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Your right to know

Challenging Data Center Secrecy

Too often, data center development moves forward behind closed doors, depriving community members of the transparency they deserve.  MEA actively challenges data center secrecy by filing public records requests and, when necessary, bringing legal action.

  • MEA Public Records Requests Related to Water Use
Location: Beaver Dam (Dodge County)
Company: Meta
Date of public records request: June 23, 2025

Status: Record received

MEA submitted a request for a water/wastewater agreement between the City of Beaver Dam and Degas LLC (Meta). MEA received the agreement which indicated Meta expected a max water use of 50 million gallons per year at full build out.
Location: Port Washington (Ozaukee County)
Companies: Vantage, OpenAI, Oracle
Date of public records request: various requests, February-July 2025
 
MEA submitted a series of requests to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources between February and May 2025. These requests returned no useful records. It was later learned that Vantage is seeking to get its water from the Port Washington water utility and likely does not need a water use permit from the DNR. DNR staff say they have not been in touch with Vantage regarding water use.
 
MEA also submitted two requests to the City of Port Washington, the first on May 1 and the second on July 10. The requests asked for information on projected water use at the Cloverleaf/Vantage data center. MEA received responses to both requests indicating Cloverleaf was seeking 1 million gallons per day in the spring and that the City of Port Washington was investigating the need to expand their water treatment plant as a result. More recent documents reveal that Vantage has significantly scaled back the amount of water it is seeking for phase 1 of its data center campus, while still projecting demand of up to 1.2 million gallons per day for phases 1 and 2 combined.
Location: Mount Pleasant (Racine County) 
Company: Microsoft
Date of public records request: February 17, 2025
 
Milwaukee Riverkeeper submitted a public records request to the City of Racine seeking information about projected water use at Microsoft’s Mount Pleasant data center. The Racine Water Utility will provide water to the data center under an agreement with the Village of Mount Pleasant. MEA became involved in June after Milwaukee Riverkeeper (confusingly) received a denial from the Water Utility Director and a promise to work on it from the City Attorney on the same day. MEA eventually sued the City of Racine on behalf of Milwaukee Riverkeeper. The lawsuit was filed on September 15. Two days later, the City of Racine finally responded to Milwaukee Riverkeeper’s open records request by releasing a single document projecting future water use of approximately 8.4 million gallons a year.
  • MEA Public Records Requests Related to Projected Energy Demand
Location: Port Washington (Ozaukee County)
Company: Vantage Data Centers
Date of public records request: January 2, 2026
Status: Records received
 
In response to our January 2, 2026 public records request, MEA received documents submitted by Vantage Data Centers to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources during DNR’s preparation of an environmental analysis summary for the Beaver Dam data center.
Location: Beaver Dam (Dodge County) and Port Washington (Ozaukee County)
Date of public records request: October 1, 2025
 
MEA requested two documents from the Public Service Commission that would reveal how much electricity Vantage had requested for its Port Washington data center and Meta had requested for its Beaver Dam data center. The PSC returned one document which revealed Vantage had requested 1.3 gigawatts. The PSC denied the request for the unredacted Beaver Dam record, claiming it contained trade secrets and that keeping the information secret serves the public interest. On December 9, MEA filed a lawsuit in Dane County Circuit Court to compel the PSC to release the records.
 
Location: Port Washington (Ozaukee County) 
Company: Vantage, OpenAI, Oracle
Date of public records request: September 29, 2025
 
At a planning commission meeting on August 28, 2025, Vantage claimed they were investing in 1.9 gigawatts of renewable energy in Wisconsin. (The claim was reiterated in a fact sheet distributed by the City.) When asked by a planning commissioner to identify the projects, a representative of Vantage indicated they would “follow up.” MEA submitted a public records request on September 29 to learn whether Vantage did so. We received a response on March 3 indicating that (1) the City had no additional information, (2) City staff were not involved in the creation of the fact sheet, and (3) the fact sheet was actually created by a PR firm working directly with Vantage.
  • MEA Public Records Requests Related to Government Transparency
Location: Janesville (Rock County) 
Date of public records request: September 9, 2025
 
SNOW Janesville submitted a request for documents related to data center development at the former General Motors assembly plant. What began as a straightforward request devolved into a seven-month ordeal marked by repeated delays, inconsistent communication, and prohibitive cost estimates. SNOW was required to resubmit variations of the same request multiple times, while City staff alternated between closing, reopening, and failing to respond to the request altogether. The Rock County District Attorney’s Office also got involved, finding Janesville’s initial response insufficient and threatening to sue the City if it didn’t comply with the Open Records Law. In October 2025, the City informed SNOW that the cost for the records would exceed $1,380—an unreasonable and cost-prohibitive amount for a non-profit community organization. After SNOW retained MEA to assist in obtaining the records, the City eventually agreed to release the records for a fraction of the original fee. SNOW received the records on May 13.
Location: Beaver Dam (Dodge County)
Date of public records request: October 10, 2025
 
At the time of this public records request, the name of the developer had not yet been made public, although Bloomberg had reported it was Meta, citing an anonymous source. To better understand why the name of the developer had not been made known, MEA submitted a request to the City of Beaver Dam seeking records that mentioned Meta in relation to the data center development. MEA received 13 emails in response, which revealed little except that Beaver Dam was very careful about controlling information about the project. It is still unclear when city officials became aware that Meta was the developer.
Location: Beaver Dam (Dodge County) 
Company: Meta
Date of public records request: September 30, 2025
 
MEA submitted a request for nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) between City of Beaver Dam officials and Degas LLC. In response, MEA received a nondisclosure agreement between Trent Campbell of the Beaver Dam Area Development Corporation and Balloonist LLC another Meta-affiliated LLC).
latest news

Data Center Updates

Legal victory! Judge orders release of information about energy use at Meta’s Beaver Dam data center

August 18, 2026

This week, a Dane County Circuit Court sided with MEA in a dispute over the public’s right to know how the unprecedented energy needs of hyperscale data centers will impact Wisconsin. The court ruled that the Public Service Commission acted unlawfully when it denied a public records request seeking information about energy use at Meta’s Beaver Dam data center and ordered that the information be released.

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Port Washington Data Center Developers Seek to Shift Financial Risks to Residents

June 17, 2026

When the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin approved new protections for Wisconsin ratepayers in April, it sent a clear message that ordinary Wisconsinites should not be responsible for the financial risks created by data center deals negotiated behind closed doors by utility companies and the world’s biggest tech companies. Now, some of those companies are asking regulators to backtrack.

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MEA Calls for Full Environmental Review of Port Washington Data Center

April 14, 2026

At Wisconsin DNR hearing today, residents, advocates, and public health experts raised serious concerns about the air pollution impacts of a new data center campus in Port Washington. MEA is actively engaged in that process to ensure the DNR fully evaluates the environmental impacts before issuing air quality permits for the massive facility.

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MEA Recognized for Open Government Work

March 10, 2026

The Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council will honor MEA and other awardees at a free public event in Madison on March 19. MEA is being recognized for promoting transparency and access to public records related to data center development in Wisconsin.

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