Reality is No Joke: Charlie Berens and Clean Wisconsin Share Concerns about Data Centers

“Wisconsin’s becoming a dumping ground for these AI data centers,” Charlie Berens says in his Manitowoc Minute video. “Say goodbye, America’s Dairyland, and hello, America’s motherboard. That license plate is gonna suck eggs.”

These are just a few of the punchlines from Berens recent episode. The Wisconsin-based comedian may be best known for “The Cripescast Podcast,” which airs across the Civic Media radio network, Saturdays and Sundays at noon. But he’s also an award-winning journalist who is pointing out that sometimes reality is no joke. Berens goes on to share his concerns by listing the potential consequences of a more than 600-acre artificial intelligence (AI) data center planned in Port Washington. It includes farmland being replaced by large server centers, water pulled from the Great Lakes, higher power bills for neighbors, and only a handful of jobs that could quickly end up being automated.

Data centers are rising across the country, and Wisconsin is quickly becoming a favorite location. Todd Allbaugh, host of The Todd Allbaugh Show, uses Berens’ viral clip as a springboard for a deeper conversation with Amy Barrilleaux of Clean Wisconsin. And she is able to confirm what Berens highlighted in jest. The $8 billion project just approved by officials in Port Washington will consume more energy than four million homes. This makes it the single largest electricity user in Wisconsin’s history.

“This is a scale of energy use we’ve never seen,” Barrilleaux explains. “It’s like building a city the size of Milwaukee, Madison, and Green Bay combined. But with no people, just servers.”

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Listen to the entire discussion, starting halfway into this episode, here:

The centers also require enormous amounts of water for cooling. It means drawing on one of Wisconsin’s most valuable resources – fresh water. Communities in Georgia recently learned this the hard way. Reports indicate a Meta facility opened and shortly after, residents turned on their taps and found nothing coming out.

Developers also prefer to use “closed loop” cooling systems to recycle the water. But Barrilleaux warns these types of systems need more electricity and could mean additional power plants, which also rely heavily on water. Research isn’t clear when it comes to the long-term impact on aquifers, lakes, and local farms. 

“There’s not a lot of transparency,” she says. “We don’t know exactly how much water will be used, what backup generators will mean for air pollution, or how much new fossil fuel infrastructure may be built to meet demand.”

Advocates are now pushing for new legislation to require clear reporting before projects are approved. State lawmakers already passed data center friendly tax legislation in July.

“We’re not saying data centers shouldn’t come here,” Barrilleaux explains. “But we need them to meet their needs in a sustainable way. Right now, we’re not seeing that.”

And Barrilleaux says small communities could face immense pressure from powerful tech firms with little ability to push back. It’s similar to what happened in Port Washington. Many residents spoke out against the project at various public meetings, but in the end, their concerns were overridden.

“Maybe the council’s been drinking water out of a data center,” Berens says with a wink. 

All jokes aside, the message shared throughout Allbaugh’s show is clear. Residents in communities across the state should have the opportunity to decide whether the promise of revenue outweighs the long-term risks to land, water, and energy.

NOTE: There is no single entity that currently tracks all data centers in Wisconsin. You can view a simple data center location map of the state here.