Good morning.
Wednesday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 24. Sunrise is 7:19 and sunset is 4:53 for 9 hours 34 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 7.4 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Parks and Recreation Board meets at 5:30 PM, and the Library Board meets at 6:30 PM.
On this day in 1793, after being found guilty of treason by the French National Convention, Louis XVI of France is executed by guillotine.
A data center boom has swept the nation, and Wisconsin is no exception. Posts at FREE WHITEWATER on 1.13.26 concerned Wisconsin gubernatorial candidates’ views on data centers, and on 1.14.26 Microsoft’s view of Wisconsin data centers. There’s now more news about possible data center regulations and Microsoft’s plans for data center expansion.
Proposed state regulations for data centers are thankfully light (thus allowing the industry to grow as the marketplace makes possible):
Lawmakers in the state Assembly voted Jan. 20 to advance a bill proponents say would balance the economic benefits of Wisconsin’s booming data center industry with environmental and cost concerns.
Detractors called it a “completely unserious attempt” to address the issue.
The Republican proposal’s trajectory since it was introduced Jan. 9 has highlighted both the contentious nature of the issue and the pressure on public officials to keep pace with the rapid rate of development. It passed 53-44 largely on party lines, with Rep. Lindee Brill, R-Sheboygan Falls, joining Democrats in voting no and Reps. Steve Doyle, D-Onalaska, and Jodi Emerson, D-Eau Claire, joining Republicans in support.
[…]Under the bill passed Jan. 20, the state Public Service Commission would be tasked with ensuring no other ratepayers would absorb the costs of the construction or extension of electric infrastructure that primarily serves a data center. Any renewable energy facility that primarily serves a data center would be required to be located on-site.
The PSC has not taken a position on the bill, but director of policy and legislative affairs Tanner Blair wrote in testimony last week that while the agency supports efforts to shield ratepayers from costs raised by data centers, the language of the legislation “would be challenging to implement.”
The bill would also require any water used by data centers for cooling purposes to be used in a closed-loop system, or any other system that uses an equal or lesser amount of water. Each year, the operator of a data center would be required to report its annual water usage to the state Department of Natural Resources.
The bill would enact requirements for land restoration at the discretion of local government officials, including requiring data center operators to file a bond in advance with the DNR large enough to cover those efforts.
Developers would be required “to the extent possible” to “encourage” the hiring of Wisconsin workers for construction.
See Jessie Opoien, Republican bill setting data center rules passes but faces opposition, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, January 20, 2026.
Meanwhile, and not coincidentally, Microsoft plans 15 more data centers in Mount Pleasant.
I’ve argued that Microsoft would not find any proposed regulations as a barrier to Microsoft’s plans, and that seems a sound assessment. Whether any given data center is a good idea requires a particular review of each center and each campus on which that center would be located. That review — and community debate — yet awaits. Some centers may succeed, others fail. Some corporations will prosper, others fall short. That’s simply the condition of a competitive marketplace. There’s no reason to stymie those private efforts.
Competitive marketplaces lead to competitive societies. That’s all to the good.
A coyote swam over a mile to reach Alcatraz Island:
See also Amanda Bartlett, San Francisco coyote swims to Alcatraz for first time ever, SF Gate, January 18, 2026.
When coyotes find a way to swim away from (former) prison islands, that’s when one needs to be concerned. For now, they’re heading in the wrong direction.