MONROE — The push to build massive data centers in the state, and the growing grass-roots opposition to those projects, has come home to Green County, where officials are hoping to get ahead of any such development with safeguards in place for the public.
And it’s a public that, increasingly, is against data centers, which opponents blame for soaring energy costs and water usage where they’ve been constructed. Big technology companies, meanwhile, say the boom in data center construction is necessary to fuel an economic future heavily powered by artificial intelligence.
“We have been concerned for some time about one popping up” in Green County, said Melissa Even, who represents District 2 on the county board, which is considering its options amid the national reckoning with vast data center initiatives, many of them in rural areas unaccustomed to big development. “We are hoping the town (officials) and county can work together on something to address it.”
Toward that end, the Zoning and Land Use Committee has solicited input from township officials in Green County, for review at its May 11 meeting. The deadline for the town officials to submit data center feedback is May 7. The letter takes no position on data center regulation.
“Steps which may be taken at the county level would not preclude consistent steps taken at the Town level,” said the letter, dated April 21 and signed by Adam M. Wiegel of the county zoning department.
Indeed, while the state considers some type of moratorium on projects and tries to balance incentives to build data centers with new regulation to control their impact, officials agree most of the work when it comes to such efforts in Wisconsin will have to be done at the municipal or town level.
“I can only speak for myself but most people talking about it now are against these projects,” said Dennis Schwartz of Brodhead, who has chaired Green County’s Zoning and Land Use Committee for two terms.
Experts say Wisconsin’s boom in data center construction is driven by its access to water, cool climate, and available land, with major hubs in Mount Pleasant, Milwaukee, and near Madison. Key developments include Microsoft’s multi-billion-dollar Fairwater AI center and a massive Vantage Data Centers campus in Port Washington, where residents there are fighting back against the project.
Some fear that data centers will be built here with secret tactics and non-disclosure agreements to get around local scrutiny. “I hope this vocal community will speak up now before its too late,” said one social media poster, commenting on the Green County committee’s efforts to look into the issue.
Social media has driven much of the local opposition to data centers in Wisconsin but may have “overblown” the issue somewhat when it comes to the urgency of the threat in Green County. It’s unlikely such a project would escape scrutiny here, Even added.
“Nothing is going to happen overnight,” she said.
While the state has previously offered significant tax exemptions to build data centers here starting in 2023, new 2026 regulations would require large AI data centers to pay full costs for new energy infrastructure, with pending legislation (SB 729/AB 722) aiming to mandate 70% renewable energy use, labor standards, and increased transparency.
Wisconsin’s Data Center Accountability Act (SB 729/AB 722) proposes to:
● Mandate 70% of energy usage come from renewable sources.
● Require prevailing wages for construction labor.
● Require public reporting of energy and water usage.
● Exclude cryptocurrency mining from state tax incentives.