Graded Light and tightening. 9 laws, orders, rulings and local actions, each with its source, reviewed 23 October 2026.
The Sep 2025 PSC letter says NorthWestern must serve 5 MW loads if the statutory no-harm standard is met; the Large New Load tariff is unheard.
NorthWestern's Rule 24 tariff (filed 31 Mar 2026) with 15-year terms and 75% billing has no hearing date, so nothing binds beyond the no-harm statute.
Missoula County's one-year pause (9 Jul 2026) sits outside the Billings and Butte markets, and the 2025 Right to Compute Act limits local restrictions.
Montana has no general sales tax, no data center incentive and no action on one, so there is nothing to lose or gain.
The PSC released NorthWestern's data center letters of intent in Aug 2026 once secrecy claims lapsed; no reporting mandate or limit exists.
Scored on rules in force, 1 to 5. 5 is the most regulated. Pending rules set the arrow.
Montana has no statewide data center obligations in force beyond an older statute requiring that new large loads not harm existing customers. NorthWestern Energy, which has letters of intent for up to 1,400 MW with three developers, filed a Large New Load tariff in March 2026 that the Public Service Commission has not yet heard. The 2025 Right to Compute Act limits how far state and local governments can restrict computing, and Yellowstone County says it blocks emergency zoning or a moratorium on the Quantica campus near Broadview; Missoula County nonetheless adopted a one-year interim zoning moratorium on data centers on 9 July 2026. A citizen initiative to require voter approval of data centers was stopped in court in Yellowstone County, but the Montana Supreme Court put the Butte-Silver Bow version on the November 2026 ballot. Montana has no general sales tax.
Butte-Silver Bow voters decide in November 2026 whether data centers need voter approval. The PSC has not set a hearing on NorthWestern's tariff (Docket 2026.04.023, now with the Department of Environmental Quality and an Earthjustice-led coalition as intervenors) or ruled on the November 2025 complaint, and NorthWestern expects signed service agreements with Quantica and Atlas by year end, which would need PSC approval under the proposed rule. Yellowstone County initiative backers were weighing a petition for the 4 May 2027 special election rather than an appeal. Missoula County's interim moratorium runs to about July 2027. The 2027 legislature is expected to take up Yellowstone County's 22 September 2026 request to narrow the Right to Compute Act, and the state Democratic Party has endorsed a two-year moratorium.
No statewide moratorium, but 1 local pause is in force as of 23 October 2026, in Missoula County. Proposals and expired pauses are not counted.
Tightening. Montana is graded Light, which means incentives in place and few new obligations. No approved large-load tariff yet; counties and courts fight over control. The outlook above says what is pending.
Montana sits in MISO and SPP and The West outside California. 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. Montana'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) Montana scores grid connection 2, power rates 2, siting and land use 2, tax treatment 3, permits and water 2, a mean of 2.2. The most regulated line is tax treatment: Montana has no general sales tax, no data center incentive and no action on one, so there is nothing to lose or gain.
9 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.
On 22 September 2026 commissioners sent legislators a letter saying the Act prevents them from enforcing data center rules, including emergency zoning, for the Quantica campus near Broadview. A county attorney memo of 31 August 2026 said the Act likely bars a categorical moratorium.
Source: govtech.comIn an order filed 22 September 2026 the Montana Supreme Court overturned the county elections administrator's decision to move the signature deadline back from 14 August to 13 July, so the initiative will appear on the November 2026 ballot. It would bar the city-county from authorizing construction or expansion of any data center without voter approval. The order granted emergency relief; the article does not say whether the underlying case is finished.
Source: newsfromthestates.comAfter NorthWestern told the PSC on 31 July 2026 it no longer had grounds to keep them secret, the commission released most of the Atlas (up to 150 MW south of Butte, December 2024), Quantica (up to 1,000 MW north of Billings, July 2025, now planned at 1,100 MW, with an 8,835 MW interconnection queue entry) and Sabey (two sites of up to 250 MW each, one still redacted; the Butte site fell through in May 2026) letters. NorthWestern says no electric service agreements are yet executed and it is assessing eight data centers in total.
Source: yourwyominglink.comA Yellowstone County District Court judge ruled in mid August 2026 for the county in the suit it filed against a citizen initiative that would have required two-thirds voter approval before data centers could be built or expanded, aimed at Quantica's roughly 5,000-acre campus near Broadview. The county cited both the retroactive move of the signature deadline from 12 August to 13 July under a 2025 law and a 2026 Montana Supreme Court ruling that a Treasure County wind initiative overrode county zoning powers. Backers had not decided whether to appeal and were weighing a petition for the 4 May 2027 special election (needing 25% of voters' signatures) or a legislative moratorium in 2027. It is not on the November 2026 ballot.
Source: dailymontanan.comCommissioners voted unanimously on 9 July 2026 to adopt emergency interim zoning that pauses new or expanded data centers countywide, in zoned and unzoned areas but excluding the city of Missoula, for up to one year while the county rewrites its 2021 rules on water, air, heat, noise and vibration. It can be extended one more year after another hearing. County counsel said a permanent ban is not possible. The city's zoning map has no district where data centers are allowed without a rezoning.
Source: montanafreepress.orgFiled 31 March 2026 (PSC Docket 2026.04.023) for loads above 5 MW, with an enhanced track and PSC approval of each service agreement at 50 MW: a 15-year minimum term, billing on at least 75% of contract demand, and performance assurance covering termination costs of at least three years of minimum bills. The Department of Environmental Quality (at Governor Gianforte's direction, 18 June 2026) and an Earthjustice-led coalition (15 June 2026) sought to intervene. The PSC has not set a hearing or ruled; NorthWestern expects signed agreements with Quantica and Atlas by year end.
Source: news.mt.govOn 17 November 2025 Earthjustice, for a coalition of groups, asked the PSC to bar NorthWestern from serving data centers until the commission finds no long-run harm to other customers and to create a separate customer class. It cited letters of intent with Atlas Power (75 MW rising to 150 MW), Sabey (50 MW rising to 250 MW) and Quantica (175 MW rising to 1,000 MW); the complaint was still pending in June 2026.
Source: dailymontanan.comIn September 2025 the PSC told NorthWestern that customers of 5 MW or more are not required to buy supply from the utility, but that it must serve them if they ask and the statutory no-harm standard is met. NorthWestern disputes that reading of the statute.
Source: dailymontanan.comPassed in the 2025 session. Limits government restrictions on computational technology unless they serve a compelling government interest, with nuisance from physical data center infrastructure listed as an example of what can still be regulated. Counties say the standard leaves their zoning authority uncertain.
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