The Struggle Against Hyperscale Data Centers Across Wisconsin

Data centers are creating a crisis of public trust. They are treated as inevitable, but communities are clearly and loudly demanding we slow down, pause, and build real accountability.

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Hyperscale data centers are being proposed all over Wisconsin in small cities and towns to serve as infrastructure for artificial intelligence (AI). While normal data centers that power the internet do not require nearly as much energy and can be built using existing infrastructure, AI requires enormous, purpose-built data centers for housing such technology. This is concerning for many reasons, as the implications of these facilities involve vast amounts of energy to power AI computing that will inevitably increase local utility costs, excessive water use for their cooling systems, air and noise pollution, unsustainable job projections and driving local property values down, among other issues. 

To add insult to injury, these data center proposals are being discussed and approved with varying degrees of secrecy by city councils or village boards, sometimes involving non-disclosure agreements, with little to no input from residents themselves.

Ongoing investment in AI is predicated on future returns. This is why so many data centers are being built at once, which has accelerated the demand for infrastructure like computer chips, graphics processing units and energy sources, resulting in mass shortages. Some companies are buying up farmland or vacant sites to be developed into data centers with a predetermined tenant like Oracle or OpenAi. Others, however, are building centers without an already built-in tenant in order to capitalize on the moment before the so-called “AI bubble” pops.

In many states, the detrimental effects of AI data centers disproportionately affect Black communities, continuing a historic, systemic cycle of environmental racism on account of the demands of "innovation."

Rising Electric Bills

The data center lobby, WIDCC, responsible for bringing AI infrastructure to Wisconsin, involves energy companies like Alliant and Boldt. In January, WE Energies proposed to the Public Service Commission (PSC) to shift 25% of data center costs onto local residents, despite statewide consumer energy costs already rising as is, as Wisconsin Watch reports. Analysis from Clean Wisconsin shows that just two data centers, in Mount Pleasant and Port Washington specifically, will use up more electricity than every household in the state combined.

Many of these data centers are being funded by way of tax-incremental financing (TIF) and tax-incremental districts (TIDs), an economic practice heavily criticized for redirecting tax revenue away from public services. Understanding data center propaganda from proponents shows that jobs and tax money are often talking points. While it is true that these projects will bring an initial surplus of jobs for construction, those jobs will disappear once construction is complete with minimal actual employment within these centers relative to the hundreds of acres of land they will occupy. 

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Companies building data centers may make attempts to garner the image that they are contributing to the community by way of philanthropy, such as Vantage’s pledge toward creek restoration in Port Washington, but the benefits of such a consolation sustainability effort do not hold a candle to the environmental and economic usurpation a hyperscale center brings.

Community-driven organizations have mobilized in opposition to these data centers statewide. The Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) is heavily involved in such campaigns, having coined the motto “America’s Dairyland, not America’s Data Land.” Janesville was the first place the PSL joined with organizers last summer, and now they are partnered with organizers statewide. PSL member Sam Doucas describes AI data centers as “the last gasp of an exploiting, extractive economy.”

She explains, “We’ve been doing presentations with Sierra Club and Healthy Climate called “The Data Center Playbook,” where we go over the health and environmental aspects, and we talk how about these data center companies come into town, basically capture city staff and council with talking points to get them on their side, and then ram through with a center against the wishes of the people.”

Politicians Working for Corporations

Doucas attends many city council meetings where she, alongside locals, makes impassioned arguments, only to be met with responses that leave a lot to be desired. “It’s sickening. You’d think any politician would want to hear from their constituents and want their involvement, but these people are stone dead. It’s like they don’t have a pulse. They don’t appear to care about their residents whatsoever. It’s revealing that this political and economic system only works for these companies and not for the people.”

That said, residents in practically every town a data center is being proposed in are attending town hall meetings in mass numbers and speaking out. “The turnouts have been really high in a lot of places,” Doucas observes. “A lot of these meetings have to be moved to different sites because so many people are coming and talking.”

In fact, the PSL and groups like Our Wisconsin Revolution, Great Lakes Neighbors United and Wisconsin Fighting Oligarchy Coalition have facilitated statewide days of action against the AI data center lobby. “We’ve been intent on mobilizing as many people as possible, and giving them resources to fight back,” Doucas continues. “We view it as a precursor to political consciousness.”

Important to note is that the issue of AI data centers has galvanized voters across the political spectrum. When a tech company can come in and disrupt a town’s land, economy and resources without any community input or transparency, it will righteously unite the working class in pushing back, regardless of political affiliation. “This is a direct example of how the idea that everything will be OK if you just work hard and keep your nose down is completely false,” Doucas notes. “That’s why we’ve seen a lot of conservative people understanding it.”

Port Washington

In Port Washington, plans for a $15 billion, Vantage-operated data center with OpenAI and Oracle as tenants were already so far along by the time it was made public knowledge that residents scrambled to get organized. Great Lakes Neighbors United (GLNU), a grassroots group of Ozaukee and Washington County residents opposed to the center, formed this past fall.

Christine Le Jeune, a GLNU organizer, remembers in spring last year when a representative from developer Cloverleaf gave a presentation at a common council meeting. “The mayor really downplayed the situation,” Le Jeune says. “He really disarmed my concerns initially that this was going to be an imminent development or that it was actually going to happen. He also said there would be a lot of community feedback solicited for this.”

Despite what Le Jeune was led to believe, she says she had seen nothing about the data center in city newsletters or flyers before it morphed into approval over the summer with fervent support from mayor Ted Nietzke. Le Jeune had gone to the initial ATC meeting regarding power lines in August, which happened to be right before the common council meeting where the development with Vantage was signed. “There was basically no time for people who were being impacted to make their voices heard to the common council and mayor,” she laments. “One of the biggest reasons people are outraged is precisely because of the secrecy and having been left out of the process, and having this sprung on them, and now being accused of having not paid attention.”

Through open records requests, organizers found out that a public relations company was enlisted early on to strategize about being met with resistance. “While we’re trying to piece the story together, we’re coming across hurdles where the city is delaying open records and not being forthcoming,” Le Jeune continues. “If everything was above the bar, why wouldn’t they just send us the attachments, if there’s nothing to hide?”

Data center construction broke ground in December. Le Jeune laments, “They’ve removed all of the topsoil. It was just harvested this past fall. That was fertile, arable land. Companies like Cloverleaf compete for the same resources people and the environment need.” Additionally, the proposed 90-mile power line route for the center has raised further concerns, as it would extend across adjacent counties including Ozaukee, Sheboygan and Fond Du Lac. In fact, residents of the nearby town of Fredonia launched their own website, Protect Fredonia Coalition, in opposition.

During a town hall meeting in December, Le Jeune and two others were arrested for allegedly being disruptive. Le Jeune was subsequently charged with disorderly conduct with a special prosecutor assigned to her case. “I was confused and shocked,” she recalls. “The meeting was proceeding.”

GLNU launched a petition in October capping the tax-incremental district (TID), with the petition ultimately meeting the requirement for legally having to go to referendum this April. Although invested business groups filed a lawsuit against the city of Port Washington over the petition, Judge Adam Gerol ultimately rejected the motion on February 24.

Meanwhile, Port Washington residents have a lawsuit of their own against the TID. In December, GLNU also launched a recall campaign against Nietzke, citing his refusal to take community concerns over the data center into account.

“They don’t need our money,” Le Jeune affirms. “This is part of that StarGate project, so they’re already seeing federal incentives and now receiving state incentives through tax incentives passed in 2023, and so we as a community are saying that $10 million is the absolute most. If they want more, it needs to go to referendum.”

Visit saveportwashington.com to learn more or get involved.

Janesville

The proposed $8 billion data center in Janesville by Colorado-based developer Viridian Partners would be built in the 250-acre site that was once home to the General Motors (GM) plant, which closed in 2008 and left the site leveled since. The parent company that would operate the data center if built is currently unknown.

A request for proposal came last July, which was part of the agenda on a memo sent out to residents. Cathy Erdman is a member of community group SNOW Janesville, which advocates for positive, community-led development of the city’s south side. “I am not fundamentally opposed to technology,” she states. “I’m opposed to irresponsible development.”

SNOW determined that a data center would not reliably improve the quality of life of the Janesville community, with Erdman pointing out, “It doesn’t bring housing. It doesn’t diversify our local economy. It doesn’t bring jobs. All of which are critical issues for south side residents. If it doesn’t do that, we can’t support it.”

Erdman says that although Viridian has assured residents that they would handle all on-site transmission and infrastructural electric needs, there has not been much discussion about what will happen off-site. “I don’t have a lot of faith that it’s going to be a public discussion given the fact that both QTS’s proposals in DeForest and Beaver Dam are both Alliant, and those are so heavily redacted that they can’t even say how much energy they’re going to be using.”

To Erdman’s point, she mentions that the letter of intent (LOI) document was 60 pages, yet the community had just four days to examine it in its entirety before the vote. “Unless you’re an attorney and know how to interpret it, four days isn’t enough.” 

Janesville community members organized a direct legislation petition demanding that project costs exceeding $450 million must go to voters for referendum. The petition received more than four thousand signatures. Erdman notes that the LOI vote in November had to be moved to a local convention center due to the influx of community members showing out. “There has been public interest, and the more we get this information out then I hope that will continue, because this is obviously something the community should have a say in.”

Local residents may join in on the conversation via the No Janesville Data Center page on Facebook.

Kenosha

Nick Prorok, an aldermanic candidate in District 9 in Kenosha, says he first found out a data center was being proposed in his city from a TMJ4 article with Kenosha resident Alex Aller expressing her concerns about it. Prorok subsequently attended a community meeting to learn more. “In my YouTube feed, I see videos all the time about the harm data centers are causing to communities,” he says. “Corporations come into town and take advantage of their resources at the expense of residents, and that’s been since before data centers even existed.”

Prorok notes that Kenosha is already prone to environmental issues, mentioning how it often smells like chemicals outside. He foresees having a hyperscale data center built with two gas power plants to feed it electricity, all while putting PFAs in the water it uses, would only exacerbate things. Kenosha mayor David F. Bogdala, on the other hand, has spoken adamantly in support of the data center.

While the Kenosha center is still in its proposal stage, the 240-acre site, close to I-94 near Mars Cheese Castle, has already been bought by Microsoft. Prorok says he sent two emails to Bogdala about proposed tariffs increasing local electricity bills but never received a response. 

“The common council has been saying there’s no plans for a building yet, as if this data center is not going to happen if we don’t say anything,” Prorok points out. “The next step is proposing how they’re going to build here, and once it gets to that point, it’s already going to happen. It’s important that we let the common council and mayor know now that we don’t want this.”

There is a Facebook group as well as an Instagram page for Kenosha residents against data centers.

DeForest

In DeForest, a $12 billion QTS data center was proposed as an annexation from the neighboring town of Vienna, near a surplus of pristine natural areas. The center would be built across 1,600 acres - roughly the size of the sprawling Epic Systems campus in Verona.

Residents Tricia Boehlke and Winona Storms say that Dane County has had a history of land use controversy, citing past quarry projects as well as the TIF-funded PinSeekers. While the community was not made aware of the data center proposal until last summer, Boehlke and Storms allude to a huge discrepancy between when companies first approached DeForest with the proposal versus when everyone found out - including some of the village trustees.

“They go and take what they want and don’t care what our neighbors think, and we as the residents don’t want to be associated with that kind of mentality because the people who live here do not reflect what’s happening in our local government,” Boehlke affirms.

Storms says, “They talk about how they’re cutting-edge and doing cool stuff, but they’re not talking about the future, and when I’ve asked them, they don’t answer. This thing won’t be done for ten years, and you’re telling me that the building is not going to be outdated by then.”

Shawn Haney lives across the road from where the center would be. He attended the first informational meeting put on at town hall about the project and recalls being quite disappointed, as were others in attendance. “They had probably 12 people there but didn’t even give a map as to who was involved,” Haney remembers. “We heard about it from some of the property owners as to which acres were part of the initial phase - but they didn’t even bring that to the meeting. They had nothing for details and didn’t answer very many questions.”

After hearing claims that the data center would bring a reduction in mill rates, Haney took the liberty of going through the property tax bill of a house in Verona to see if there was any such reduction resulting from the construction of EPIC campus. He found that there was not, noting, “With the way the Wisconsin law is on tax levies and how you can raise them with new construction, they would be foolish to reduce it, because once the first phase is done, they’re going to have problems down the road..”

DeForest residents created a petition for direct legislation opposing a data center that got 1,200 signatures in six days. On January 27, the village of DeForest issued a statement ultimately ruling the data center to be “not feasible.” Folks can visit nodatacenterdeforest.com to learn more.

Caledonia

Prescott Balch remembers when somebody first noticed a sign in the grass last summer on a lakeside Caledonia property that insinuated a Microsoft-operated data center would be constructed there. The 244-acre site is in a low-density residential area near the We Energies Oak Creek Power Plant.

Balch, a retired software development executive, used his expertise in the industry to determine that Caledonia was not an ideal place for such a project. “The majority of the people on the village board didn’t want to talk about it, and it worried me,” he says. “Our community group coalesced quickly with people who all came to the proposal with different perspectives, wanting to stop it for different reasons.”

Caledonia residents managed to appeal to at least four village board members. The proposal was subsequently scrapped by October. “We’re the last bastion of open space between Milwaukee and Chicago along the lake, and we guard our rural charm vigorously, as Microsoft found out,” Balch laughs.

One tactic that helped organizers was understanding what each board member was passionate about and tying that in with a concern related to the data center. “We’re a little village, and we’re going to get outclassed in the negotiations before, during and after the proposal is agreed to.” Balch contends. “Technology is a dangerous industry to attach yourself to. It changes all the time. Why are they doing all this just for a million and half dollars in tax revenue a year?”

As a word to other communities pushing back against data centers, Balch advises, “Engage early. If you look at Beaver Dam and Port Washington, their communities got wind of what had happened after approval. Once approval is done, your goals are different. Your goals are going to be to protect residents from harm rather than stop the thing from happening in the first place.”

He suggests, “Do what we did and do the job of the village administrator and board for them with your head screwed on straight. They’re looking at one number without looking at all the risks, and they’re not making informed decisions. Any small community should not be doing this. It is financially ruinous. You have to have a coordinated message with arguments that are going to change their mind. Lastly, get some help. There’s a statewide group a lot of people are part of that will help you out.”

Menomonie

The proposed site for a data center in Menomonie had been 320 acres of farmland half a mile north of I-94 near an industrial park, annexed from Red Cedar. Resident Blaine Halverson first found out about the proposal last July from a Facebook ad. He mentions others finding out the same way. “It’s some of the best farmland in the county,” Halverson describes.

When he attended a town hall meeting, Halverson observed many community members voicing their concerns about the water and electricity usage, but he looked at it more from the issues of annexation and zoning. “They want us to be fired up about hot-button issues to the point where we sound irrational,” he reckons. “Meanwhile, they’re going to get to do what they want. That’s what set me off.”

Toward the end of the summer, Menomonie residents mobilized, and within a few weeks, mayor Randy Knaack had sent a letter to developer Balloonist LLC that he was not interested in negotiating the TID, effectively terminating data center plans.

Since the Menomonie residents’ victory, Halverson has been acting as a consultant for other communities, working on model ordinances geared toward high-impact developments with attorneys. On February 24, Menomonie residents introduced a 41-point resolution calling for regulations in the town’s new 1-4 Data Center Industrial Zone that would effectively bar the city from making high impact development decisions to the community’s detriment. Halverson said in a press release, “Clear rules deter bad neighbors or attract good ones. Ambiguous rules attract conflict."

Other Communities and Going From Here

Community pressure has worked in many other places across the statw. Residents of Greenleaf successfully got a data center proposal withdrawn. Another was quickly shot down in Yorkville. Madison issued a one-year moratorium on hyperscale data center construction, as did the three Manitowoc County towns of Mishicot, Two Rivers and Two Creeks. 

However, communities across the state like Beaver Dam, Mount Pleasant and Cassville continue to organize against proposed or approved hyperscale centers, with more proposals likely to come elsewhere. One notable Wisconsin figure speaking out against AI data centers has been comedian Charlie Berens, who is using his platform for building awareness and education around the issue.

Recently, Wisconsin State Representative Darrin Madison and Senator Chris Larson introduced LRB 6377, the Pause to Protect Act, to prohibit the construction of hyperscale data centers without specific environmental, economic, political and labor guidelines, safeguards and accountability measures in place.

Madison said in a statement, “Right now, data centers are creating a crisis of public trust. They are treated as inevitable, but our communities are clearly and loudly demanding we slow down, pause, and build real accountability. This legislation gives us the time to codify real protections for our natural resources, ratepayers, and long-term public health.”

He continues, “The tech industry has a ‘fail fast, fail often’ framework that is a foundation for their growth. This belief often leaves communities in disarray. Technology moves fast but democracy should move deliberately. And in Wisconsin, corporations don’t get to decide the future of our state our communities do.”

If a data center is being proposed in your town, get in with organizing groups and talk to others who also do not want it. If one is already being developed, folks can advocate for direct legislation regarding taxes on computer hardware the centers use, regulate their water and energy usage or call for parameters around TIDs. Visit widatacenterfacts.org for additional information.

“It’s never a done deal - there’s always things you can do to fight,” Doucas assures. “People want community control of AI. That’s what socialism is for. Currently in our society, corporations make the decisions for everybody else.”