Three pieces of the cost-allocation argument moved at once on Sunday-Monday. Wisconsin's Public Service Commission strengthened the data-center tariff against the utility's own proposal. Ohio's local-moratorium wave widened with a unanimous Ravenna vote and a constitutional petition now circulating. And Virginia's budget remains stuck on the $1.9 billion data-center sales-tax exemption, with the Senate's Pro Tempore pushing to end it eight years early.
In a six-hour meeting on April 24, the Wisconsin Public Service Commission approved We Energies' special large-load rate but amended it materially in the public-interest direction. The commission rejected the utility's proposed 75%/25% capital-cost split for two new natural-gas plants (over $2 billion combined) and required data centers to pay 100% of the plant capital costs. The eligibility threshold dropped from We Energies' proposed 500 megawatts to 100 megawatts — sweeping in Microsoft's Mount Pleasant campus (~900 MW first two phases) and the $15 billion Vantage Data Centers / OpenAI / Oracle project in Port Washington (up to 3.5 GW at full build-out). Service agreements lengthened from 10 to 15 years. The commission also ordered We Energies to track and directly assign data-center-related transmission costs — including the $1.5 billion in lines connecting Port Washington — to the tech tenants rather than residential ratepayers.
Commissioner Kristy Nieto, on the record: "Existing Wisconsin customers should not pay a single cent to subsidize the service of data centers or very large customers, not now and not decades from now." Citizens Utility Board's Tom Content: "It's surprising how many changes were made… The commissioners heard loud and clear that the public is concerned about affordability." Marquette Law School polling cited in the same coverage: nearly 70% of Wisconsin voters say the costs of data centers outweigh their benefits.
Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Ravenna City Council voted unanimously on April 20 for a 12-month moratorium covering the entire city — not a specific parcel — and explicitly written to capture data centers, server farms, and cryptocurrency-mining facilities so the use cannot, per Councilwoman Carmen Laudato, "sneak in as something else." Laudato, after April 10 community feedback: "I can confidently say that there was not one person who was in support of seeing something like this built in the city of Ravenna… These things are not economic development. They are locusts and leeches on our resources. They inflate people's utility costs." That is the bluntest official-record framing from an elected Ohio body so far this year.
Kent City Council passed its moratorium April 15. Shalersville extended its existing one. Tallmadge passed a 6-month moratorium April 13. Norton rejected Quantum HPC's 90-acre Project Triton in October 2025. Streetsboro's planning commission has recommended a moratorium; Council vote expected this week. Per Diane Smith / Record-Courier, Ohio is home to nearly 200 data centers, most concentrated around Columbus. Portage Residents for Responsible Development is part of "a statewide effort to ban data centers in Ohio… circulating petitions to get the statewide ban on the ballot" — the Article II §36a constitutional amendment prohibiting any data center with greater than 25 MW of aggregate monthly demand. The wire ran today in five Ohio Gannett papers — Times Recorder (Zanesville), Chillicothe Gazette, Coshocton Tribune, Lancaster Eagle-Gazette, and Newark Advocate.
Source: Diane Smith / Record-Courier wire, distributed across the Gannett Ohio network.
Per States Newsroom / Virginia Mercury, lawmakers gaveled in and out of a one-day special session Thursday without a budget deal. The hangup remains the sales-and-use tax exemption on data-center computer equipment — created in 2008 with $1.5 million projected, now waiving $1.9 billion in 2025 — currently set to expire in 2035. Senate Pro Tempore Louise Lucas (D-Portsmouth) wants to end it in January 2026, eight years early; she has lowered her revenue ask from $1.9B to $1.6B. The Senate plan deploys data-center tax revenue across two years as $1.1B for general-fund programs (~$440M for education), $300M transportation, $324.1M to localities, and ~$190M regional needs.
House Speaker Don Scott (D-Portsmouth) and Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D) remain protective of the industry. Scott: "We have to make sure that we do everything that we can to help Virginia keep its competitive advantage. We are the leader in the world." Spanberger at an April 9 data-center-rack-manufacturer groundbreaking: "the fact that Virginia is a reliable partner matters as much as the incentives we put on the table, and we intend to protect that reputation aggressively." The industry counter-offer is $1.1 billion over two years. Microsoft, Amazon, and Data Center Coalition president Josh Levi met in closed-door sessions with lawmakers in March. Spanberger has until May 22 to sign or veto bills; Scott projects a budget deal by June.
Source: States Newsroom — Virginia Mercury, originally published by Inside Climate News.
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