New Bill in the State Legislature Would Create New Rules for Data Centers

Wednesday, November 12th, 2025 -- 10:00 AM

(Joe Schulz, Wisconsin Public Radio) A new bill in the Wisconsin state Legislature would create new rules for data centers aimed at protecting utility customers and ensuring fair pay for the workers building those projects.

According to Joe Schulz with the Wisconsin Public Radio, State Sen. Jodi Habush Sinykin, D-Whitefish Bay, announced the legislation on Thursday. Habush Sinykin and state Rep. Angela Stroud, D-Ashland, issued a memo seeking co-sponsors.

Habush Sinykin said the bill is meant to fill a “regulatory void” in Wisconsin, where the only mention of data centers in state statute is for tax incentives. She called the new proposal “the first of its kind in Wisconsin” and said it aims to establish “clear statewide guardrails.”

“This legislation guarantees water usage and energy consumption transparency, increases the acceleration and adoption of renewable energy sources, insulates ratepayers from the costs of these projects and prioritizes good-paying, family-supporting jobs,” she said.

The bill has already received support from state environmental, ratepayer and labor groups. It comes as recent polling shows a majority of Wisconsin voters, 55 percent, believe the costs associated with data centers outweigh the benefits of those projects.

The bill would require workers building or refurbishing large-scale data centers to be paid either the prevailing wage rate or union wages from a collective bargaining agreement, whichever is higher.

Under the bill, the prevailing wage rate “may not be less than a reasonable and living wage,” according to analysis from the Legislative Reference Bureau. Wisconsin Laborers District Council spokesperson Steve Kwaterski said many union workers are already working on major data center projects, and his organization is in favor of the bill.

He said the prevailing wage requirement will help ensure workers receive family-sustaining pay and benefits. “These are significant economic investments that are taking place,” he said.

“You want to make sure that when you are making these investments in the community, that a part of the overall equation is investing in the workforce, the folks who are building the critical infrastructure.”

The legislation also requires data centers receiving Wisconsin’s sales and use tax exemption to meet prevailing wage requirements and receive at least 70 percent of their total annual electricity from renewable sources.

Stroud said tying the labor provisions and renewable energy investment to data center subsidies makes sure Wisconsinites see a return on their investment. “If we are making public dollars available for private corporations, we need to make sure that these are family sustaining union jobs, and we need to make sure that the investments are beneficial to the public,” Stroud said.

Electric utilities would also be required to report data centers’ energy usage and sources to the state. It also requires water utilities to notify the state if a customer plans to use 25 percent of the utility’s total water usage, and requires data centers to report their water usage to municipalities.

Ryan Billingham, a spokesperson for the Wisconsin Conservation Voters environmental group, said the reporting requirements are important because big tech companies behind data centers often don’t like to tell the public what they’re doing.

“They don’t like to tell you how much energy or water they’re going to use,” he said. “Being a Great Lake state, we have to be very, very careful about our water usage.” Under the legislation, the state would also collect an annual fee from large energy customers based on their peak energy demand.

The money collected would be split between a fund supporting energy efficiency, renewable energy and low-income energy assistance, as well as the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp.’s Green Innovation fund.

The bill also requires utility companies to get the electric rates they offer data center customers approved by the Public Service Commission every other year. The PSC would have authority to determine if those rates are fair and adjust them to be “just and reasonable,” the Legislative Reference Bureau analysis says.

Tom Content, executive director of the Citizens Utility Board of Wisconsin, said that would give the PSC more authority to make sure residential customers are protected by creating a new class of customers essentially just for data centers.

“In a case like this, where you have big tech companies involved, and We Energies and other utilities looking to profit from that, it’s so important that there be oversight to make sure that our power prices are affordable and that utilities aren’t just enriching themselves,” Content said.

Under the bill, electric utilities would be required to offer commercial and industrial customers the option to get some or all of their energy from new renewable energy projects.

Participating customers would be required to pay costs associated with adding those resources to the grid. “The legislation ensures that any expansion of the renewable energy infrastructure is not going to be paid for by the ratepayers of that region,” Stroud said.

The bill would need to pass the Republican-controlled Legislature before reaching Gov. Tony Evers’ desk. Habush Sinykin and Stroud, both Democrats, said they’re hopeful the proposal will receive bipartisan support.

“I am hopeful because this legislation creates a statewide framework that is responsible and adheres to Wisconsin’s values for transparency and accountability,” Habush Sinykin said. “People want to know the potential impacts. They want to make sure energy bills aren’t skyrocketing.”

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