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A recent state projection shows Wisconsin will lose more than $2 billion in sales tax

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revenue because of an exemption written into the 2325 state budget for data centers, a

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break design to promote economic development. Three years later, the state is swimming in new

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data centers with consumer concerns about water and energy usage, but in a win for consumers,

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the Wisconsin Public Service Commission just ruled that existing electricity customers should not

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pay a single cent to subsidize the service of data centers. The ruling is also a major win for

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the Citizen's Utility Board, which fought on behalf of customers. Executive Director of CUB,

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Tom Content, joins us now with more. And thanks very much for being here.

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Oh, great to be with you. So you've said that this case was the most significant one that CUB

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has ever been involved in. So when the PSC ruled, what was your reaction?

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I was frankly surprised. I've had a good feeling that we were going to get some of what we asked

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for in terms of significant changes to what the proposal was, but we got the vast majority of our

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changes or changes that addressed our concerns. The commissioner has really sent a message.

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Even though they can't control every cent, they sent a message that every dollar needs to be

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accounted for. And as one of the commissioners put it, every cent should be paid for by the tech

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companies. So how does the proliferation of data centers in Wisconsin engage consumers

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in a way that other rate cases may not have?

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I think it's a combination of concerns about rising energy costs because we've already come

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into this period with rising energy costs that have risen at rates higher than inflation,

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paired with the local community reaction and basically the Wisconsin reaction as noted in

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the Marquette polls to data centers. And the Marquette poll that just came out

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showed a lot more clarity about where Wisconsinites stand about data centers

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than it showed about who's running for governor. And by a two-to-one margin, people said that

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costs of data centers outweigh the benefits. And I think layered into that is fear of AI

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and what the impacts of AI are on the economy and society down the road.

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I think that played into it too. Because I understand that thousands of people kind of came to

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cub and said, yes, we want the PSC to rule in this way. Thousands of people went to the PSC

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hearings or PSC hearings, or submitted comments online. And so those could have been people in

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Milwaukee, people around the state, we energies customers and others. Frankly, the tech companies

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and the utility were saying the right things all along that they were going to meet their demand

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or that they were going to play their own way. But for us, the devil was always in the details

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and we found some loopholes and just areas of concern where we thought the risks that customers

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were still going to be on the hook were too high with what the proposal was.

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So does the ruling mean that power company customers will not be on the hook at all

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for the giant energy needs of these data centers?

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They went as far as they could. They ran into a couple areas where they couldn't go as far as

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they wanted because certain things were out of the state's control. And what I mean by that is if

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people may have seen that at the White House, the tech companies were at the White House

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pledging to pay their own way and signed a rate payer protection pledge.

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Now that was more of an optics document, a rhetoric document, and then it was non-binding,

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but it actually committed the tech companies to pay their way for all the network upgrades,

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which to us sounds like the power lines, right? The big power lines and the fact is

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our power line company, American Transmission Company, that is building $2 billion of infrastructure

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to feed these data centers, is actually regulated out in Washington, D.C. So the

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State Public Service Commission couldn't change that. And so as a result, the commissioner sent

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a message that they could only go so far, but they called on ATC and the We Energy's parent

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company to make changes that would protect customers from frankly billions of extra costs

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tied to these projects. What else stood out for you from the PSC on this case?

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I think what stood out is that the fact that the data centers will be on the hook for 100%

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of the new power plants. There was one scenario where other customers, small businesses, homeowners,

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renters, and other businesses would be on the hook for up to 25% of the cost of new power plants.

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And that's not a small number. We Energy's has already gotten approval for almost $2 billion in

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projects and has another $6 billion in the queue. So a quarter of that would have been a couple

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billion dollars on the hook that customers would have been responsible for. So that was the biggest

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change and one that we really appreciated. All right. Well, we appreciate you joining us today

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on this Tom content. Thanks so much. Thank you.

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Yeah, it almost feels like when was the last time the little guy won?

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Exactly. I know it feels like I can't speak for all my past executive directors,

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but in terms of the billions of dollars that are involved in this one versus a typical rate case,

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which is there'd be hundreds of millions, but this is multiple billions. So that's how

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it felt good. When time goes fast on these interviews, right? Yes. Yes. And thank you for

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your patience at the head of it. Oh, no, no problem. And we have if you want to point people

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to more resources, we have some on our website on our data centers page. Okay.

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Thank you so much. Safe travels back. All right. All right. Take care. All right. Bye. Bye.