Data centers and the midterms

By Jeff Beach | Deputy editor

By David Lightman

The rare 2026 issue that draws huge support from Republicans and Democrats in Congress is the same one that’s mobilized many Americans: restrictions on giant data centers.

The House has overwhelmingly passed legislation forcing state regulators to consider requirements that data centers absorb the cost of the electricity they use. 

But there’s more to be done, say data center critics.

The future of data centers has become a flashpoint in this year’s congressional races.

By Monitor Staff

Gov. Kelly Armstrong has tapped an engineering executive to lead the North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality. 

Jennifer Turnbow, senior director of business operations and field services at Ulteig Engineers, will lead the department that issues permits for air quality, permits for drainage and water discharge and monitors environmental quality. 

North Dakota farmers are heading into harvest season facing another major expense – record high diesel prices. 

Diesel has climbed above $6 a gallon in parts of the state, roughly double what some farmers paid last fall. Monitor Deputy Editor Jeff Beach joins host Craig Blumenshine to discuss the impact of the high prices on North Dakota producers.

Also, Monitor reporter Michael Achterling talks about his recent reporting on a new tribal law enforcement program in North Dakota that gives recruits a basic training option much closer to home.

A Closer Look with the Monitor is a partnership with Prairie Public’s Main Street.

By Jack Dura

Protests against the Dakota Access oil pipeline left a ripple effect for Indigenous people to stand up for their communities, Standing Rock Sioux tribal leaders said Thursday at a renewable energy event that included reflections on the demonstrations a decade ago.

Indigenized Energy hosted the first People of the Sun event at the Prairie Knights Casino on the Standing Rock Reservation. The nonprofit champions solar and renewable energy and tribal energy sovereignty. Thousands of people gathered in southern North Dakota in 2016 and 2017 to protest the multistate pipeline opposed by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe as a threat to its water supply.

“The oil is still flowing. The pipeline hasn’t been shut down, but there’s something really powerful that has happened, even more powerful than that, is of course the world has been awoken,” Nola Taken Alive, Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Council representative-at-large, told the audience.

By Jeff Beach

Farmers hoping the cost of diesel fuel would go down before fall harvest hits high gear are instead facing the highest prices ever seen. 

Diesel is topping $6 per gallon in North Dakota as wars in the Middle East and Russia drive up prices. 

Chris McDonald of Leonard in southeast North Dakota said he expects to start harvesting soybeans next week and corn in a month, but diesel costs about are double what he paid last fall. 

By Michael Achterling

Basic law enforcement training for tribal police officers expanded to North Dakota this year, offering tribes in the northern region a training option other than the U.S. Indian Police Academy in New Mexico.

Twelve recruits from nine tribal law enforcement agencies participated in the first 14-week class of Camp Grafton’s Indian Country Police Officer Training Program.

Camp Grafton Training Center, a North Dakota National Guard base near Devils Lake, previously offered advanced law enforcement training for the BIA. But the only basic training option was in New Mexico, which leaders in North Dakota and other northern states have said is a barrier to recruiting new tribal police officers.

By Michael Achterling

The U.S. Department of Education and State Department are investigating the University of North Dakota for failing to properly report foreign gifts and contracts, the federal agencies announced Wednesday.

Federal reviews of university records found incomplete, inaccurate and untimely disclosures of foreign funding sources, the Department of Education said in a Tuesday letter to UND. 

The letter highlights UND’s School of Aerospace and funding from Chinese aviation companies.

By Jack Dura

A legislative planning committee on Monday advanced pay increases of 3% as a starting point for North Dakota lawmakers in each year of the upcoming two-year budget cycle.

The Legislative Procedure and Arrangements Committee unanimously approved the numbers, which are for initial budgeting purposes and are not a final decision. That will come in the 2027 Legislature. The committee mostly comprises Republican and Democratic-NPL House and Senate floor leaders. 

By Ceilidh Kern

As demand for agricultural labor grows, North Dakota farmers are looking abroad to fill their vacant positions.

So far this year, 478 employers in North Dakota were approved to hire seasonal foreign workers through the H-2A visa program, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The program connects agricultural employers with workers when they’re unable to fill their positions with Americans.

“It has grown substantially, the need for these workers, because there aren’t enough folks here in the state to go up and do that work,” said Dustin Hillebrand, a workforce center manager for Job Service North Dakota, during a Wednesday panel on agricultural labor during the Big Iron Farm and Construction Show in Fargo.

By Jeff Beach

Jared Hagert said his main message to farmers at the Big Iron farm show was: If you haven’t set up an account at login.gov, get it done.

Hagert is the North Dakota farmer and former lawmaker now overseeing federal farm programs who was back in his home state Tuesday to speak at the opening day of the ag show.

Hagert said USDA plans to retire 100 outdated computer systems, but the modernization is about more than technology. The agency is trying to eliminate duplicative forms and other ways to cut red tape.

By Mary Steurer

The North Dakota Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously found the state’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors constitutional, upholding a lower court’s ruling from last year. 

The 2023 law makes it a crime to prescribe puberty blockers and other treatments to adolescents.

By Jack Zaleski

For the moment, set aside the question of whether huge data centers are good or bad for North Dakota. For now, stay clear of the clutter of conflicting information about water usage, the effects on consumer electricity rates, the potential for sound pollution and health problems, and the prospect of gigantic buildings standing empty in a few years should the rapidly evolving technology for data storage change yet again.

Instead, focus on the failure of North Dakota legislators to seize an opportunity to pause the rush to build data centers, so that those very questions could be discussed, and possibly answered.

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