shall provide adequate remedies for the protection of the environmental life support system from degradation and provide adequate remedies to prevent unreasonable depletion and degradation of natural resources.

Reclamation Section 2. 

(1) All lands disturbed by the taking of natural resources shall be reclaimed. The legislature shall provide effective requirements and standards for the reclamation of lands disturbed.

(2) The legislature shall provide for a fund, to be known as the resource indemnity trust of the state of Montana, to be funded by such taxes on the extraction of natural resources as the legislature may from time to time impose for that purpose.

(3) The principal of the resource indemnity trust shall forever remain inviolate in an amount of one hundred million dollars ($100,000,000), guaranteed by the state against loss or diversion.

AI Data Centers are in opposition to our constitutional right to a clean and healthful environment. I’ll give an example, although there are 100 proposed AI Data centers coming for Montana and each proposal, while different, have the same detrimental effects. 

Quantica is proposing a 5,000 acre AI Data Center in Broadview, MT within Yellowstone County that will use upwards of 7,235MW of power. This will be the highest power user in the state. Billings, MT which is located in Yellowstone County is the largest city in Montana. The main industry in Billings is the refinery which uses 50MW of power. Montanans are already facing rate hikes from  Northwestern Energy, and with the development of Quantica’s AI Data Center, rates are only going to get higher. The water usage will be enormous too. 5 million gallons of water will be used daily to cool the AI Data Center, water that our farmers, wildlife, and citizens need, especially in a drought ridden landscape.

Montanans deserve to live in a state that puts its citizens first, and its citizens don’t want AI Data Centers. Let’s ban them from the state of Montana because they oppose our constitutional rights.