South Dakota

Energy/Power is the dominant stress point: lawmakers and opponents focused on grid upgrades, infrastructure cost allocation, and the effect of large loads on ordinary customers. Water/Geology is the second signal because SB 135 tied approvals to ensuring water use does not overburden local resources. South Dakota Searchlight via Route Fifty

None identified. The issue appears in legislative and local-government debate, but I found no 2026 federal, statewide, or local race in which data centers were a leading campaign issue as of May 2026. South Dakota News Watch

A statewide moratorium was proposed in SB 232, which would have imposed a one-year pause on construction or expansion of hyperscale data centers through June 30, 2027, but the enacted posture instead shifted toward regulation and local-control protections rather than a blanket pause. South Dakota Legislature, South Dakota Searchlight via Route Fifty

SB 135, the so-called "Data Center Bill of Rights for Citizens," was signed into law and requires data center companies with 10 MW+ peak demand to pay electrical infrastructure costs attributable to them, ensure water use does not overburden local resources, and allows the state PUC to assess project-related regulatory review costs. HB 1005, which would have created a 50-year sales/use tax exemption for data center equipment and software, was defeated in committee; it also raised cost-shift concerns by requiring utility service arrangements that avoid shifting costs to other customers. South Dakota Searchlight via Route Fifty, South Dakota Legislature

None identified. Ballotpedia’s 2026 ballot-measure roundup does not identify any South Dakota data-center measure, and I found no credible reporting of a South Dakota ballot question on this topic for November 2026. Ballotpedia

1) Gemini Data Center SD LLC, Sioux Falls, near Veterans Parkway/I-90 and Rice Street — proposed hyperscale project; rezoning and preliminary subdivision approved in January 2026 after hours of opposition, with a petition drive seeking a public vote. 2) Sioux Falls first hyperscale data center corridor at Split Rock substation/Angus Anson power station area — same Gemini project footprint; status contested but moving through local approvals. 3) No other South Dakota project reached comparable statewide prominence in the 2025-2026 record I reviewed. SiouxFalls.Business, SiouxFalls.Business

Dakota Rural Action; South Dakota Citizens for Liberty; local Sioux Falls neighborhood/property-rights opponents who packed City Council hearings; conservation-minded and consumer-ratepayer voices cited in Senate hearings; South Dakota News Watch reporting also identified broad public skepticism. South Dakota News Watch, South Dakota News Watch

None identified at the state political-surface layer as of May 2026. Talent and workforce dynamics in South Dakota surface primarily at the sub-state and labor-market level — county and municipal proceedings on named projects, regional building trades council positions, and utility commission workforce testimony — which are out of scope for the tracker's state-political-surface read. Request a full RAIL briefing for sub-state and labor-market analysis.

Emerging. South Dakota appears to have a small footprint by national standards, with its biggest cited data center at about 30 MW maximum consumption and no evidence yet of a major multi-site hyperscale hub. South Dakota Searchlight via Route Fifty

"South Dakota’s biggest data center consumes a maximum of 30 megawatts" (South Dakota Searchlight via Route Fifty).

South Dakota Searchlight via Route Fifty, South Dakota News Watch, SiouxFalls.Business, SiouxFalls.Business, Ballotpedia, South Dakota Legislature