A 600-acre AI data center could cost some Wisconsin residents their land

Tom Uttech has lived on his 52-acre property in Saukville, Wisconsin, for practically 40 years.

From outdoors Uttech’s residence artwork studio, the panorama is crammed with rolling hills, topped with wildflowers that construct to the very best level within the township, the place rows of evergreens that Uttech says he planted by hand in 1988 have since grown into mature bushes.

“That type of scares me as a result of I did not suppose I used to be that outdated,” Uttech stated of the bushes that he is watched develop over the many years.

The 83-year-old famend panorama painter, whose work has been displayed at museums throughout the nation, has spent a whole lot of hours and years of labor over the previous few many years sustaining and curating his land right into a sweeping prairie that has come to function the inspiration for his work and his livelihood.

It is a lifetime of labor that Uttech now says has come beneath menace after receiving a letter within the mail from his utility firm informing him {that a} large energy line would should be constructed by his property, undoing years of labor and stripping away the muse for his artwork.

“I could not consider it, and I nonetheless do not,” Uttech advised ABC Information correspondent Elizabeth Schulze when requested what his preliminary response was to the information. “They’d be placing energy strains which might be 300 or one thing toes tall, taller than apparently the Statue of Liberty.”

Uttech later realized that the transmission line can be used to assist energy a large $15 billion information heart campus that is set to be constructed on over 500 soccer fields’ price of farmland in close by in Port Washington — a signature a part of the Trump administration’s $500 billion Stargate partnership with OpenAI and Oracle, which President Donald Trump hopes will assist supercharge the bogus intelligence revolution. 

Uttech is dealing with what different residents in his city — and others across the nation — are dealing with increasingly more: the danger of shedding components of his land to eminent area, the federal government’s authorized authority to grab personal property for public use, in assist of the rising growth of AI data centers because the demand to energy them continues to develop. 

The menace, in some methods, is a bodily manifestation of what many individuals like Uttech worry the artificial intelligence growth may imply for his or her work.

Throughout the US there at the moment greater than 3,000 information facilities, and that quantity will quickly develop by 1,200 extra now beneath development, in response to Knowledge Heart Map, an trade service that tracks information heart improvement.

​​”These amenities are so energy-intensive,” Ari Peskoe, who directs the Electrical energy Regulation Initiative at Harvard College, advised ABC Information. “A single type of warehouse can use as a lot electrical energy as a big U.S. metropolis. The quantity of latest infrastructure that must be constructed to energy that facility is in contrast to something we have seen in generations.”

The Trump administration has pushed to quickly construct and deploy AI with urgency, arguing it is going to be very important to remain forward of rivals like China and shield nationwide safety.

“I will assist lots by emergency declarations, as a result of we’ve got an emergency, we’ve got to get these items constructed,” Trump stated at a White Home occasion asserting the Stargate initiative final January. “In order that they have to provide a whole lot of electrical energy. And we’ll make it attainable for them to get this manufacturing executed simply, at their very own vegetation if they need.”

‘It may rework our neighborhood’

In close by Port Washington, Mayor Ted Neitzke needs to be sure that funding is made proper in his city, which he says is determined for it.

“It is thrilling as a result of it is going to rework our neighborhood, it is going to create a tax base and jobs and secondary and tertiary workforce and alternatives that we’ve got not even envisioned, and it is going to lead us into an actual renaissance,” stated Neitzke, who advised ABC Information the challenge would deliver hundreds of latest jobs and far wanted tax income.

“In a couple of years when the financing and all the things is all executed and the deal solidifies, they may pay the overwhelming majority of property taxes for the residents of town of Port Washington,” he stated.

A consultant for the trade group Knowledge Heart Coalition, when requested concerning the Port Washington challenge, advised ABC Information that the trade is making “multi-billion-dollar investments throughout the nation, together with Wisconsin, to advance the digital financial system, and within the course of, present vital advantages to native communities.”

“These embrace creating a whole lot of hundreds of high-wage jobs, offering billions of {dollars} in financial funding, and producing vital native, state, and federal tax income that helps fund colleges, transportation, public security, tax reduction for residents and small companies, and different neighborhood priorities,” the group stated.

On high of outcries from the neighborhood over rising eminent area issues, the challenge has ignited backlash from some residents who’re fearful that, as has been the case in another communities across the nation, the info heart’s potential stress on the present electrical grid may result in greater electrical payments.

Nationwide, electrical energy costs jumped 6.9% in 2025 — greater than double the inflation fee of two.9% — in response to new evaluation by Goldman Sachs economists, who stated they “count on information facilities to spice up electrical energy demand considerably, accounting for about 40% of complete energy demand development over the following 5 years.”

In response, activists in Wisconsin, led by the neighborhood group Nice Lakes Neighbors, have organized protests together with a rally on the state capitol earlier this month. The tensions within the metropolis had been on full show final December when a number of anti-AI information heart protesters had been arrested, and one was dragged out of town council assembly after chanting “Recall, recall, recall,” directed at Mayor Neitzke, after her allotted time had ended.

“I did go to the council assembly purely intending to talk. I had a speech ready. Once more, I had spoken earlier in different council conferences,” Christine LeJeune, the protester who was forcibly faraway from the council assembly, advised ABC Information concerning the incident, including that from her perspective, “the message was should you communicate out, then that is what’s going to occur to you.”

Pressed on the arrests on the latest council assembly, Neitzke, who confronted a failed recall try over his assist for the info heart challenge, defended legislation enforcement when requested concerning the incident, whereas including that incidents like which might be “not the norm right here.”

“I stand proper subsequent to our police division,” Neitzke stated. “I believed they had been very variety. They had been very cordial, a number of warnings. Please, please, please.”

The mayor advised ABC Information that amid the backlash over the challenge, he is been on the receiving finish of threats to him and his household.

“I can play you the voicemails of the threats I obtain from everywhere in the nation to my household’s security,” he stated. “What I didn’t see coming was that our officers following the legislation and imposing the legislation would result in individuals threatening our bodily security. That is not OK.”

Paying their very own manner

With the development of the info heart already underway, native activists round Port Washington are hoping to push for commitments from firms to cowl will increase to their payments and never go any will increase on to clients.

Each OpenAI and Oracle stated in statements to ABC Information that they had been dedicated to paying their very own manner and stated they might mitigate the affect of those information facilities on clients and their electrical energy payments by pledging to construct out renewable vitality sources to create extra energy.

“In Wisconsin, and throughout all of our U.S. Stargate websites, we’re dedicated to paying our personal manner on vitality in order that our operations don’t enhance native electrical energy costs,” OpenAI spokesperson Jamie Radice stated in an announcement. “Our Port Washington website will assist assist AI providers utilized by tens of millions of individuals and companies throughout the nation — the vast majority of whom use it without spending a dime — and it’ll deliver jobs and long-term funding to the area.”

In an announcement to ABC Information, Oracle stated, “In partnership with WE Energies, we’re paying our personal manner on vitality so ratepayers’ payments and electrical grid reliability are by no means impacted by our information heart. Seventy % of the vitality used for the Port Washington campus will come from zero-emission sources, together with wind, photo voltaic, and batteries. The challenge will add about 2,000 MW of latest zero-emission energy to Wisconsin’s grid, which implies extra dependable, reasonably priced vitality shall be obtainable to native households and companies. Oracle — not ratepayers — will fund these electrical infrastructure upgrades.”

The destiny of Uttech’s land rests with whether or not the American Transmission Firm (ATC) strikes ahead with what the corporate has referred to as both the “most well-liked route” for the brand new transmission strains — or the “most well-liked various route,” the latter of which follows current transmission strains. The Public Service Fee of Wisconsin, the state company that regulates utilities, will evaluate ATC’s challenge utility for the info heart, together with the proposed route choices, and can choose the ultimate route.

Vantage, the info heart operator, advised ABC Information in an announcement that it helps the choice route and that they’re “dedicated to being an excellent neighbor” and are “prioritizing investing in sustainable vitality, minimizing native affect and partnering carefully with the neighborhood to be an financial driver for the state whereas enhancing the every day lives of residents.”

“Residents and companies in Port Washington won’t see a rise of their electrical payments because of this challenge,” the Vantage assertion stated.

A consultant from ATC advised ABC Information that they take into account “a number of components reminiscent of value to ratepayers, landowner impacts, environmental sensitivities, and engineering issues when finding out energy line routes and places for supporting infrastructure” and that “The route designated as ‘most well-liked’ gives a decrease value to ratepayers and maximizes using current corridors.”

“We perceive that others could favor the choice route for various issues,” the ATC consultant stated.

‘I am not going to only roll over’

Uttech, who at 83 nonetheless often jumps on a four-wheeler to traverse his sprawling property looking for inspiration, is working with the Wisconsin Institute for Regulation & Liberty, a conservative legislation agency, to tackle the info heart that might value him his land.

“Using eminent area energy should be absolutely the final resort … This isn’t such a case,” the agency wrote in a letter to ATC. “We’ll do all we are able to to guard the Uttech household’s personal property rights.”

“Constructing the facility strains on their land would trigger irreparable harm to the pure magnificence and wildlife the Uttech household has spent many years creating, and which Tom enjoys as inspiration for his work,” WILL deputy council Lucas Vebber stated. 

Whereas Uttech says he understands that AI is a rising billion-dollar trade that’s already in movement and cannot be stopped, he’s vowing to proceed his combat.

“They introduced the combat to me and I am not going to only roll over,” he advised ABC Information, saying he plans to combat “proper to the top.”