The data center fight in Mercer County, North Dakota
As of September 27, 2026, Mercer County, North Dakota rescinded its data center moratorium (action taken Mar 3, 2026).
Status is derived, not stored — a pause with a documented end date flips to Expired on its own — and the source is right next to the claim.
Status today
Commission approved one-year moratorium on data center applications 3-2. Followed public complaints about NextEra Energy/Basin Electric proposed hyperscale campus. Commission lifted moratorium Jul 15, 2026 (4-0, one absent) after adopting revised industrial ordinances including new data center regulations.
SourceNews
read 2026-09-12
An expiry date is the earliest a pause could have ended — extensions are common, so confirm with the clerk before citing it.
What to do next
- Questions to ask at the hearing — force specific answers onto the record.
- Estimate the impact — electricity, water, and rate pressure for any facility size in North Dakota.
- Model CBA clauses — copy-paste language communities have actually won.
- North Dakota briefing — rates, grid carbon, PUC contacts, and every fight in the state.
Nearby in North Dakota
- Oliver County (27 mi) — Rescindedterm not documented
- Morton County (48 mi) — Rescindedterm not documented
- Barnes County (179 mi) — Enactedexpires soon — 2026-11-19
All 4 tracked actions in North Dakota are on the state page.
As of August 2026 · changes weekly — re-check before citing
Illustrative rather than exhaustive — dozens of localities churn weekly, and this tracks the ones we have read a source for. **Each row carries its own provenance.** Rows showing a verification date link to the ordinance, the enacting body's own page, or a datable report of the vote, and were read on that date. Rows marked *unverified* came from bulk compilation and have not been checked against a primary source — the locality, the year, and the status may all be off. Verify one of those with the town clerk before citing it as precedent. **Expiry is derived, not asserted.** A row with a documented end date flips to *Expired* on its own once that date passes. A time-limited moratorium whose start date was never documented keeps showing as enacted — that is a known gap, not a claim that it is still in force. Moratoriums are also routinely extended, so an expiry date is the earliest it could have ended, not proof that it did.
Part of the U.S. data center moratorium tracker — open data, CC BY 4.0.