What's at stake in Minnesota's data center debate

Big hyperscaler data centers are just coming to Minnesota. They’ve sparked a backlash and have become an issue in the midterms.

To get a first-hand look at how the data center battle lines are shaping up in Minnesota, I went to Cathy and Gary Johnson’s house. They live in Minnesota’s second congressional district in Farmington, which is in the suburbs south of Minneapolis-Saint Paul.

For more than two years, the Johnsons have been fighting a proposal to turn a golf course across the street into a data center. They’re worried about environmental damage, noise, and bright lights.

They formed a nonprofit and filed a lawsuit, trying to stop construction, but they had to drop the suit after they ran out of money. Now, construction will move forward. Minnesota did pass a law last year requiring the biggest projects to consider efficient water use, but Cathy Johnson said that’s not enough.

“There’s no teeth there,” she said. “It’s like recommending that you follow the speed limit.”

The Johnsons’ neighbor, Terrie Pearson, lives right next to the data center site. She and her husband are going to sell their home and move because of it. She said a realtor told her if they sell now, they’ll get about $500,000 for their house.

“But if we wait until the digging starts, it’ll be $100,000 less,” Pearson said.

We reached out to Tract, the developer of the Farmington site, but didn’t hear back by deadline. Kevin Pranis is with the Laborers International Union of North America, which represents data center construction workers. I invited him to the Johnsons’ house.

Pranis said he’s very sympathetic to the Johnsons’ concerns. He’s got some solutions. Thicker walls and insulation can mitigate data center noise. And bright lights can be pointed away from nearby houses. Pranis added that data centers help grow Minnesota’s construction workforce by providing worksites for union apprentices to train on.

“Either we can keep training new people in the craft or training fewer people, because we don't want people unemployed and frustrated with their careers,” he said.

Pranis said many apprentices trained on a Meta data center in nearby Rosemount.

That’s where I met Dan McConnell, president of the Minnesota Building and Construction Trades Council. He’s against a proposed temporary, national moratorium on data center construction.

“I think local communities deserve the ability to determine what makes sense for them, and they should have the tools they need to make sure that there're not negative impacts,” he said.

The unions that make up the council are split on the data center issue.