Sheridan County
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Statewide
Montana taxes a 'qualified data center' (at least 300,000 square feet and $150 million, or 25,000 square feet of new space and $50 million over 48 months) as class seventeen property at 0.9% of market value, instead of the usual commercial rate; a 2025 amendment added on-site power generation and storage that opened after May 13, 2025 (MCA 15-6-162; Ch. 438, L. 2017, amended by Ch. 678, L. 2025). (Montana Legislature, 2025) A new customer with an average monthly demand of 5 MW or more may buy power supply from a regulated utility such as NorthWestern only if it shows, to the Public Service Commission's satisfaction, that serving it will not harm the utility's other customers over the long term (MCA 69-8-201); the commission and NorthWestern have disagreed in letters since 2025 over how this applies to data centers (Docket 2022.09.087). (Montana Legislature, 2025; Montana Public Service Commission (to the Legislature's Energy and Telecommunications Interim Committee), Jan. 2026) On March 31, 2026 NorthWestern Energy filed a Large New Load Tariff Rule (Rule No. 24) with the Public Service Commission for new loads of 5 MW or more, with minimum contract terms, minimum bills, collateral and exit costs, and commission approval of each service agreement for loads of 50 MW or more; the case was pending when checked, and the state Department of Environmental Quality asked in June 2026 to join it. (NorthWestern Energy (filed with the Montana Public Service Commission), March 31, 2026; NorthWestern Energy, Oct. 24, 2026; Office of the Governor of Montana, June 18, 2026) On Nov. 17, 2025, nine advocacy groups represented by Earthjustice (Big Sky 55+, Butte Watchdogs for Social and Environmental Justice, Climate Smart Missoula, Golden Triangle Resource Council, Helena Interfaith Climate Advocates, Honor the Earth, Montana Environmental Information Center, Montana Public Interest Research Group and NW Energy Coalition) filed a complaint against NorthWestern Energy with the Public Service Commission (Docket 2025.11.084). Pointing to NorthWestern's letters of intent with Atlas Power, Sabey and Quantica (about 1,400 MW in all), they argued that under MCA 69-8-201 the utility may not supply those data centers until the commission finds that doing so will not harm its other customers over the long term, and they asked for an investigation with a hearing, a separate customer class and tariff for large data centers and, in a companion petition, a ruling on what the law requires. As reported, NorthWestern said it would not supply data centers before the commission approves their contracts and a data center tariff, and on Feb. 24, 2026 it asked the commission to dismiss the complaint; that request was pending in mid-March 2026. On May 13, 2026 the groups asked to combine the complaint with the tariff case (Docket 2026.04.023), and a later filing by their lawyers lists that request as pending in July 2026. The complaint is read from the copy the groups' lawyers posted; the commission's own docket has not been pulled. (Earthjustice, for the complainants (filed with the Montana Public Service Commission), Nov. 17, 2025; Daily Montanan, Nov. 18, 2025; Montana Free Press, Nov. 18, 2025; Montana Public Radio, Nov. 20, 2025; Daily Montanan, March 17, 2026; Earthjustice, for intervenors (filed with the Montana Public Service Commission, Docket 2026.04.023), July 9, 2026) The Right to Compute Act (Senate Bill 212, 2025; MCA 2-10-201 to 2-10-207, Ch. 150, L. 2025) says government limits on owning or using computing resources for lawful purposes must be narrowly tailored to a compelling interest; county officials in Yellowstone County have said it constrains local data center rules, and it has not been tested in court. (Montana Legislature, 2025; Montana Free Press (Capitol Tracker), April 16, 2025; Montana Free Press, Sept. 7, 2026) House Bill 877 (2025), a 'Montana data center development act', was tabled 8-6 in the House energy committee on March 31, 2025 and died. (Montana Free Press (Capitol Tracker), May 20, 2025) Montana data centers →