Wisconsin Conservation Voters: Kicks off accountability campaign urging WE Energies to stop raising rates and invest in clean energy

MADISON – Wisconsin Conservation Voters has launched an accountability campaign directed at WE Energies. The campaign aims to help people concerned about the growing unaffordability of energy costs make their voices heard.

WE Energies is demanding another 14 percent rate hike. If approved, this will mark the utility company’s sixth rate increase since 2020, driving up families’ monthly energy bills by a staggering 43.4 percent over just a few years.

Wisconsin Conservation Voters is spending $80,000 over three weeks on digital ads across WE Energies service territory. The robust digital campaign asks WE Energies ratepayers to send a message to WE Energies CEO Scott Lauber. It asks him to stop lining WE Energies pockets by building more dirty gas power plants, inviting more data centers to Wisconsin, and spending ratepayers’ money on corporate lobbying.

The campaign highlights several key areas where WE Energies is mismanaging resources at the expense of everyday consumers:

Corporate greed: In 2025 alone, WE Energies bragged about their record $1.6 billion profit while paying zero federal taxes. And in that same year, WE Energies CEO Scott Lauber was given more than a million dollar pay raise.

Dirty, expensive gas power: Clean energy like wind and solar are cleaner, cheaper, and faster to build – keeping energy bills low. But WE Energies is using rate hikes to pay for new dirty and expensive gas power plants. Why? Because that’s how they maximize profit. 

Inviting more data centers to Wisconsin: Data centers use immense amounts of energy and WE Energies has aggressively invited tech companies to build data centers in their territory. Since the ads launched, WE Energies has asked the Public Service Commission for an exemption that would let big tech off the hook for financial commitments, further risking rate increases that would subsidize data centers.  

Corporate lobbying: Since 2020, WE Energies spent nearly $1.4 million on corporate lobbying. They’re using our money to lobby to increase our bills. 

“From housing to healthcare to electric bills, the skyrocketing cost of living is out of control,” said Deputy Director Seth Hoffmeister. “WE Energies is raking in record profits while paying ZERO federal taxes and handing out million-dollar executive raises while demanding families pay more and more. And, they’re investing in dirty fossil fuels that cost more and harm our health rather than focusing on cheaper, cleaner forms of electricity like wind and solar.”

Following this digital ad campaign, Wisconsin Conservation Voters will continue to hold WE Energies and CEO Scott Lauber accountable for their corporate greed throughout the summer and beyond.