The Sierra Club is suing in Wisconsin court to overturn the approval of a massive new hyperscale data center near Lake Michigan.
The new lawsuit announced Friday challenges the decision by state regulators to issue a construction permit for the $15 billion Lighthouse project in Port Washington, Wisconsin — without conducting the most rigorous type of analysis of its potential risks.
The lawsuit is part of growing public backlash nationwide to the resource demands from rapidly proliferating data centers, including water use, power and planet-warming emissions.
The Sierra Club decided to sue after it obtained emails through public records requests showing the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources reversed plans to conduct an environmental impact statement of the facility following concerns from the project’s developers that such a review would “kill the project.”
