Back in August I reviewed the Legislative Research Council’s draft issue memorandum on hyperscale data centers and deemed it a well-documented and objective policy primer on what has turned into a potent political issue nationwide and a matter causing great concern among South Dakota voters.
Two leading Republican wingnuts on the Legislative Executive Board agree with my assessment of that issue memorandum:
“I read this with sort of the eye of trying to make sure that it was just laying out the facts and presented neutrally, and I did think you did a really good job at that,” Hansen told Hale. “So, I just want to push back on some of the criticism that was leveled earlier.”
House Majority Leader Scott Odenbach, R-Spearfish, called the memorandum a “thorough and dispassionate look” at the issue [Joshua Haiar, “Lawmakers Argue About Legislative Data Center Memo That One Calls ‘A Very Opinionated Piece’,” South Dakota Searchlight, 2026.11.10].
Speaker Hansen and Rep. Odenbach were responding to their colleague, Senator Steve Kolbeck (R-2/Brandon), who cast whiny aspersions on the report on behalf of his employer:
Sen. Steve Kolbeck, R-Brandon, is an executive for Xcel Energy, a multi-state provider of electricity and natural gas. He is also a former member of the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission, which regulates investor-owned utilities.
During a Tuesday meeting in Pierre of the Legislature’s Executive Board, Kolbeck criticized Legislative Research Council staff attorney Rachel Hale’s 17-page “Hyperscale Data Centers” issue memorandum. Kolbeck went on to cast the lone no vote against accepting the memorandum.
“I was just kind of trying to figure out where LRC staff came up with a very opinionated piece,” Kolbeck said, calling some of the memorandum’s sources “not necessarily factual”.
…Kolbeck said he found parts of the report inaccurate, particularly its discussion of potential electricity rate increases [Haiar, 2026.11.10].
Kolbeck and Senator Jim Mehlhaff (R-24/Pierre) were the only two E-Board members to vote against accepting the report.
Maybe I need to be less worried about wingnuts (whose ranks and power will be significantly diminished come January) and more worried about the corpnuts like Kolbeck who try to dismiss good research as opinion when it might complicate their crony-capitalist pursuit of profit.
As I noted in August, the LRC did in this issue memorandum what it generally does in all of its work: avoiding opinion and advocacy and just presenting the research as it stands for policymakers to consider. On widespread concerns that big data centers might jack up our electric rates, the LRC reports with clear and cautious balance, not opinion:
Electricity rates are driven by costs of generation, transmission, and distribution.37 In general, these costs have continued to rise for residential ratepayers, with rates increasing twenty-five percent over the ten-year period from 2014 to 2024.38 Rates also increased by over sixty billion dollars in 2025, with ratepayers across the country paying, on average, nearly ten percent more for electricity than the previous year.39
Whether data centers are responsible for the rate increases has been disputed. Between 2019 and 2025, researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory found that increased rates were mainly the result of upgrading infrastructure due to age or for purposes of resiliency.40 Data centers were not identified in that analysis as major rate influencers.41 The researchers also found that some states with large data center growth even experienced rate decreases during the period studied.42 [links added; Legislative Research Council, Draft Issue Memorandum: “Hyperscale Data Centers,” presented to Legislative Executive Board, 2026.08.26, p. 4].
The sources LRC cites in that passage are its big sisters and brothers at the Congressional Research Service, the Pew Research Center, and the World Resources Institute—more independent expertise and sources in two paragraphs than most Republican legislators put into entire bills.
The only strong opinion LRC expressed in this issue memo was its clear call for transparency in data center proposals, along the lines of the transparency provisions in 2026 Senate Bill 135.
As community members, developers, and lawmakers continue to debate and work toward informed decision making, there appears to be a recognition that the best possible outcomes can be achieved only if there is an insistence on transparency regarding the impacts of data centers [LRC, 2026.08.26, p. 17].
Legislators, returning and rookie alike: don’t let Senator Kolbeck snow you. You have a liberal blogger and conservative wingnuts telling you the LRC’s issue memorandum on hyperscale data centers is good stuff. Read it, click the footnotes, read the sources, check with your constituents, and legislate accordingly.
If it was not tripe, as some of the fellows pointed out, Ms. Randall would surely have railed against it, but even she knew it is not worth the paper upon which it is virtually typed.
Thanks Cory. The LRC Issue Memo is 100 percent on target, It validates what many of us have been concerned about. Hyper-Scale Data centers should be a huge concern for every South Dakotan and every American.