海角大神

As tech companies race to build data centers, more communities are pushing back

Snow-dusted furrows etch the fields as trucks cart away mounds of dirt, day and night, to level the ground. Around the perimeter, blue signs mark where, over the next two years, steel-framed buildings holding towers of computer servers will rise 鈥� part of a frenetic coast-to-coast drive to scale up AI processing power.

To Ted Neitzke, the mayor of Port Washington, this $15 billion data center project is a huge win for this harbor town on the western shore of Lake Michigan. It will generate new tax revenue and hundreds of permanent jobs 鈥� not counting the construction workers and contractors already pouring in. Mr. Neitzke, who balances his part-time job as mayor with his work as chief executive of an education nonprofit, grew up in the city of about 13,000 when it was still for lawnmowers and snowblowers, before the factories moved away. Now, it鈥檚 more of a bedroom community for Milwaukee, with a historic lighthouse and a summer tourist trade.

Lately, though, Port Washington has become something else: the epicenter of a backlash against the giant data centers that are all across Wisconsin. The controversy has engulfed Mr. Neitzke and his city.

鈥淚 didn鈥檛 choose to be the face of data centers, AI, or energy [usage], but I was, because I鈥檓 the mayor,鈥� he says.

It鈥檚 a fight , in red and blue states, from to to , pitting big tech companies and their partners against local activists up in arms about the environmental and community impacts of data centers, as well as potential disruptions from the artificial intelligence technology they make possible. Power-hungry data centers are also being blamed for rising electricity prices. That issue in New Jersey and Virginia, the latter of which has the largest concentration of data centers in the country.

It also helped Democrats in Georgia win two GOP-held seats on the state鈥檚 utility regulatory committee in last year鈥檚 special election. Legislators in Georgia are now to regulate the data center industry, including its effects on electricity prices and the tax breaks it receives; one Democrat-sponsored bill would impose a one-year moratorium on new data center projects.

Democrats in the U.S. Senate are data centers鈥� impact on household rates. 鈥淩ecent increases to consumers鈥� utility bills are directly linked to the tech industry鈥檚 data center buildout,鈥� wrote Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut in a December statement.

An by the Bank of America Institute found that rising demand for power for data centers and manufacturing facilities is already leading to higher utility bills for residential customers, and it predicts the trend will continue as more data centers come online. Low-income households are disproportionately affected by higher utility rates, the analysis noted.

Lawmakers in Wisconsin recently passed to regulate data centers, introducing protections for consumers when new capacity is added to the power grid. The bill would require any renewable energy facility that serves a data center to be on the same site. However, Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, is expected to veto it; Democrats in the legislature have drafted their own bill, which includes strict labor and environmental provisions.

Brad Tietz, a director of state policy for the Data Center Coalition, an industry group, says the bill that passed 鈥渕isses the mark鈥� in the regulation of power usage by mandating that solar farms be built alongside data centers. But he says the industry wants to work with lawmakers to 鈥渟pur collaborative and sustainable data center development. Wisconsin is right for that opportunity, if folks want to allow it.鈥�

Shouting matches at city council meetings

In Wisconsin, as in other states, tussles over where the tech industry should build the data centers that undergird the digital economy, from cloud services to AI chatbots, are local and personal 鈥� and explosive. In Port Washington, council meetings have turned into shouting matches and led to arrests of activists who oppose construction of the data center.

Mayor Neitzke says he鈥檚 and to allay residents鈥� concerns about power bills, water usage, air pollution, and wildlife protection. 鈥淓veryone who came to our council meetings, who would say, 鈥楾his isn鈥檛 right, this isn鈥檛 fair,鈥� we would write it down. We would investigate it. And if we could control it, if it was within our control, we would do something,鈥� he says.

None of this has mollified critics of the project, which is being built by Denver-based and will be operated by Oracle for OpenAI. They question whether its long-term power demands can be met without raising costs for other users. They argue also that the city hasn鈥檛 been transparent and object to a tax-financing package that defrays Vantage鈥檚 upfront costs.

鈥淭his is corporate welfare for a project that doesn鈥檛 have a lot of benefits for this community,鈥� says Michael Beaster, an engineer.

He鈥檚 also a volunteer with a group called that is gathering signatures to recall Mr. Neitzke over the data center. To trigger a recall election, they must collect some 1,600 signatures by Feb. 15. Mr. Beaster is running separately for an open seat on Port Washington鈥檚 council, a nonpartisan body, in spring elections scheduled for April.

While Mr. Beaster鈥檚 politics lean left, he and others say local opposition to the data center crosses party lines. Many conservatives are concerned, for example, about the risks of AI as a tool for surveillance. 鈥淭his gets people riled up on both sides,鈥� says Christine Le Jeune, another volunteer.

Ms. Le Jeune pushes back against charges that data center opponents are hypocrites when they organize protests on social media. 鈥淭his is a hyperscale AI data center. It鈥檚 not for my Facebook cloud,鈥� she says. (Cloud services are currently the largest use of U.S. data centers, but AI is becoming a larger share as more such facilities come online.)

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, is building in Beaver Dam, 50 miles west of Port Washington. South of Milwaukee, Microsoft is due to open this year the first phase of in Mount Pleasant. The Mount Pleasant site had previously been set aside for Foxconn, the Taiwanese company that assembles iPhones, to build a manufacturing plant for 13,000 workers 鈥� a facility that, in 2018, President Donald Trump

Foxconn later abandoned that project, and skeptics say AI data centers could go the same way if AI company valuations collapse. Mr. Beaster says it鈥檚 unclear how Vantage could be held to account if it fails to fulfill its commitments to Port Washington.

New and upgraded transmission lines required

For now, construction crews are working around the clock to prepare the site. To supply the 1.3 gigawatts of power that the data center will need in its first phase, around 100 miles of must be built. Clean Wisconsin, an advocacy group, calculates that the Port Washington and Mount Pleasant data centers combined will require , in a state that currently has 2.8 million housing units.

Port Washington says Vantage is obligated to pay for these upgrades, and consumers should not face higher rates as a result. Indeed, Mr. Tietz says consumers might actually benefit, as demand for power is growing in general and not just from data centers. 鈥淲e鈥檙e at a moment of time where, quite frankly, we haven鈥檛 built enough generation or transmission to meet the overall electrification needs,鈥� he says.

Some Wisconsin communities have successfully blocked data center projects. After opposition to a proposed Microsoft data center grew in the village of Caledonia, .

The campaign in Port Washington kicked into a higher gear in September after Charlie Berens, a Wisconsin comedian and influencer, , claiming that Wisconsin 鈥渨as becoming a dumping ground鈥� for Silicon Valley. That attracted statewide attention and drew outside activists to council meetings, including where Ms. Le Jeune was arrested after refusing to leave the chamber.

鈥淲e were besieged by people who do not live here,鈥� complains Mr. Neitzke. (Ms. Le Jeune, who faces a misdemeanor charge, says the environmental impact goes beyond Port Washington, so nearby communities are right to be concerned.)

While Mr. Neitzke knows some residents aren鈥檛 happy about the data center, he says the debate has been distorted by misinformation on social media, which the city has to respond to, even when it鈥檚 already set the record straight. Rumors used to spread around town in days, not hours. 鈥淪ocial media just changes the game. All you do is chase false narratives,鈥� he says.

In a restaurant near City Hall, Vicki Benson is meeting a friend for lunch. She retired three years ago as a shipping manager at a manufacturing plant. She has followed local news about the data center 鈥� her husband is a reporter at the weekly newspaper 鈥� and has mixed feelings. She worries that newcomers will dilute Port Washington鈥檚 small-town feel and doesn鈥檛 believe Vantage鈥檚 promises on electricity prices. 鈥淥ur utility bills will go up,鈥� she predicts.

But she recognizes that data centers bring economic benefits. And she rejects opponents鈥� claims that Port Washington deliberately kept residents in the dark about the project. 鈥淭he information was there. People just weren鈥檛 paying attention,鈥� she says.

Mr. Beaster, of Great Lakes Neighbors United, admits that he used to follow state and national politics more closely than what鈥檚 happening on his own doorstep. Now, he鈥檚 running for a council seat and trying to engage more locally. If elected, 鈥淚鈥檓 going to try to be constructive and find creative solutions,鈥� he says. 鈥淣ot just say no to everything.鈥�

Editor鈥檚 Note: The original version of this story misspelled the names of Brad Tietz and Michael Beaster. We regret the error.