North Dakota Moratoria
Every infrastructure moratorium we have identified in North Dakota as of April 2026.
7 instruments — 4 in force, 0 pending, 3 past. Activity level: Medium.
| Jurisdiction | Type | Date enacted | Duration | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dunn County | County | 2026-03-18 | 12 months | 🟡 Pending |
| Mercer County | County | 2026-03-03 | 1 year | 🟡 Pending |
| Morton County | County | 2024-09-12 | Until siting and performance standards are developed and adopted; county page st | 🟢 Active |
| Oliver County (Phase 1) | County | 2024-12-12 | Until land use code amendments were developed and adopted | 🟢 Active |
| Oliver County (Phase 2) | County | 2025-05-06 | 90 days | ⚪ Expired |
| Oliver County (Phase 3) | County | 2026-03-13 | 180 days, with option to extend | 🟡 Pending |
| Williams County | County | 2023-06-20 | 6 months, then extended to 2024-02-22 | ⚪ Replaced |
Detailed entries
Dunn County
- Type: County
- Status: 🟡 Pending
- Date enacted: 2026-03-18
- Duration: 12 months
- Moratorium ID:
nd-dunn-county-2026 - Legal basis: County Commission motion; the March 18, 2026 commission agenda explicitly listed "Moratorium Data Centers, Solar Energy and Battery Facilities" as a 10:15 a.m. agenda item alongside the second reading of the Flood Plain Ordinance; KFYR reported the unanimous 12-month motion. No formal resolution num
- What prompted it: Need for county staff to draft permitting ordinances for data centers, solar energy, and battery facilities
- Affected projects: No data center project identified; KFYR reported solar farms and battery storage facilities had been proposed in nearby counties
- Detailed status: Active
- Outcome: Pending. County staff are working on permitting ordinances; wind ordinances are also under development
Mercer County
- Type: County
- Status: 🟡 Pending
- Date enacted: 2026-03-03
- Duration: 1 year
- Moratorium ID:
nd-mercer-county-2026 - Legal basis: Motion-based moratorium (no resolution number assigned); per signed March 3, 2026 Approved Minutes, "Folk moved to put a 1-year moratorium on data centers being permitted. Guenthner seconded. Folk, Guenthner, and Voigt voted aye. Wolf and Bauman voted nay. Motion carried."
- What prompted it: Proposed River Run Energy Center and associated data center activity; Michael Berg, Wes Klein, and ND State Rep. Bill Tveit and other residents asked the Board to put a moratorium in place "until zoning ordinances and public policy were better established to ensure that local control could be mainta
- Affected projects: River Run Energy Center and associated multi-gigawatt data center campus in Mercer County; Basin Electric and NextEra describe the project as a 1,450 MW combined-cycle gas generation facility with an associated multi-gigawatt data center campus and over $18 billion in expected total investment
- Detailed status: Active
- Outcome: Pending. Planning and Zoning continued data center ordinance work in March and April 2026; the March 3 meeting included second-reading public hearing on adding Data Center / Digital Asset Mining definitions and listing Data Center as a conditional use in the Industrial District; the third reading wa
Morton County
- Type: County
- Status: 🟢 Active
- Date enacted: 2024-09-12
- Duration: Until siting and performance standards are developed and adopted; county page st
- Moratorium ID:
nd-morton-county-2024 - Legal basis: Resolution 30-2024-03
- What prompted it: County findings cited Williams County impacts, lack of local standards, and need to protect health, safety, and welfare while drafting data center and cryptocurrency mining standards
- Affected projects: No specific application identified in captured county materials; the County's current page states no data center or cryptocurrency mining facility may be permitted until siting and performance standards are adopted
- Detailed status: Active
- Outcome: Draft standards were presented in February, March, and April 2026, but the county page states a public hearing will occur at a future Planning and Zoning Commission meeting
Oliver County (Phase 1)
- Type: County
- Status: 🟢 Active
- Date enacted: 2024-12-12
- Duration: Until land use code amendments were developed and adopted
- Moratorium ID:
nd-oliver-county-2024-p1 - Legal basis: Resolution 2024-05
- What prompted it: County findings said data center and cryptocurrency mining uses were nascent locally and lacked established siting and performance standards
- Affected projects: No specific project identified in captured county records
- Detailed status: Lifted
- Outcome: March 13, 2025 Commission unanimously (Husfloen, Berger, Schmidt all aye) voted to lift the data center and solar moratoria after States Attorney Patrick Waters recommended the lift, in connection with HB 1279 coal-conversion-tax discussions; ordinance work continued
Oliver County (Phase 2)
- Type: County
- Status: ⚪ Expired
- Date enacted: 2025-05-06
- Duration: 90 days
- Moratorium ID:
nd-oliver-county-2025-p2 - Legal basis: Resolution 2025-03 (companion to a parallel solar resolution; second reading and adoption at the May 6, 2025 Commission meeting; vote 2-1, Berger and Schmidt aye, Husfloen nay, per official minutes)
- What prompted it: Commission minutes reported that Planning and Zoning requested reinstatement to allow more time for ordinance drafting; Matt Wilkins, P&Z board member, stated the moratoriums would let the board pause without legal-ramification concerns while drafting
- Affected projects: No specific project identified in captured county records
- Detailed status: Expired (90-day term ran out on or about 2025-08-04 per Resolution 2025-03 timing; no captured records show a Phase-2 lift or Phase-3 reinstatement until the 2026 process began)
- Outcome: No final county data center ordinance adopted between Phase 2 expiration and the February 26, 2026 P&Z public hearing that triggered Phase 3
Oliver County (Phase 3)
- Type: County
- Status: 🟡 Pending
- Date enacted: 2026-03-13
- Duration: 180 days, with option to extend
- Moratorium ID:
nd-oliver-county-2026-p3 - Legal basis: County Commission moratorium action after the February 26, 2026 Planning and Zoning public hearing (notice published in Center Republican Feb. 19, 2026); the February 10, 2026 Commission motion approved placing the public hearing for "a recommended 90 days with final approval to take place at the Ma
- What prompted it: County minutes said ordinances needed to be written; KFYR reported commissioners wanted more study time after a five-hour meeting with comments for and against data centers
- Affected projects: No specific project identified in captured county records
- Detailed status: Active
- Outcome: Pending. February 2026 minutes recommended looking to Stutsman County and McLean County language for local ordinance drafting
Williams County
- Type: County
- Status: ⚪ Replaced
- Date enacted: 2023-06-20
- Duration: 6 months, then extended to 2024-02-22
- Moratorium ID:
nd-williams-county-2023 - Legal basis: Board of County Commissioners moratorium action documented in county materials; the current Williams County zoning page lists the January 2024 and August 2024 ordinance amendments that replaced it, but does not retain the original 2023 moratorium resolution number on the public site
- What prompted it: Existing code did not specifically regulate data centers; the permanent ordinance cites large water and electricity use, continuous sound, low-frequency noise, and off-site health impacts
- Affected projects: Specific project list and MW not identified in captured county records
- Detailed status: Replaced
- Outcome: Chapter 6-16 of the Williams County Zoning Ordinance now allows data centers only by conditional use permit in Heavy Industrial and Agricultural districts, with a 1 mile setback from dwellings, schools, religious institutions, and parks, a 3 mile separation from other data centers, noise study requi
Source: moratorium_inventory.csv · Methodology · Codebook.