A candidate in Wisconsin’s gubernatorial race has proposed a statewide moratorium on artificial intelligence data center construction, adding momentum to a growing political debate over the sector’s environmental and energy impacts.
Francesca Hong, a Democratic member of the Wisconsin State Assembly, announced the proposal in a Jan. 6 press release calling for the state to halt new data center developments until policymakers better understand their long-term consequences.
Hong said the pause would allow the state to develop stronger protections for residents, stating that Wisconsin should “hit pause on all data center construction until we better understand its consequences and have robust plans to protect Wisconsinites from negative environmental impacts, not to mention the energy costs footed by our taxpayers.”
Her proposal draws comparisons to what she described as the “Foxconn era,” a reference to the high-profile manufacturing project in Mount Pleasant that faced years of delays and controversy before completion in 2021. The comparison underscores concerns that large-scale technology projects can leave communities exposed to financial and environmental risks if oversight is insufficient.
In addition to the proposed moratorium, Hong called for changes to the way Wisconsin incentivizes data center development. She said sales and use tax exemptions should be tied to “concrete ongoing economic activity in the state,” rather than offered broadly. She also proposed that any related tax revenues be directed toward “developing emissions-free energy infrastructure owned and operated by the state of local governments.”
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Hong’s stance aligns her with a growing number of elected officials across the United States who are pressing for tighter regulation of data center construction, particularly as AI-driven workloads increase electricity demand and strain regional power grids.
Concerns about rising energy costs tied to data center expansion featured prominently in last year’s elections for Georgia’s Public Service Commission, where several winning candidates pledged to address electricity rate increases linked to growing power demand from data centers.
Similar issues surfaced during recent gubernatorial campaigns in New Jersey and Virginia. Mikie Sherrill, now governor-elect of New Jersey, and Abigail Spanberger, the governor-elect of Virginia, both highlighted data center development and its potential impact on energy costs during their campaigns.
At the federal level, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont has also weighed in on the issue. In December, the independent senator called for a national moratorium on data centers, arguing that the pace of development was outstripping regulatory oversight and stating that the process was “moving very, very quickly, and we need to slow it down.”
Beyond statewide proposals, local governments have already taken action in several parts of the country. Temporary moratoriums on data center construction have been enacted by municipal councils in states including Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Kansas, Ohio, Tennessee, Missouri, Idaho, and Pennsylvania.
As AI-driven infrastructure continues to expand, Hong’s proposal highlights how data center development has become a politically charged issue — one that intersects economic development, energy policy, and environmental protection — and signals that regulatory scrutiny of the sector is likely to intensify in the years ahead.
Originally reported by Jason Ma in Data Center Dynamics.
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