Complaint Filed after Public Service Commission Denies Records Request, Claims Confidentiality
Madison, WI—Yesterday, Midwest Environmental Advocates (MEA) filed a lawsuit in Dane County Circuit Court to compel the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin (PSC) to release records showing projected energy demand for Meta’s new data center in Beaver Dam.
MEA, a nonprofit environmental law firm, filed the lawsuit after the PSC denied a records request seeking unredacted documents related to electrical load projections for two high-profile data center projects—one in Beaver Dam (owned by Meta and served by Alliant Energy) and another in Port Washington (owned by Vantage/Open AI/Oracle and served by We Energies).
In its October 1 request, MEA identified two documents containing redacted electrical load information and requested unredacted versions. On November 17, the PSC released the unredacted Port Washington record, which showed We Energies had requested interconnection for a 1,300-MW facility. The PSC denied the request for the unredacted Beaver Dam record, claiming it contained trade secrets and that keeping the information secret serves the public interest.
MEA Legal Fellow Michael Greif said, “It appears the PSC is unlawfully withholding this information because either Meta or a public utility is claiming the electricity demand for the data center is a trade secret. We call on Alliant Energy, American Transmission Company and Meta to be forthright with the public about their plans. These companies are asking a lot of the public and the public deserves, at least the very least, basic information about the data center’s massive energy needs.”
Hyperscale data centers use enormous amounts of electricity. The amount of energy needed to power just two hyperscale data centers is estimated to require more energy than all households in Wisconsin combined. Such demand threatens to delay coal plant retirements, drive new fossil fuel power plants, raise energy costs for ratepayers, and prevent Wisconsin from reaching its clean energy goals.
“Wisconsinites are rightfully concerned about what the data center boom means for their communities, for the environment, and for their energy bills,” said Greif.
Public scrutiny is further hampered by non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) between tech companies and local governments. In Virginia, researchers found that at least 80% of local governments involved with data center proposals had signed NDAs, limiting access to key information and undermining accountability. In September, MEA was forced to file a lawsuit over the City of Racine’s failure to respond to a public records request seeking information related to projected water use at Microsoft’s Mount Pleasant data center. Two days after MEA sued the city, the information was released.
“This lawsuit is about making sure Wisconsin residents have access to the critical information they need to understand and evaluate the impacts of the fast-growing data center industry,” said Greif. “Keeping the public in the dark about data centers and the amount of water and energy they will use deprives Wisconsinites of the transparency they deserve.”
Midwest Environmental Advocates is a nonprofit law center that combines the power of law with the resolve of communities facing environmental injustice to secure and protect the rights of all people to healthy water, land, and air. Learn more at www.midwestadvocates.org.
