— This week’s episode of “WisBusiness: the Podcast” is with Tricia Braun, executive director of the Wisconsin Data Center Coalition.
The podcast explores the evolving conversation and controversies around data centers in the state, featuring highlights on some of the most high-profile projects and their impacts as well as how public opinion has shifted over time.
Wisconsin has seen multiple communities move forward with data center moratoriums amid a public backlash against data centers. Concerns range from environmental impacts and noise to the potential for higher energy costs linked to the projects.
The latest Marquette University Law School poll of registered voters found views on data center costs versus benefits have darkened substantially from last year, with just 22% of those in the latest survey saying benefits outweigh costs. Late last year, that percentage was 44%.
Braun compares the opposition Wisconsin is seeing to the “NIMBY” movement that has rallied against other infrastructure and construction projects.
“I think it’s multiple factors that are sort of swelling together and creating this very loud, very organized, very well-funded sort of anti-data center, anti-AI movement that we’re seeing,” she said, arguing some of it stems from outdated information about the data centers while also acknowledging the greater power demand posed by the facilities.
But she also suggested foreign adversaries are playing a role in shifting public opinion.
“There are pretty recent reports that indicate a lot of this is being driven by maybe not so well-intended sources outside the United States that would benefit from the U.S. lagging in our data center growth, and our ability to … be that leader in innovation,” she said.
She argued local communities that could benefit from data centers are “feeling all of the pressure from these voices,” calling it “a huge challenge” for the industry.
“It’s one that is going to kind of pull back some of the progress that’s being made if we can’t get everybody on the same page,” she said.
The discussion also highlights some of the state’s largest hyperscale data centers, from the Microsoft campus in Racine County to the Meta data center in Beaver Dam and the Lighthouse project being built by Vantage Data Centers in Port Washington.
“It was really apparent that several of our industries were perfectly aligned to help support not just a data center directly or the data center construction, but actually helping to build the parts and pieces … Our mission is to help drive that economic impact that these once-in-a-generational opportunities are going to provide to the state,” Braun said.
Listen to the podcast here and see the full list of WisBusiness podcasts.
See more data center coverage here.
— The Public Service Commission has hit reset on a $1 billion transmission project set to serve the Port Washington data center campus.
Commissioners yesterday elected to revoke a key certification and close American Transmission Company’s application for the Ozaukee County Interconnection Project, a proposal to build between 90 and 102 miles of new extra-high voltage cable in and around Ozaukee County.
The decision effectively sends ATC, which builds power lines for its parent utilities, back to the start of the regulatory process for the project.
“This application is clearly underwater – nearly underwater – and this action revoking the completeness determination is akin to tossing it a life preserver,” PSC Chair Summer Strand said yesterday at a commission hearing
ATC in a statement said it was “disappointed” in the PSC’s decision. The utility did not address whether it would submit a new application for the transmission project but wrote it was “considering its options.”
The commissioners’ decision came after intervenors in the transmission project complained about the large volume of changes the utility sought to make to its application after PSC staff deemed the application complete in December.
That started the clock on a 180-day review period, after which the commission would have been expected to issue a final decision on whether to approve the transmission project.
In the intervening months, ATC filed another 564 application documents, Strand said, revising cost and revenue projections, modifying proposed transmission routes, and proposing new temporary bypass lines.
Commission staff made 483 requests for additional data across 16 rounds of questions to reconcile conflicting information or errors in the application or to understand unexplained changes.
The administrative law judge assigned to the case wrote in July that ATC’s changes had “unreasonably complicated” the project application. Erik Olson, an attorney for Responsible Energy Alliance, which sought to revoke the completeness determination, called it a “labyrinthine morass.”
Strand called the transmission project a “cautionary tale” of unrealistic expectations for project speed colliding with regulatory requirements.
She emphasized the commission’s decision did not mean it had rejected the project outright, nor was it “hostile” to data centers or new infrastructure or generation projects.
In a filing ahead of the decision, ATC claimed the PSC had not revoked a completeness determination in the state regulators’ 95-year history and argued it lacked statutory authority to do so now.
It also said choosing the revocation option “would rest on a foundation unlikely to withstand review.”
We Energies and Oracle, which will power and occupy the Port Washington data center, also submitted comments opposing the revocation of the completeness determination.
Thousands of Wisconsinites during a weeklong comment period submitted comments on whether to revoke.
Olson said the PSC’s ruling made him “proud to live in Wisconsin.”
“Sometimes people wonder if the powerful just get their way and I think this today in Wisconsin showed the law gets its way,” Olson said.
Responsible Energy Alliance intervened in the transmission application in a bid to block a proposed transmission route the intervenors said would harm ecologically sensitive forests and wetlands in Ozaukee and Washington counties.
The commission’s decision yesterday did not address the ecological concerns raised by REA, and ATC could file a new transmission proposal along the same route if it submits the project again.
— The Wisconsin Early Childhood Association says a new federal proposal would slash “nearly all standards” for the Head Start program, which provides education and health activities for young children from low-income families.
The group yesterday issued a release sounding the alarm on a proposal it says would end most performance standards for Head Start, noting it’s “deeply concerned” the change would gut the federal program.
WECA also argues ending evidence-based standards would weaken the framework that justifies ongoing federal investment in the program, which has existed for more than 60 years.
“In Milwaukee, we work alongside incredible child care providers who deliver high-quality care, early learning, and family support every day,” WECA Executive Director Ruth Schmidt said in a statement. “Weakening Head Start standards would undermine that work and put children and families at risk.”
The group is urging supporters, parents and others to participate in a comment period for the federal proposal and highlight the impact of proposed cuts to standards. WECA aims to have the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to “withdraw or substantially revise” the rule before it’s finalized.
Under the proposal, the program would lose classroom ratio and group size requirements, as well as “key” requirements for serving children with disabilities and multilingual children, parent governance and engagement requirements, educational quality standards, family service standards and more, according to the group’s warning.
WECA also says the proposal would make it more difficult for Head Start programs to access federal funding for operational costs, arguing it will lead to staff cuts and reduced services.
— The Milwaukee law firm Kohner, Mann & Kailas is touting the end of multiple natural gas antitrust class action lawsuits resulting in $100 million in settlements for Wisconsin businesses and other recipients.
The firm yesterday announced the litigation is officially completed after final settlement payments were distributed last month, following nearly 20 years of legal efforts.
Cases in the state were filed by the law firm in December 2006, according to yesterday’s announcement, targeting Enron Corporation and other energy companies for “artificially” inflating natural gas prices.
The suits alleged the companies engaged in coordinated “false reporting” to industry publications and other practices, leading to spiking natural gas prices between 2000 and 2002.
Over the two decades involved in the cases, the firm and co-counsel reviewed more than 1 million documents and 250,000 recorded conversations, while conducting more than 150 depositions, according to the release.
The firm’s lead counsel, Ryan Billings, says more than $60 million was ultimately distributed to schools, hospitals, religious groups, government entities and businesses in the state.
“After our 20-year odyssey, securing that level of relief for Wisconsin commercial and industrial organizations makes every minute worth it,” he said in a statement.
— UnityPoint Health – Meriter has opened a new cardiac procedure space in Madison that will be run through a joint operating agreement with UW Health.
The health system yesterday announced the opening of the new unit, which will perform specialized procedures such as transesophageal echocardiograms, which use ultrasound waves to capture a moving image of the heart. It will serve both Meriter and UW Health patients, having begun procedures there last week.
Through the new cardiac facility, providers at the hospital will be able to care for 80 to 90 patients per month, nearly doubling the previous capacity. At the same time, the typical wait time has been dropped from up to three months to about two weeks, while the length of patient visits has also been cut in half to about two hours.
Trish Siler, Meriter’s director of critical care and interventional services, calls it a “major step forward” for the region’s cardiac care options.
“By combining the shared values and strengths of Meriter and UW Health through our joint partnership, we’ve built a specialized, highly efficient unit that puts patient comfort and clinical excellence at the forefront,” Siler said in the release.
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