NAACP, Wisconsin Coalition Oppose Utility Bill Hikes for AI Data Center

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 17, 2026
Contact: Chyna Fields, [email protected]

MADISON, WI - The NAACP national office, the Wisconsin State Conference NAACP, and a coalition of 42 environmental justice, faith, conservation, and community organizations, submitted formal comments to the Wisconsin Public Service Commission (PSC) opposing the proposed data center tariff from We Energies, WPS, and Wisconsin Electric Power Company, citing the immediate utility rate increases for consumers and a discount for data centers.

The coalition letter warns that approving the tariff without robust, enforceable conditions would accelerate the buildout of resource-intensive data centers across Wisconsin - disproportionately burdening Black communities and low-income ratepayers with higher energy costs, increased air pollution, without community input, while offering discounts to wealthy Big tech companies.

"Data centers are driving the largest increases in electricity demand across Wisconsin, but the community is being asked to pay for data center discounts. Far too often, Black and frontline neighborhoods are excluded from the decision-making process and left behind when it comes to sharing any the benefits these data centers could bring to local economies," said Abre' Conner, Esq., Director of the NAACP Center for Environmental and Climate Justice. "The Public Service Commission has both the authority and the responsibility to deny any deal that deepens environmental racism and shifts costs onto working families. We are demanding a people-first approach: transparency, community investments, and a binding commitment that ratepayers will not pay more just to boost corporate profits."

The coalition letter highlights that Black communities in Wisconsin face the nation's third-worst racial disparity in exposure to harmful air pollution, with Black residents exposed to 41 percent more particulate matter than white residents. These disparities are compounded by high energy burdens: one in four Black families in Milwaukee spends at least 15.5 percent of their income on energy.

Current and proposed data center sites are concentrated in counties with Wisconsin's largest Black populations (Milwaukee, Racine, and Kenosha) while utilities simultaneously expand methane gas plants in those same communities to meet the new demand.

"One in four Black families in Milwaukee pay more than triple what's considered an affordable rate for utilities," said Bryan Rogers, Environmental Justice Director at Walnut Way Conservation Corp. "But We Energies and other utilities keep raising rates, keep squeezing residents while offering discounts to data centers. This cannot be allowed to continue. The PSC must reject this tariff and work to create another deal that protects the people."

Four communities recently have rejected or caused tech companies to pull out of plans to build data centers in their communities: DeForest in Dane County; Caledonia and Yorkville in Racine County; Greenleaf in Brown County, demonstrating the power of community organizing.

The coalition urges the PSC to impose the following conditions as part of any tariff approval:

• Mandatory Transparency: Require data center developers to publicly disclose energy consumption, water use, emissions, and grid upgrade costs, with annual updates and public hearings upon community request.

• Community Benefit Fund: Establish a statewide, commission-run Energy Impact Fund, governed by the community, to direct resources toward energy affordability, weatherization, workforce development, and environmental mitigation in impacted communities.

• Equity Impact Assessments: Require independent assessments before construction and evaluate disproportionate burdens on Black, Indigenous, low-income, and other marginalized communities every three years.

• Full Cost Accountability: Ensure data center developers pay their fair share: the full cost of new energy generation and transmission infrastructure, with no cost shifting to residential or small commercial ratepayers.

• Renewable Energy Commitment: Mandate that data centers source 100 percent of operational electricity demand from renewable or zero-emission sources by 2036.

• Community Advisory Boards: Create community-led bodies in each affected area to monitor compliance, communicate with utilities and developers, and determine how mitigation funds are allocated.

• Prohibit Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs): Ban local elected and civic leaders from signing NDAs that would hide information necessary for regulatory oversight and community accountability.

Read the full coalition letter here. The full list of letter signatories is below:

Organizations