FIVE YEARS TO STUDY: PAUSE NEW LARGE-SCALE AND HYPERSCALE DATA CENTERS IN MINNESOTA

Minnesota communities should not be rushed into making permanent decisions about large-scale and hyperscale data centers without comprehensive, independent assessments of their potential effects.

These developments can require enormous amounts of electricity, water, land, and public infrastructure. Yet residents still need clear answers:

• Could increased electrical demand raise utility costs?
• Who will pay for new roads, power lines, water systems, and emergency services?
• How will continuous and low-frequency noise affect nearby residents?
• How much water will these facilities consume?
• How many permanent, locally hired jobs will actually be created?
• What will happen if a facility closes or causes environmental damage?
• Will corporations or Minnesota taxpayers carry the long-term financial risks?

The environmental effects also require careful examination. Large-scale developments may strain water and energy supplies, increase emissions through electricity generation and backup generators, alter local landscapes, and affect wildlife and surrounding ecosystems.

Minnesota needs independent evidence—not research controlled solely by corporations seeking approval for these projects.

CURRENT LOCAL MORATORIUMS DO NOT PROVIDE ENOUGH TIME

Some Minnesota communities have responded by adopting temporary local moratoriums. These local actions are important first steps, but state law limits how long they may remain in effect.

A Minnesota county’s interim zoning resolution is generally limited to one year, followed by one possible one-year renewal. Municipal interim ordinances also generally begin with a one-year limit, with extensions available only under specific statutory circumstances.

These short local pauses may provide time to review zoning language, but they do not provide sufficient time for comprehensive, independent, multi-year research into health, environmental, infrastructure, utility, and economic consequences.

Local governments should not be forced to complete this work under an inadequate timetable while corporations continue moving projects forward.

A FIVE-YEAR STATEWIDE PAUSE

We call upon Governor Tim Walz and the Minnesota Legislature to work together to enact a five-year statewide moratorium on new approvals for large-scale, hyperscale, and other high-resource data centers that have not already received final permits.

For this petition, “large-scale data centers” includes hyperscale and other high-resource facilities meeting applicable Minnesota statutory definitions or comparable thresholds based on electrical demand, water consumption, facility size, financial investment, backup-generator capacity, or public infrastructure requirements.

The Legislature must use clear, measurable definitions so that developers cannot divide a project into smaller phases or use a different industry label to avoid public protections.

During the five-year pause, Minnesota should conduct transparent, independent studies with bipartisan oversight, public participation, and meaningful Tribal consultation examining:

• Water consumption and groundwater sustainability
• Electrical demand and potential utility-rate effects
• Continuous noise and backup-generator emissions
• Public-health and environmental concerns
• Wildlife, agricultural land, and rural communities
• Roads, transmission systems, and emergency-service costs
• Corporate subsidies, tax incentives, and taxpayer liability
• Construction employment and permanent job creation
• Property-tax effects and local economic development
• Financial responsibility for environmental damage or abandoned facilities
• The cumulative effects of multiple facilities within one region

The findings must be publicly available. Researchers and contractors must disclose financial conflicts and remain independent of companies seeking data-center approvals.

COMMUNITIES DESERVE A MEANINGFUL VOICE

Minnesota does not permit citizens to place an ordinary statewide policy question on the ballot through petition signatures alone. Therefore, we are asking the Legislature to establish a lawful process that gives affected communities a meaningful voice including local voter approval where legally authorized before a new large-scale data center is approved.

This petition does not automatically enact a moratorium or place a question on the ballot. It demonstrates public support and calls upon elected officials to introduce and pass the necessary legislation.

THIS IS A BIPARTISAN PUBLIC-INTEREST ISSUE

This petition is not an attack on technology. It is a demand for responsible government, transparency, local control, and evidence-based decision-making.

Republicans, Democrats, Independents, Tribal nations, local governments, utility customers, property owners, workers, and environmental advocates all deserve reliable information before Minnesota makes decisions that could affect communities for generations.

OUR GOAL: 50,000 MINNESOTA SIGNATURES

Our goal is to collect 50,000 signatures demonstrating statewide support for a five-year pause. Fifty thousand is a public organizing goal, not a statutory threshold that automatically changes Minnesota law.

We will ask current Minnesota senators and representatives from both parties to author and coauthor the legislation necessary to establish the statewide moratorium, independent studies, enforceable protections, and meaningful community participation.

ABOUT THE PETITION ORGANIZER

I am Monique Doward, the Forward Independent candidate for Minnesota Senate District 11. I am launching this petition to build statewide, bipartisan support while asking current lawmakers to act now.

If elected, I will author legislation establishing a five-year statewide moratorium on new large-scale and hyperscale data centers. I will work across party lines to secure independent studies, enforceable public protections, financial accountability, and a lawful process giving affected communities a meaningful voice.

If these projects are genuinely safe and beneficial, they should withstand independent scrutiny.

Five years to study.
Five years to investigate.
Five years to protect Minnesota.

Please sign and share this petition.

Prepared and paid for by the Monique Doward campaign, dowardforsenate.com.