situation? Will they be more moderate, more kind of
aligned with national Democrats? And so I think
we're seeing that fight kind of play out or tension
play out in a lot of these primaries.
projection shows Wisconsin will lose more than $2
billion in sales tax revenue because of an
exemption written into the 2325 state budget for data
centers, a break designed to promote economic
development. Three years later, the state is
swimming in new data centers with consumer
concerns about water and energy usage. But in a win
for consumers, the Wisconsin Public Service
Commission just ruled that existing electricity
customers should not pay a single cent to subsidize
the service of data centers. The ruling is also a major
win for the Citizens Utility Board, which fought
on behalf of customers. Executive director of Cub
Tom Content joins us now with more. And thanks very
much for being here. >> Oh, great to be with you.
>> So you've said that this case was the most
significant one the cub has ever been involved in. So
when the PSC ruled, what was your reaction?
>> I was I was frankly surprised. I, I've had a
good feeling that we were going to get some of what
we asked for in terms of significant changes to what
the proposal was. But we got the vast majority of
our changes or changes that addressed our concerns.
They really the commissioner really sent a
message, even though they can't control every cent,
they sent a message that every dollar needs to be
accounted for and every. As they, as one of the
commissioners put it, every every cent should be paid
for by the tech companies. >> So how does the
proliferation of data centers in Wisconsin engage
consumers in a way that other rate cases may not
have? >> It's it's I think I
think it's a combination of fear of concerns about
rising energy costs, because we've already come
into this period with rising energy costs that
have risen at rates higher than inflation, paired with
the the local community reaction. And and basically
the Wisconsin reaction, as noted in the Marquette
polls to data centers. And, you know, the the Marquette
poll that just 'came out showed a lot more clarity
about where Wisconsinites stand about data centers
than it showed about who's running for governor. And
they they by a 2 to 1 margin, people said that
the cost of data centers outweigh the benefits. And
I think I think layered into that is, is fear of AI
and, and what it's what what the the impacts of AI
are on the economy and society down the road. I
think that plays into it. >> Too, because I
understand that thousands of people kind of came to
Cub and said, yes, we we want the PSC to rule in
this way. >> Thousands of people went
to the PSC hearings or PSC hearings or submitted
comments online. And so those could have been
people in Milwaukee, people around the state, we
energies customers and others. I mean, frankly,
the tech companies and the utility were saying the
right things all along that they were going to meet
their demand or that they were going to play their
own way. But for us, the devil was always in the
details, and we found some loopholes and just areas of
concern where we thought the risks that customers
were still going to be on the hook were too, too high
with what was what was what was the proposal was.
>> So does does the ruling mean that power company
customers will not be on the hook at all for the
giant energy needs of these data centers?
>> They went as far as they could. They ran into a
couple areas where they couldn't go as far as they
wanted, because certain things were out of the
state's control. And what I mean by that is if if
people may have seen that at the white House, the
tech companies were at the white House pledging to pay
their own way and signed a ratepayer protection pledge.
Now, that was more of a, you know, an optics
document, a a rhetoric document. And it was
non-binding, but it actually committed the tech
companies to pay their way for all the network
upgrades, which which to us sounds like the power lines,
right. And the big power lines. And the fact is, our
power line company, American transmission
billion of infrastructure to feed these data centers,
is actually regulated out in Washington, D.C. So the
state Public Service Commission couldn't change
that. And so as a result, the the the commissioner
sent a message that they could only go so far, but
they called on HTC and the We Energy's parent company
to make changes that would protect customers from,
frankly, billions of extra costs tied to these
projects. >> What else stood out for
you from the PSC on this case?
>> I think what stood out is, is that the the. The
fact that the data centers will be on the hook for
100% of the new power plants. There was one
scenario where other customers, small businesses,
homeowners, renters would be on and other businesses
would be on the hook for up to 25% of the cost of new
power plants. And that's not a small number. We
energies has already gotten approval for over almost 2
billion in projects and has another 6 billion in the
queue. So a quarter of that, a quarter of that would
have been a couple billion dollars on the hook that
customers would have been responsible for. So. So
that was a big the biggest change and one that we
really appreciated. >> All right. Well, we
appreciate you joining us appreciate you joining us