Concerns about energy use and an alleged lack of transparency at a $1 billion Meta data center in Wisconsin prompted a lawsuit by Midwest Environmental Advocates, a Madison, Wis.-based environmental law nonprofit, seeking the release of public records.
The group filed a lawsuit Dec. 9 in Dane County Circuit Court to compel the Wisconsin Public Service Commission to release records showing projected power demand for Meta’s Beaver Dam data center campus, served by Alliant Energy.
Meta broke ground Nov. 12 on the 700,000-square-foot campus and selected Mortenson as the general contractor.
The lawsuit follows the commission’s denial in October of a records request for unredacted electrical load projections for the Beaver Dam campus and another data center, the Lighthouse campus in Port Washington, that Open AI and Oracle are building. The commission released unredacted Port Washington records on Nov. 17 showing We Energies applied for interconnection for a 1.3GW facility, but denied Beaver Dam’s request, citing trade secrets and the public interest.
According to the lawsuit, the commission has approved a $191 million Dodge County Distribution Interconnection project that is being developed and will be built by American Transmission Co., which owns and operates high-voltage transmission lines and substations in the region.
“It appears that the PSC is illegally withholding this information because Meta or a public company claims that the electricity demand for the data center is a trade secret,” Michael Greif, a legal fellow at the environmental group, said in a press release. “The public deserves at least basic information about the massive power needs of the data center.”
Power usage is a common concern around data centers. CleanWisconsin, a non-profit environmental advocacy organization, estimates that powering just two hyperscale data centers could require more energy than all Wisconsin households combined. Midwest Environmental Advocates says transparency is often hindered by non-disclosure agreements between tech companies and local governments, citing a Virginia study showing that at least 80 percent of local governments involved in data center proposals had signed them.
In September, Midwest Environmental Advocates sued the city of Racine over withheld records related to water use at Microsoft’s Mount Pleasant data center. Two days later, the city released the information, he said.
“This lawsuit is about making sure Wisconsin residents have access to the critical information they need to understand and assess the impacts of the rapidly growing data center industry,” Greif said. “Keeping the public in the dark about data centers and how much water and energy they will use deprives Wisconsinites of the transparency they deserve.”
The commission declined to comment on the lawsuit. Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
