A GOP-authored bill regulating data centers passed largely along party lines as Dems argued it would largely be ineffectual at protecting ratepayers from costs associated with powering the operations.
Republicans say their bill offers a satisfactory baseline for regulating data centers and controlling land use.
Representatives yesterday voted 53-44 to send the bill to the Senate after more than 90 minutes of floor debate. Democrats Steve Doyle of Onalaska and Jodi Emerson of Eau Claire voted with Republicans in favor of the bill, while Rep. Lindee Brill, R-Sheboygan Falls, voted against.
AB 840 would require the Public Service Commission to ensure that ratepayers are insulated from new utility costs linked to data centers and any renewable energy facilities principally serving the data center to be hosted on-site.
Democrats lambasted the bill as a rush job and a political ploy to satisfy residents’ demands to legislate on data centers while producing an unenforceable bill.
“It is unbelievable to me that this is the best this body could do on an issue that all of our constituents in every corner of our state need to get right,” said Rep. Angela Stroud, D-Ashland.
State Rep. Shannon Zimmerman, R-River Falls and a co-sponsor, said the bill is a first step in regulating data centers and urged Dems not to “squander” the opportunity.
“Today is an opportunity not to solve all things, but to solve the most important things that are concerns with the residents of the state of Wisconsin,” he said.
Republicans sought to fast-track AB 840, moving from its introduction to a committee hearing to a floor vote in just 11 days.
Several last-minute additions to the bill passed as a substitute amendment from Zimmerman, including clarifying the definition of data centers and encouraging hiring of Wisconsin residents.
Republicans rejected several amendments to AB 840 from Democrats that would have prescribed a regulatory framework for the PSC to regulate data centers and created a regulatory review council for artificial intelligence.
They also rejected a Democrat-led effort to send the bill back to the Committee on Energy and Utilities.
Democrats, conservation groups and labor unions have criticized the legislation as a rushed and ineffectual response to residents’ concerns about data centers.
In a press conference ahead of the vote, Minority Leader Greta Neubauer, D-Racine, charged the bill was a boon to the fossil fuel lobby, ineffective at controlling ratepayers’ utility costs, and a “completely unserious attempt to regulate the issue.”
Stroud, who authored her own bill regulating data centers, AB 722, cited the PSC’s testimony that the administrative body would be unable under its current statutory framework to guarantee that data centers’ utility costs were not offset to other ratepayers.
“Maybe it’s because they rushed the bill, and didn’t do due diligence. Maybe it’s because they just ignored the PSC. I don’t know why they did it,” Stroud said after the press conference. “Frankly, I think they know it, and it’s just not the goal.”
Republicans argued in a press conference and on the floor that AB 840 met essential regulatory needs for data center development and charged their colleagues across the aisle with grandstanding.
Zimmerman said in a GOP press conference that he was “not a PSC expert” and he “cared about the outcome” rather than how the PSC enforced its mandate.
“The mechanics of how, I trust they’re going to figure it out once this bill is passed, because that’s their job,” he said.
Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, dismissed the PSC’s concerns as “talking points as to why they don’t want to do their jobs” and said that a requirement in Dem legislation that data centers draw 70% of their power from renewable sources would use up farmland –75,000 football fields’ worth, he claimed.
Vos also said AB 722 would lead to “forced unionization,” an apparent reference to pay rate requirements for data center construction in the bill.
On the floor, GOP members largely focused on criticizing the Dems’ bill, honing in on the absence of a measure in the Democrats’ bill regulating water usage in data centers, present in AB 840.
“It seems our colleagues on the other side of the aisle are more interested in pandering to our base of support than thinking long-term about this strategic resource,” said Rep. Scott Allen, R-Waukesha.
