seeking anything. >> All right. Judge Lazar,
thanks for your time. >> Thank you very much. It
was a pleasure. >> A large scale data
center in the village of DeForest was rejected this
week. It's an example of the push pull between local
communities and tech companies, with their ever
increasing demands to store and process huge amounts of
data, especially in the age of artificial intelligence.
As Steven Potter reports, opposition from DeForest
residents left the village board with a difficult
decision to announce. >> Some of you might feel
very victorious tonight. Others are feeling a great
loss. >> When residents in the
DeForest area first heard that a large scale data
center was being planned for farmland just outside
their village. They were not happy about it.
>> I picked this spot 40 years ago to live because
it was so remote. I never thought we'd be faced with
something like this. >> Nancy Roth was one of
the residents who opposed the sprawling 1600 acre and
$12 billion development proposed by technology
company data centers. They worried that the data
center may damage natural resources and tear apart
the tranquility of their rural landscape.
>> We want to live in a farming community, not next
to a concrete walled data center.
>> So Roth and others went to work. They organized
residents printed yard signs, created an online
community, and voiced their opposition at numerous town
and village board meetings. And just this week, after
months of expressing their outrage.
>> We're at a point where we can finally make a vote.
>> Those opposed to the DeForest Data Center were
able to claim victory when the village board voted
unanimously against the data center plan.
>> Yes, to reject AQ. >> With that rejection of
the proposal from the village of DeForest has now
formally withdrawn from the project. This kind of
conflict, which hinges on the local control of land
and resources, has been repeating itself around the
state. Here's what happens. A large scale data center
gets proposed. Residents get upset and voice their
opposition. And then local officials take notice of
the outrage and put an end to the project. Or the data
center company itself decides to pull out. Other
proposed data centers that have been nixed recently
include one in Brown County and another in Racine
County, and the city councils of both Menominee
and Madison have passed restrictions on data
centers being built there. >> The data center industry,
especially at this scale, it's new, right? And any
time there's something of this magnitude that's new,
it's scary. >> Tricia Braun is with the
Wisconsin Data Center Coalition, which advocates
for these developments to boost the state's economy.
She says that our ever growing need for more
information, more entertainment and more
innovation, including and especially with the use of
artificial intelligence, is what's driving demand.
>> Whether you're on your phone, your live streaming
TV, your manufacturer that's automating your
processes, your regular company that just decides
to move its server offline or to the cloud, all of
that needs to be stored somewhere. That's where
data centers come in. >> Some large scale data
centers house only one company, which is the case
for the Beaver Dam Data Center being built right
now by meta and the Microsoft Data Center,
under construction in Mount Pleasant. But Braun says
smaller and midsize companies are clients, too.
>> Whether it's insurance companies, financial
institutions, just general businesses can be some of
these tenants when it comes to something that is
changing this fast. And as you know, we're all doing
more with technology every day. The demand is
increasing. >> According to research
from the Brookings Institute, there are more
than 5000 data centers operating in the United
States. That's ten times more than any other country.
There are around 50 data centers here in Wisconsin,
at least for now. But if technology companies get
their way, there may be several more of them here
soon. And some of them will be the hyperscale sized
data centers that span hundreds of acres and cost
billions of dollars. Data center companies find
Wisconsin appealing because of available land, energy,
and a favorable, particularly cooler climate.
Currently, data centers are being proposed in Rock
County, Ozaukee County, Wood County, and Kenosha
County, and although Qt's withdrew its bid for
DeForest, the company says they may explore other
locations in Wisconsin. >> I think digital
infrastructure is critical to our economy and critical
to national security, and it has to get built
somewhere. >> State lawmakers are also
getting involved in data center regulation.
>> We need to be competitive in this space.
>> Mark Born, a Republican in the state assembly,
represents Beaver Dam, where social media company
meta is building a $1 billion, 700 zero zero zero
square foot data center. >> This is the future. And
why shouldn't Wisconsin communities benefit from
some of the economic development that comes from
that? >> While he is in favor of
these developments, Bourne also wants to make sure
that data centers don't lead to higher electrical
bills for local residents and that the state's water
supply is protected. He's a lead author of legislation
that aims to regulate data centers.
>> Ratepayers should be protected. We should be
protecting our natural resources.
>> Democratic State Representative Angela
Stroud of Ashland, says the Republican bill doesn't go
far enough. She wants to see more rules around
renewable energy fees and labor. And if data center
developers don't meet those requirements.
not be well suited for the state. And I think we
should be willing to admit that and say, fine, then
we're not the place for you. But if we can achieve those
things, which we can with smart regulation, we need
to get something done. >> Regulation is a sticky
topic for data center proponents.
very careful about what is put into place as far as
rules, restrictions, regulations to make sure
that those unintended consequences aren't an
overall detriment to future development.
>> While the future of data centers in Wisconsin
remains a case by case situation, proponents say
the need for more and more computing power and data
storage is undeniable. But for now, it remains an
exercise in compromise between data center
developers, local residents, municipal government and
state lawmakers. Reporting state lawmakers. Reporting