Committee lays over bill to require data centers to help fund grid upgrades, set community protections

House File 2928, carried by Chair Acom, was amended (A2) and laid over for possible inclusion after a committee hearing that drew utilities, consumer advocates, state agencies and proponents and opponents from the data center industry.

The bill, as described by the author, has three goals: require environmental review to protect natural resources, create a community benefit program to promote energy efficiency and weatherization, and add consumer protections to ensure data centers pay for the generation and transmission capacity they require. "The bill develops a community benefit program to help achieve that efficiency," the author said during introductory remarks.

Why it matters: committee members and testifiers framed the proposal as an attempt to balance economic development opportunities from data center investment with potential risks to Minnesota’s grid reliability, water resources and ratepayers. Several witnesses argued that, without guardrails, rapid data center load growth could threaten the state’s statutory goal of 100% carbon‑free electricity by 2040 and could shift infrastructure costs onto…