The column below reflects the views of the author, and these opinions are neither endorsed nor supported by WisOpinion.com.

WISCONSIN RAPIDS, Wis. – A stroll around the massive downtown site of a shuttered paper mill, once Wisconsin’s largest, is a weedy reminder of a bygone manufacturing era.

This tired hodge-podge of buildings is also the focus of a local campaign against building data centers – even though it’s hard to imagine a 220-acre location with better access to electric power, rail lines, roads and ample water supply.

The former Verso plant is symbolic of how the words “data center” have become politically radioactive in Wisconsin – even when that industrial-zoned site is undergoing a brownfield cleanup that would scare away most developers.

Rather than consider the chance to pump 21st-century life into downtown Wisconsin Rapids, where the paper mill sits near the banks of the Wisconsin River, a group has organized to stop the project.

Members of the South Wood County Neighbors for Responsible Development would like to see the city pursue other types of developers and reject the data center proposal from PCH WI Holdings LLC.

The best chance to attract other uses to the site’s periphery is to welcome a data center – within parameters set by the local officials and the community.

In other places where data centers have been built, that “halo effect” includes storage and logistics yards; equipment maintenance and repair businesses; fuel and transport support; accommodations, food and other services for people who build the center and others who will staff it once completed.

Rebuilding a manufacturing site that dates to 1894 doesn’t begin with opening a coffee shop and a hair salon. It begins by attracting a major employer and catching the worldwide tidal wave of artificial intelligence investment so that other localized investments can follow.

The arguments against data centers are familiar: They use so much energy that other ratepayers wind up footing the bill; they chew up valuable land; they consume too much water; and they would become white elephants if the AI industry collapsed.

Innovation in energy generation and transmission is under way; so are closed-looped systems for cooling. State regulators actively resist cost-shifting for electricity. Productive farmland is generally a terrible place to build such centers, but this site hasn’t been farmland since Grand Rapids and Centralia were founded on opposite sides of the Wisconsin River around 1870. There will be winners and losers among major AI investors, but it’s not headed for a repeat of the “dot-com” bust. (If there’s a downturn coming, blame the $40-trillion national debt.)

Opponents of data centers should not be longing to return to the days when paper mills were a staple of the Wisconsin economy. Instead, they should be focused on how such centers power artificial intelligence – and how AI is transforming legacy industries in manufacturing, health care, finance and logistics.

I suspect some of the opposition to data centers is misplaced. Many people don’t like AI for reasons that include job security, national defense flaws and threats to the mental health of kids. That’s understandable, but a 2-to-1 public thumbs down to data centers in recent polls seems over the top.

That polling has compelled some politicians to run away from data centers in their zeal to be elected. Candidates for governor David Crowley on the Democrat side and Republican Tom Tiffany have already taken shots at one another on the topic.

For example, U.S. Rep. Tiffany’s campaign launched a 30-second ad in which his rival is nicknamed “Data Center David Crowley” and suggests lakes will run dry and family farms will be paved over because the Milwaukee County executive won’t end targeted tax breaks.

Scary scenarios don’t help. Candidates should instead urge Wisconsin to welcome well-placed data centers that meet high standards. Perhaps the next governor can pursue an idea floated by state Sen. Kelda Roys, D-Madison, during the primary campaign. She called for tasking a state negotiation team to help local communities avoid being overwhelmed by data center proposals.

Few physical settings are right for a data center. But when a worn-out mill is ripe for redevelopment that can attract more of the same, it’s worth a serious look.

Still is past president of the Wisconsin Technology Council. He is an adviser to Competitive Wisconsin Inc., a non-profit policy group.