AI Data Centers: Big Tech, Policy Vacuums, and Rural Montana

Our Take

Big credit to Forward Montana for pulling in someone who actually builds these systems for a living. Mike McDearmon isn't a NIMBY with a sign — he's a 15-year cloud infrastructure veteran, and when a guy like that says Montana's grid and permitting rules aren't ready for hyperscale AI campuses, that's worth ten press releases from a developer's PR team. The core problem he and Caleb lay out is the same one we track nationally: the policy vacuum. States and counties are getting pitched massive power and water draws before they've written the rules for how those costs get shared, or whether ratepayers end up subsidizing a server farm's electric bill.

Montana's angle is its own case study — wide open land, a smaller grid, and a rural population that doesn't have the lobbying muscle of a big-city utility commission. That's exactly the kind of place hyperscalers like because land is cheap and oversight is thin, not because the power supply can actually absorb a gigawatt-hungry campus without rate hikes or water table fights. The NPRC's 'Say No to Data Centers' Day of Action on August 22nd is a sign locals aren't waiting for Helena to catch up on its own.

This is the pattern playing out from Georgia to Arizona to now central Montana: quiet deals, vague water and power commitments, and residents finding out after the concrete's poured. Check our facility map to see what's already landed near you, and if you want to push back before the next deal is signed, our take-action page has the tools.