Pass strong statewide guardrails, like those outlined in SB 729, that prohibit any data center development from moving forward unless it meets necessary standards for environmental and water protection, workers’ rights and prevailing wage, local control and transparency, and protections against increased utility costs for ratepayers and taxpayers.

Issue an executive order on day one to direct state agencies, including the PSC and the DNR, to use their lawful authority to stop unregulated data center development and to enforce proper environmental and water use protections, protect ratepayers from increased energy costs, and properly vet all proposals for new energy or transmission required by data centers. 

Establish a Wisconsin public negotiation team that can assist local communities being targeted by data center developers, so that volunteer local elected officials and municipal staff don’t have to go up against powerful, sophisticated attorneys from Meta, Google, and other Big Tech giants without support or expertise. 

Immediately pass legislation to protect Wisconsinites from potential AI harms and to establish statewide safeguards for workers, ratepayers, local residents, and our environment from data center development

Require upfront payments from large data center projects to fund a revolving loan program financing clean energy upgrades to public buildings

We should require a significant upfront payment for data center development with two purposes. First, to ensure that any potential future damage can be remediated and to make sure Wisconsinites aren’t holding the bag if these developments go belly up. Second, we can use those payments to capitalize a public infrastructure bank, which will then provide no-interest financing for clean energy upgrades to public buildings.

Every school, every public building should get energy efficiency upgrades – to be heated and cooled by geothermal or heat pumps, and powered by solar panels on the roof – but to do that, they need upfront capital that has been out of reach given the state’s paltry funding for schools and municipalities. They can pay back the loans over time with the energy savings, helping Wisconsin get cleaner energy while saving taxpayer dollars now and into the future.