LETTER: ‘Mistake by the lake’ has new meaning: Port’s data center

To Ozaukee Press:

The “Mistake by the Lake” epithet is commonly applied to Cleveland, Ohio, probably unfairly. An even bigger mistake by the lake is brewing in Wisconsin—the Port Washington data center.

While it is true that we require infrastructure to support our increasingly digital lives, is this the sort of development we’d like to attract to small and picturesque communities across Wisconsin? 

The downsides of data centers are well-documented and debated, but consider this: We Energies plans to build six gigawatts of power generation in the short term to support such a data center. Two gigawatts of this power will be from fossil fuels. The Port Washington data enter is projected to be the largest single energy user in the state.

The earth is rapidly reaching tipping points that lead to more extreme weather events, damaging storms and changing rainfall patterns, and these effects are directly correlated to human-caused emissions. 

Do we really want to lock in decades more fossil fuel infrastructure for a data center? Can our land, water and people really bear the brunt of the pollution and resource degradation that comes with dirty energy sources and data centers?

Nathan Dombeck

Janesville