Lawmakers open door for data center incentives while passing protections for water, electricity users
South Dakota senators reject calls for moratorium, mandatory setbacks on hyperscale data centers
PIERRE – Sen. Carl Perry predicted before the legislative session started that data centers would “suck the oxygen out of the room.”
The Aberdeen Republican hasn’t been wrong.
Lawmakers mowed through several bills Wednesday aimed at hyperscale data centers that are looking to set up shop in South Dakota. Those were on top of bills that have already been heard, and more that are coming.
“They just keep coming, and I think it’s shameful, frankly,” said Michelle Oftedahl, a fifth-generation farmer near Toronto where a data center company is making moves at establishing a facility there. Oftedahl worries they will drive up the cost of land and hurt small farmers who can’t outbid land speculators.
But not all the bills have been pro-data center. There have been others seeking to restrict them, including one that sought to impose a one-year state moratorium.
South Dakota Supreme Court rules that lieutenant governors can break Senate ties
PIERRE – The South Dakota Constitution enables the lieutenant governor to break ties on legislative votes in the Senate, the Supreme Court said Wednesday in an advisory opinion.
