Graded Moderate and tightening. 12 laws, orders, rulings and local actions, each with its source, reviewed 23 October 2026.
The 2025 law makes the PUC approve each 100 MW service agreement and charges $2 million to $5 million a year; Xcel's tariff (15 May 2026) needs 15-year terms.
Xcel's tariff (15 May 2026) creates a separate very large customer class with 15-year terms and an 80% exit fee under a statute assigning all caused costs.
Inver Grove Heights (Jun 2026) and Eagan (Feb 2026) pause the Twin Cities market, and courts halted Pine Island (26 May 2026) and remanded Faribault.
The June 2025 law ends the electricity exemption and ties the 35-year equipment exemption to $250 million, prevailing wage and green building conditions.
The June 2025 law attaches special permit conditions above 100 million gallons of water a year; no NDA ban or hard cap passed in 2026.
Scored on rules in force, 1 to 5. 5 is the most regulated. Pending rules set the arrow.
Minnesota's June 2025 special-session law is the main state rule: a 35-year equipment sales tax exemption, no exemption on electricity, annual fees of $2 million to $5 million for loads of 100 MW and up, extra water permit conditions and a requirement that the Public Utilities Commission approve each very large customer agreement. The commission approved Xcel Energy's large-load tariff on 15 May 2026 and is now reviewing Google's service agreements for Pine Island (Xcel) and Hermantown (Minnesota Power); on 1 October 2026 Attorney General Keith Ellison filed comments saying the Pine Island agreement does not meet the 2025 law's cost assignment requirement. The 2026 legislature passed no data center bill. Environmental review lawsuits have halted Google's Pine Island project and sent Faribault's review back to the city, and several Twin Cities suburbs have adopted one-year moratoria.
The commission still has to rule on the two Google service agreements (Dockets 26-159 and 26-170; comment periods closed 28 August and 8 September 2026; no decision date published), and the attorney general's 1 October 2026 objection to the Pine Island agreement is the main new input before it decides. Minnesota Power's Very Large Power tariff (Docket 26-126, filed 15 July 2026) and Otter Tail Power's data center rate application (Docket 26-211, filed May 2026) are also awaiting approval. The Pine Island construction halt stands while the environmental review lawsuit is decided, suits over the Hermantown and Farmington approvals remain active, Eagan's moratorium is under court challenge, and North Mankato has a moratorium hearing scheduled. Bills on nondisclosure agreements, water permits and environmental review failed in 2026 and are likely to return in the 2027 session, and data center opposition is a campaign issue in the November 2026 elections.
No statewide moratorium, but 2 local pauses are in force as of 23 October 2026, in Eagan, Inver Grove Heights. Proposals and expired pauses are not counted.
Tightening. Minnesota is graded Moderate, which means incentives alongside new costs, limits or local pushback. 2025 law sets terms; courts and cities now slow projects. The outlook above says what is pending.
Minnesota sits in MISO and SPP. The grid operator decides how a new large load is studied, what it must bring or pay, and whether it can be curtailed first; the state decides siting, permits, tariffs and incentives.
No. Minnesota's data center incentives were not pulled back in 2025 or 2026 as of 23 October 2026.
On Genloop's five-line rubric (1 least regulated, 5 most) Minnesota scores grid connection 3, power rates 4, siting and land use 3, tax treatment 3, permits and water 3, a mean of 3.2. The most regulated line is power rates: Xcel's tariff (15 May 2026) creates a separate very large customer class with 15-year terms and an 80% exit fee under a statute assigning all caused costs.
12 items: each is a law, order, tariff, ruling, utility action or local decision that changes what a data center must do, pay or disclose, or where it may be built. Failed and pending measures are marked. Each links to its source.
Attorney General Keith Ellison filed comments with the Public Utilities Commission on 1 October 2026 saying the 15-year Xcel and Google (Echo Zone LLC) agreement does not meet Minn. Stat. 216B.1622, which requires all costs attributable to very large customers to be assigned to them, and could leave other Xcel customers with millions and possibly more than $1 billion in extra costs. Xcel and Google dispute this; Google would fund about 1,900 MW of new wind, solar and storage at no cost to existing customers. On 11 October the Rochester Area Chamber formally backed the project.
Source: mprnews.orgFiled 26 March 2026 for a Google subsidiary's Hermantown campus; the comment period closed 28 August 2026 and the commission will approve, modify or reject it at a public meeting. The Xcel and Google agreement for Pine Island (Docket 26-170) was filed 14 April 2026 with comments due 8 September.
Source: mn.govEagan adopted a one-year moratorium on new or expanded data centers in February 2026; a data center owner sued the city over it in July 2026.
Source: mprnews.orgIn July 2026 the city refused to amend its rules for a smaller proposed data center after strong resident opposition.
Source: mprnews.orgAs of late July 2026, Stop the Hermantown Data Center had an active case over Google's project and the Coalition for Responsible Data Center Development had sued Farmington over a proposed data center park. The Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy dropped its North Mankato case because no project materialized, and North Mankato scheduled a hearing on a proposed moratorium. In August 2026 Hermantown's project still needed city council approval.
Source: nextcity.orgMinnesota Power filed a new Very Large Power customer class and service tariff proposal on 15 July 2026 (Docket 26-126) after an earlier plan to serve very large customers under its existing LP tariff, and Otter Tail Power applied in May 2026 (Docket 26-211) for a Large General Service Tier II time-of-day rate and a Tier III High Power Compute rate for data center loads. Neither had been approved as of EEI's October 2026 tariff list.
Source: eei.orgThe city council adopted a one-year moratorium on data centers in June 2026 by 3 to 2; on 14 September 2026 it exempted QLevr's 55,000 square foot project on Carmen Avenue East because it was already under way when the moratorium passed.
Source: mprnews.orgIn a June 2026 opinion the Minnesota Court of Appeals found Faribault's environmental review of an Archer Datacenters proposal was inadequate and sent it back to the city, which extended the developer's deadline for more information to 2027.
Source: nextcity.orgA Goodhue County judge paused construction of the 482-acre campus (reported 26 May 2026) while a lawsuit over the city's environmental review is decided, finding that proceeding first would cause irreparable harm. The project remained on hold in October 2026.
Source: nextcity.orgApproved by the Public Utilities Commission on 15 May 2026: minimum 15-year contracts, an exit fee set at 80% of the demand charge and a separate rate class for very large customers (100 MW and up under the 2025 law). Minnesota Power has filed its own proposal; Otter Tail Power had not yet filed.
Source: fresh-energy.orgNo data center bill passed before adjournment on 18 May 2026. HF 4077/SF 4379 (ban on municipal nondisclosure agreements), HF 3793 (state permits and DNR oversight for large water users) and HF 2862 (data center permitting and environmental review guidelines) were all considered but not passed; a statewide pause was never put to a vote.
Source: freshwater.orgExtends the equipment sales tax exemption from 20 to 35 years for large-scale centers ($250 million investment) while a companion tax law ends the exemption on electricity. Adds annual fees of $2 million to $5 million for peak demand of 100 MW and up, special permit conditions above 100 million gallons of water a year, prevailing wage and green building conditions, and requires the commission to create a very large customer class and approve each service agreement.
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