MILWAUKEE – This week, We Energies, Cloverleaf Infrastructure and data center developer Vantage, on behalf of Oracle, proposed significant modifications to consumer protections recently implemented by the Public Service Commission (PSC) through its recent Very Large Customer (VLC) rate structure decision (Docket 6630-TE-113). These modifications to much-needed consumer protections mean working families and small businesses would likely shoulder the financial risks of AI data centers in Wisconsin.
Big tech and billionaires do not need discounts to build data centers in Wisconsin. These financial security requirements exist for a reason: to make sure the companies that benefit from data center development cover their own costs, not Wisconsin families and small businesses. This is especially important as these data centers have generated significant demand for new dirty fossil fuel generation, which raises costs for consumers, creates new environmental and health risks, and threatens the state’s ability to meet its clean energy goals.
Rather than comply, these companies are asking for an exemption that would let them off the hook for financial commitments customers, advocates and intervenors asked for, and the Commission determined necessary to protect Wisconsin customers.
As Commissioner Nieto underscored when the Commission approved this rate structure:
"Wisconsin customers should not pay a single cent to subsidize the service of data centers or very large customers, not now and not decades from now. Those [VLC] customers must bear the full cost of the infrastructure required to serve them, and those costs must be fully and transparently assigned."
In response to this announcement, Cassie Steiner, Senior Campaign Coordinator for the Sierra Club Wisconsin Chapter released the following statement:
"The public has made it abundantly clear: there should be no discounts for data centers. In requesting a rehearing, We Energies is putting data centers over all other customers. There is no reason that residents should bear the financial risk of tech companies that are owned by some of the richest people in the world. The Commission was right to put strong consumer protections in place. We urge the PSC to stand by its original decision and continue protecting Wisconsin customers."
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