Program Information:
With the dramatic increase of AI applications, cloud services, and crypto-mining, data centers are proliferating across the country (and world), and Wisconsin is not immune. Data centers promise to be a boon to local economies, including employment opportunities and large increases in local tax revenues. And yet there are questions. What we do know from locations that now have data centers is that there are a number of concerns that should be addressed sooner rather than later. The questions include whether there will be long-term employment opportunities vs near-term construction jobs, demand on local water resources and the impact on local electrical capacity. Local revenues are also questionable at this point since current locations with data centers have not recouped the promised resources. In addition to these questions, there are additional concerns that have been pushed into the background like noise and light pollution, increased electrical bills, ecological degradation.
In a recent WPR article [3], which is one of several over the past 6 months or so, it was noted that concerned citizens were raising the alarm and criticizing the non-disclosure agreement over a proposed $1.6B data center in Menomonie for which the City Council has already annexed and rezoned around 300 acres of farmland. The city estimates that the data center would use about 75,000 gallons of water per day. Data centers typically feature non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) that may obscure energy and water designs and usage. In a recent report [4], it was noted that “Researchers in Virginia found that at least 80% of local governments that approved or were considering data center projects had signed NDAs with the companies involved.” This means that a lot of negotiations and information are out of local community hands.
According to a report from the Alliance of the Great Lakes States [5] no state in the region has the legal authority to halt or curb ground water use before detrimental impacts actually occur. The report explores the challenges facing Great Lakes’ water use, it also offers a suite of potential solutions.
A lot has been promised, though a lot is obscure. The potential for destructive impact is troubling. It’s up to us to be informed and exercise the citizenry’s right to know. On 11 February 2026 at 6:30pm the La Crosse Area and Dane County Chapters of the League of Women Voters will host an all-state forum on Wisconsin Data Centers. This program will address the environmental impacts and concerns of data centers, including non-renewable electrical generation and increased demand, impact on local water supplies, noise and light pollution, and ecological degradation, as well as discuss the approval process for data centers and highlight opportunities for public discourse. We hope your Chapter and your community will join us!!
The 2023 Wisconsin state budget established broad sales and use tax exemptions to attract certified data centers that include land, equipment and electricity exemptions. Additionally, in an executive order last January, President Trump encouraged a loosening of ecomomic and environmental regulations to pave the way for hyper-scale (major cloud service providers that can house over 5000 servers) data centers. A more recent executive order “seeks to limit the ability of states to regulate artificial intelligence, while attempting to thwart some existing state laws.” [1]
There are worrisome examples in Wisconsin. In an analysis released in September [2], Clean Wisconsin ( https://www.cleanwisconsin.org/ ) found that “two data centers approved for construction in Ozaukee and Racine counties will consume enough energy to power 4.3 million homes - nearly double the 2.8 million housing units in the state”. A Microsoft data warehouse scheduled to open next year, is located at the intended Foxconn site and “was already at the center of a controversial plan to divert 7 million gallons of water per day from Lake Michigan.”