MADISON – The next governor of Wisconsin will undoubtedly reckon with the construction boom in the Badger State of increasingly controversial artificial intelligence hubs known as data centers.
As more massive technology centers are stood up across the state, Wisconsin voters of all political stripes are growing more opposed to them, with nearly 70% of voters saying in a recent statewide poll that the costs of building data centers outweigh the benefits.
The issue of data centers is hurtling toward the front of political campaigns nationwide as local residents grapple with the colossal factories being proposed in their backyards and farm fields.
Among the eight candidates running for governor, two have called for an outright pause in construction to varying degrees, while the rest propose strict regulations.
2 Democratic candidates call for a freeze
Democratic candidates Francesca Hong and Joel Brennan said at an April 14 forum that they back implementing a statewide construction pause to beef up regulations before new construction can resume.
“This is paramount to ensure that we can allow communities to have community control, that we have a plan to invest in alternative energy and that we are deleting corporate subsidies,” Hong, a Democratic Socialist state lawmaker, said during the virtual forum hosted by liberal group Wisconsin Citizen Action.
“We need time to be able to implement the regulations and to protect our natural resources and that is going to take time in the Legislature to ensure that we can get to a place where communities feel safer and feel like they have the resources to make these decisions in their local communities.”
Brennan, former state Department of Administration secretary under Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, said he would implement a pause during the first few months of his administration if elected to enact “guardrails” for companies looking to create AI factories in the state.
“The state should have created then guardrails and some more predictability for everybody involved,” Brennan said at the forum. “The Legislature is not going to do anything about this between now and when one of us takes office next year. And that’s a problem.”
“So I have said, yes, I would be willing to take a pause in the first few months of my administration, but I don’t think we have a long way to go.”
Other candidates back adding strict regulations
U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, the lone Republican in the race, and Democratic candidates former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, state Sen. Kelda Roys and former Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. Secretary Missy Hughes have all said more regulations are needed, including those to keep utility costs down and to give local residents veto power.
“Communities can decide that they can have even more stringent regulations [than statewide rules] or they can decide, you know what, we do not want to have data centers within our community. That should be OK,” Rodriguez said during the candidate forum.
Tiffany told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel he would end all subsidies proposed for companies building data centers, including a sales tax exemption offered by Evers’ economic agency and tax increment financing districts created last year for projects in Beaver Dam and Port Washington.
He also said he would ban companies from buying productive farm land for centers’ power generation, and would ensure energy costs are paid by the companies running the data centers instead of through rate increases for local residents.
Barnes, the state’s former lieutenant governor, said at the forum he would require a statewide study analyzing regional and local effects of data center construction on the environment and utility usage to be conducted before each new project.
He said he would seek “a stringent set of rules, regulation that includes conducting a statewide study before any new data center is constructed.” His campaign on Friday clarified his statement in the forum to the Journal Sentinel as not meaning a broad pause on construction.
“All we are asking for them is to be good neighbors. If they cannot be good neighbors, they have no place in Wisconsin,” Barnes said.
Tiffany, Hong, Rodriguez and Roys all said they supported letting local residents have veto power over projects. And all candidates said or indicated they were opposed to nondisclosure agreements for companies building such factories.
Trump administration struck deals with AI producers on ratepayer protection
Tech giants like Microsoft and Meta are building data centers that span hundreds of acres in Wisconsin with the support of President Donald Trump, who views the developments as a boon for the economy.
But Trump also has acknowledged the public backlash related to rising utility costs. In March, the president struck a deal with major AI producers like Google, Microsoft, Meta, Oracle and others to sign a “ratepayer protection pledge” that aims to protect data centers’ neighbors from paying for the uptick in electricity the data centers will require.
Each company agreed to provide or buy power for their data centers in exchange for a speedier permitting process to build the factories, even though states control those rules.
State lawmakers have begun grappling with the eruption of data center construction. In Maine, lawmakers recently passed a year-long freeze on the construction of new data centers − the first statewide moratorium in the nation if signed into law.
In Wisconsin, lawmakers in both parties have introduced bills aimed at regulating data center construction, and the Assembly passed one such bill in January. The effort stalled in the state Senate.
This story has been updated to clarify Barnes’ positions.
Reporter Jessie Opoien contributed to this article.
Molly Beck can be reached at molly.beck@jrn.com.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Where the candidates for governor stand on data center construction
Reporting by Molly Beck, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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