The (Almost) Daily Brief

Met Council Moves to Assess Corroding Deep Tunnel Under Saint Paul

By Megan Dayton · 9/28/2026

POLICY  Woodbury froze data center approvals for a year and wrote high-volume public infrastructure into the same order. All four council members and Mayor Anne Burt voted Sept. 23 for an interim ordinance that blocks permits for new or expanded structures, rezonings, comprehensive plan amendments, conditional use permits and variances while the city studies environmental impacts, effects on residential neighborhoods, and how other communities regulate the use. City planner Eric Searles said the city has no active applications or discussions with data center developers and that the action is proactive, adding that an interim ordinance “does not permanently ban a use.” Woodbury has three existing data centers on Bielenberg Drive, two operated by Irongate Data Center and one by Medtronic. Eagan is seven months into its own one-year moratorium, enacted in February, which halted new data centers drawing above 20 megawatts, upgrades above 9 megawatts at existing centers, and any center within 500 feet of homes. Eagan holds a drop-in Data Center Ordinance Community Input Session on Wednesday and is running a community survey through Nov. 1. North Mankato passed a 12-month moratorium on data center construction Sept. 21.

Sources: Pioneer Press, Sept. 24; Pioneer Press, Sept. 26; Mankato Free Press, Sept. 21

FUNDING  Federal surface transportation programs now run to Dec. 11, and the advance appropriations did not move with the deadline. The Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, signed Sept. 2, carried the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act’s surface programs past their Sept. 30 expiration. Congress did not extend the law’s advance appropriations, the piece that funds the $5.5 billion Bridge Formula Program. Alex Etchen, vice president of construction advocacy and risk management at the Associated General Contractors of America, said chapters reported state transportation departments pulling back on lettings out of concern the law would lapse. Michael Clark, a partner at Smith Currie Oles, said short extensions push agencies to phase projects into smaller pieces, which activates the contingency, termination, suspension, conditional payment and delay clauses already written into contract documents. The long-term fix on the table is H.R. 8870, the BUILD America 250 Act, a five-year reauthorization the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee approved 62 to 2 in May after a 14-hour markup. The House of Representatives has not voted on it, the Ways and Means Committee has not supplied the tax title, and the Senate has not released its own proposal. The bill would add a fee on electric and hybrid vehicles, the first new revenue stream into the Highway Trust Fund in 30 years.

Sources: Construction Dive, Sept. 25; House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee

ENG  Washington County opens three highway corridor engagements inside eight days. An open house on County Highway 11, Fairy Falls Road, runs Wednesday from 4 to 6pm at Crosswinds Community Church, 9125 Newgate Avenue North in Stillwater. That project, with Stillwater and Stillwater Township, weighs pavement improvement options, roadway and intersection safety, and drainage between County Highway 96, Dellwood Road, and County Highway 5, Stonebridge Trail. An open house on the Washington County Road 50 corridor study runs Thursday from 4 to 6pm at Hardwood Creek Library, 19955 Forest Road North in Forest Lake. That study, with Forest Lake and Scandia, covers six miles between Highway 61 and Manning Avenue, runs 15 months from summer 2026 to fall 2027, and evaluates traffic operations, safety, drainage, environmental constraints, access management, and multimodal needs. Online engagement on the County Highway 13 improvement project, Ideal Avenue between County Highway 6 and County Highway 14 with Lake Elmo and Oakdale, runs through Oct. 8. The county’s Radio Drive pedestrian management study is out for proposals until Oct. 2 at 3pm.

Sources: Washington County, County Road 50 Corridor Study; Washington County, County Highway 11 notice; Washington County, County Highway 13 notice

POLICY  A second federal court has set aside the cancellation of the $7 billion Solar for All program, and this ruling reaches the whole program. Judge Tanya Chutkan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled Sept. 22, in a suit Harris County, Texas filed last October, that the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to eliminate the program without congressional authorization was “arbitrary and capricious, contrary to law, and in excess of statutory authority.” Chutkan wrote that what the court sets aside is the agency’s policy-level determination that the One Big Beautiful Bill Act made continued operation legally impermissible, and that the holding applies to the program as a whole rather than to Harris County’s grant alone. The ruling follows a decision in the District of Rhode Island that found the termination procedurally unlawful for downstream beneficiaries of Solar for All grants. The EPA says it is reviewing both decisions and weighing an appeal. A third suit, brought by 22 states and the District of Columbia in the Western District of Washington, was dismissed in January. The Minnesota Department of Commerce holds a $62,450,000 Solar for All award.

Source: Utility Dive, Sept. 25

ENG  Monticello broke ground on a $45 million drinking water treatment plant. The ceremony was held Sept. 23 at 203 Chelsea Road. The plant will use gravity filtration to strip iron and manganese from water drawn from city wells before treated water enters the municipal distribution system. Monticello’s wells meet state and federal drinking water requirements, but routine testing found manganese above Minnesota Department of Health guidance, and planning for a long-term treatment solution began in 2020. The facility is designed to treat 8 million gallons per day and to serve current needs and anticipated growth over the next 10 years. Construction runs through 2028, with substantial completion anticipated in December 2028. The city says the plant is separate from any proposed data center development and from the existing wastewater treatment plant.

Source: Monticello Times, Sept. 25

POLICY  Federal regulators let stand a grid operator’s removal of a 750-megawatt project from its interconnection study cycle over defects in the application. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Thursday rejected Oklo’s complaint against PJM Interconnection, which withdrew the mixed-technology Virginia project from the current cycle in early August. The commission found that Oklo did not show PJM violated its tariff and that Oklo did not resolve flaws PJM staff had identified in the application. Oklo says missing the current cycle costs the project 18 months. The commission added that to meet growing demand in the PJM region “it is critical that PJM collaborate with project developers” before, during and after the application process so that guidance and expectations are clearly understood. Oklo can correct the errors and submit the project to PJM’s next cycle.

Source: Utility Dive, Sept. 25

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