No More NDAs

The following Letter to the Editor was published on May 13th, 2026, in the Fargo newspaper, InForum:

A data center is coming to your town. If North Dakota continues down the same path, you won’t find out about it until it’s too late to ask questions. A tactic multi-billion dollar out-of-state corporations use is to coerce elected officials into signing non-disclosure agreements (NDAs). Safeguards should be in place so that cities, townships, counties, and neighbors don’t end up fighting over who gets the tax revenue from developments. NDAs legally prevent a person from discussing information with anyone not included in the NDA until it expires. If they break the NDA, they can be sued.

Why do data center companies need NDAs? To protect “trade secrets”? It’s no secret that North Dakota is a prime location for data centers. Our weather is cold, our land and water is plentiful, and our township ordinances are relaxed or non-existent. Probably most appealing, the Industrial Commission is offering up hundreds of millions of YOUR dollars in incentives, with a neon sign on the capitol: “Open for Business”.

Projects are best when the local community leads them, and successful projects work out community benefit agreements before ground is broken. Our communities and resources are taken advantage of when projects are rushed along in secrecy with public officials meeting behind closed doors. Multi-billion dollar out-of-state corporations should not be allowed to sign NDAs with your elected officials. As your Agriculture Commissioner and a member of the Industrial Commission, I will be transparent and honest with the people I am elected to represent.

Vern Thompson

Fargo, N.D.