Viewpoint: Viewpoint: Proposed Butte data center a massive energy sink
Sarah Borduin
Data centers are coming to Butte. They are here. More are coming.
What is a data center and why does it matter?
A data center is a warehouse of operating computers. They are computing hubs for storing, processing, and networking vast amounts of digital data – think AI and crypto.
Data centers matter because the community impacts they produce can be unpredictable and outsized.
Data centers use massive amounts of energy and water. Mid-size data centers demand the same amount of energy as tens of thousands of homes and they use water on an industrial scale.
Atlas Power Group, which is already operating in Butte’s Industrial Park, currently uses 75 Megawatts (MW) of power and is looking to scale to 150 MW in early 2026. Sabey Data Centers purchased 600 acres of land from the Butte-Silver Bow County this April.
Northwestern Energy signed preliminary agreements to deliver a total of 400 MWs to Sabey and Atlas Power by 2030. 400 MWs is roughly equivalent to the power usage of 300,000 homes.
In August, our Chief Executive County Commissioner, JP Gallagher, traveled with Sabey’s CEO and multiple executives from NorthWestern Energy to a Sabey data center in Quincy. He got the full sales pitch, and he brought it back to the commission. I appreciate that he wants to bring economic opportunity to Butte and that he’s being proactive. He's focused on jobs and investment. That's great — I also want jobs and investment for Butte — but our decisions need to be balanced against the costs.
I'm not interested in opposing the data centers in entirety, but I am interested in ensuring that what is promised is the reality. They shouldn’t raise our energy prices. My neighbors shouldn’t get sick or lose property value. Our community shouldn’t sacrifice water quality or quantity. We shouldn’t be worried that we’ll be competing for power with data centers during winter storms that strain grid reliability. They should be quiet. I want our community to gain rather than lose in this deal. We need guarantees. We need transparency.
Chief Executive Gallagher is pointing to ongoing public dialogue as a guardrail in the process of striking deals with data centers, yet the commission denied Commissioner Bill Anderson's request to postpone (not stop) the April land sale to Sabey so that the public could be allowed more time to comment and engage. Public dialogue can be a guardrail if public servants listen. It can be a guardrail if public servants implement firm solutions derived from public comments.
Montana is not "leading the way" on data centers. That ship has sailed, and it's a good thing we weren't on it. Many states (Texas, Virginia, Washington, Georgia) are creating policies reactionarily after being flooded with data centers. Those states created ridiculously friendly policies to attract them, and now they're trying to regain regulatory authority over data centers that stress their energy grids, drive up their bills, stretch their public budgets, and don’t give much back in return.
For example, a 2024 study from Virginia's state legislature reports that residents could pay $37.50/month subsidizing data centers through their power bills. We should be looking at what lessons those states have learned and applying them here proactively. Any narrative of Butte "leading the way" is misleading and creates a false sense of urgency. We should proceed with caution and cement deals that benefit our community in the long term.
Our local government needs to dictate the terms with contracts, not promises. Our Public Service Commission needs to use large-load tariffs, not letters of intent. Our legislature needs to enact protective policies for residential consumers, not big tech.
And we, as community members, must all speak up and speak out to our Public Service Commissioners, County Commissioners, Representatives, and Senators to demand a fair deal with firm contracts.
Sarah Borduin is a nurse in Butte.