North Dakota Regulators Can’t Help Blumenthal on Data Center Oversight
State regulators say they lack authority over data centers, limiting what they can tell federal officials.
April 20, 2026 – The North Dakota Public Service Commission cannot provide key information to Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., on data center transparency because it does not regulate the facilities, officials said Wednesday.
Blumenthal wrote to public utility regulators in March to ask whether data center developers use nondisclosure agreements, whether agencies face barriers to obtaining information, and whether states will release those agreements publicly.
North Dakota regulators plan to submit a response to Blumenthal’s request, but officials said it will be limited in scope.
“They don’t come to us. We don’t regulate them,” said Randy Christmann, chair of the North Dakota PSC, who warned against setting a precedent of responding to all congressional requests, saying he did not want the commission to respond to inquiries from all 535 members of Congress.
The discussion came as regulators approved early construction activity for a major power project tied to a data center near Fargo. The commission granted a temporary variance allowing site preparation work, including grading, before full approval of the project.
The $110 million project includes a new substation and a 1.74-mile, 345-kilovolt transmission line connecting to existing infrastructure. It will serve a facility operated by Applied Digital, which is expected to require up to 280 megawatts of power at peak demand.
Minnkota Power Cooperative will own and operate the infrastructure, but Applied Digital will fund the project upfront, with no cost to other rate-payers, company officials told regulators.
Commissioners are monitoring data center development despite the lack of direct oversight, they said.
“We, too, are watching some of this internally in this state,” said North Dakota PSC Commissioner Sheri Haugen-Hoffart.
The commission also declined to commit to releasing any nondisclosure agreements it might encounter through its work with utilities.
“We would just follow North Dakota’s confidentiality laws,” Christmann said. “Things that are trade secret protected would be protected, and things that aren’t trade secret protected are open public information.”
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