By: Anne Hedges
During the last several months, NorthWestern Energy has vehemently denied that data centers are behind its desire to “merge” with another South Dakota utility, Black Hills Energy. However, when company executives announced the deal to investors, they repeatedly pointed to data centers as a top reason for the two utilities’ efforts.
NorthWestern is currently asking the Montana Public Service Commission to approve the so-called “merger” without considering any information regarding the 14 proposed data center projects that NorthWestern mentioned on an investor call earlier this year, and NorthWestern has refused to answer any questions in the PSC proceeding regarding data centers. NorthWestern’s desire to keep this information secret from the PSC and its customers should raise red flags for all Montanans. If we aren’t careful, we are going to get burned – as has happened to millions of utility customers across the country when data centers come to town.
When announcing the deal on August 19, 2025, NorthWestern CEO Brian Bird told investors that merging NorthWestern with Black Hills Energy would help both utilities be “more competitive” in the race to “capture data center opportunities” and would enable them to “make strategic investments that foster economic development, including addressing the growing demand for energy, including from data centers.”
While states around the country are taking action to prevent unregulated data centers from disrupting communities, harming water resources, and increasing electricity rates, Montanans are vulnerable. The Legislature has given sweetheart property tax deals to data centers and has systematically undermined local control, limiting the power of county commissions to protect rural communities. Our governor, a tech millionaire, is eager to sell out Montana communities and homeowners to his tech friends. And NorthWestern continues to keep its deals with data centers secret. We are vulnerable.
To be clear, NorthWestern is about to get swallowed up. NorthWestern Energy currently serves about 700,000 electric and gas customers in Montana and 150,000 gas and electric customers in South Dakota and Nebraska. After the merger, the new company’s service territory would include another 1.35 million gas and electric customers from Black Hills Energy in an additional five states. The newly-formed mega monopoly would provide electricity and gas in eight states, amounting to a service area of about 20% of the United States, according to NorthWestern’s CEO.
A majority of the board members for the new company, Bright Horizons Energy Corporation, will be from Black Hills Energy. The behemoth multi-state monopoly utility will not need to prioritize Montanans – except as far as the state will help the new company meet its data center goals.
In fact, it increasingly appears that Montana will be a cash cow for this enormous new monopoly. NorthWestern and Black Hills refuse to be transparent about their plans to serve data centers or disclose how that could impact Montanans, who have already seen a nearly 40% increase in electric rates in the last few years. We should not be kept in the dark about the new utility’s data center agreements that are likely to enrich utility shareholders at our expense.
MEIC has spent months visiting numerous communities across the state to educate and answer questions about data center risks and impacts. Based on the hundreds of people we’ve met and thousands who have signed petitions against unregulated data centers in Montana, it has become clear that this is truly a bipartisan issue that is extremely concerning to Montanans.
We need bipartisan politicians at every level of government who are willing to challenge NorthWestern’s secrecy and monopolistic instinct and to protect everyday Montanans — and our water and our communities —from subsidizing data centers. We can protect ourselves, but we need politicians who are willing to do so on our behalf.
The PSC hearing begins on May 12, with public comment at the beginning of each day.
This op-ed by Anne Hedges was posted in Montana papers.
