Gianforte backs pledge to shield Montana ratepayers from data center costs

Gov. Greg Gianforte signed President Donald J. Trump’s Ratepayer Protection Pledge on July 8, putting Montana on record against shifting data-center power costs onto ordinary utility customers. For Helena households and small businesses served by NorthWestern Energy, the question now is whether that promise will hold if large facilities demand more electricity than the grid is built to absorb.

The White House released the pledge on March 4 and said companies should build, bring or buy the power they need, pay the full cost of energy and infrastructure, cover new power-delivery upgrades, pay whether they use the power or not, invest in local workforce development and contribute to grid resilience. The Montana governor’s office said Gianforte joined several other governors in signing on, and described the move as part of a push to protect consumers from electricity price increases tied to data-center demand.

That pledge lands in the middle of an existing fight in Montana over who pays when data centers grow fast. In November 2025, community, conservation and Indigenous-led groups filed a complaint at the Montana Public Service Commission arguing that NorthWestern should not be allowed to serve large data centers unless it first proves existing ratepayers will not be harmed. Those groups said NorthWestern had entered letters of intent with three developers for as much as 1,400 megawatts of electricity, roughly double the utility’s current average retail daily load.

In March, Montana Public Radio reported that NorthWestern had signed letters of intent with the three developers and that the PSC had granted a protective order allowing heavily redacted versions of those deals to stay confidential. Public-interest groups have argued that without more disclosure, captive customers could end up paying for transmission upgrades and new generation tied to private projects. NorthWestern serves about 800,000 customers in Montana, including ratepayers in Lewis and Clark County.

Local governments are already reacting. On July 10, Missoula County commissioners unanimously approved a one-year pause on new artificial intelligence data-center projects, a sign that counties are weighing whether the economic-development pitch is worth the pressure on rates and infrastructure. In Helena, the same pressure will run through the PSC, NorthWestern’s planning decisions and any future effort to sell Montana as a home for power-hungry tech campuses.