Minneapolis Narrowly Votes To Make Big Data Centers Buy Green Power

Minneapolis City Council members voted Thursday to keep new data centers inside existing downtown buildings, and larger ones would have to buy renewable power.

The 7-6 vote sends the ordinance to Democratic Mayor Jacob Frey, KSTP reported. A new data center can use up to 50,000 square feet for servers, or up to 150,000 square feet if the operator signs up to buy renewable power for all of the electricity it uses, the ordinance shows.

“Democrats spent the election promising affordability and are already finding new ways to make their communities poorer,” American Energy Leadership Institute President Chris Johnson said in a statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation. “The AI boom represents an enormous opportunity to attract private investment, expand the tax base, and finance new power generation. Minneapolis Democrats seem determined to make sure somebody else gets all of that.”

Oakland’s City Council voted Tuesday to extend its own pause on new data centers until October 2027, the Oaklandside reported.

Some Minneapolis council members who back a ban saw the midterms as a vote on data centers, Fox 9 reported. Democrats who ran for governor in four states this fall said they wanted to pause new data centers.

The offices of Frey and Council Members Robin Wonsley and Aurin Chowdhury did not respond to requests for comment. Oakland Councilmember Carroll Fife and the Data Center Coalition, which represents the industry, also did not respond.

A new data center has to go into a building that was standing as of Jan. 1, 2027. That building needs at least one other main use, the committee version states. The servers cannot go on the first or second floor, and they have to be at least 100 feet from any home on a nearby property. Applications must also list expected water, electricity and generator use.

Council members pushing for a full ban, or for a council vote on every new data center, fell short on a 6-6 tie Monday, MPR News reported.

“We don’t need more computers in our downtown,” Council Member Soren Stevenson said, according to MPR News. “We need people down here, and so I want to fight for a vision where people are thriving in our city, not for a vision where stockholders are thriving in our city.”