Wisconsin Democrats are responding to a blitz of data center development with a proposal seeking to minimize environmental impact and require owners to disclose information about electricity demand and water use.
State Sen. Jodi Habush Sinykin (D), the bill’s lead sponsor, said the measure introduced earlier this month aims to apply an “intentional and responsible regulatory framework” to a rush of proposals for multibillion-dollar artificial intelligence data centers flooding southeast Wisconsin cities and villages.
“Although the decision to build a data center originates and proceeds at the local level of government, I believe the state also has a responsibility to regulate this emerging industry,” Habush Sinykin (D) said in a statement.
Habush Sinykin, an environmental lawyer in her first term, has seen the data center frenzy up close. Her district just north of Milwaukee is home to the $15 billion Lighthouse AI data center project being developed by Vantage Data Centers with tech giants OpenAI and Oracle as part of their Stargate venture.
