Power line foes now want data center to provide its own power

Expanding existing power line corridors through the area’s rural communities to service the Vantage Data Centers Lighthouse Campus in the City of Port Washington isn’t acceptable to a community coalition anymore.

The Responsible Energy Alliance, a nonprofit coalition of Saukville, Trenton, Fredonia and Farmington residents is now urging Vantage to construct its own power plant at the site of the data center campus and this month presented the Fredonia Town Board with a resolution opposing all high-voltage power lines going through the town.

“Accepting an existing corridor compromise is not strategic victory. It’s total surrender,” Alliance member and Town of Fredonia resident Trish Binkowski said.

“It still allows a massive, unprecedented industrial transmission monster to breach through Fredonia’s borders, devalue our land and permanently alter our rural identity. We’re standing here arguing over local roads which would be sacrificed for a private utility monopoly instead of standing in a unified front to tell them that they can’t have a single inch of our town, period.”

Alliance member Patti Plough said Oracle, one of the companies that will lease the data centers from Vantage, is building a multi-billion-dollar artificial intelligence data center in New Mexico that will have on-site power.

“We support no power lines through Fredonia, and we advocate for on-site power provided by Vantage, Oracle and Open AI,” she said.

The original resolution supported using existing corridors for the power lines, instead of cutting new pathways the group said would ruin natural, historic, indigenous and agricultural areas. The board was presented with an updated resolution not long before the Oct. 14 meeting.

The board unanimously approved the resolution.

Last year, American Transmission Co. developed multiple routes for proposed power lines that cut through the towns in the Alliance, with the preferred route going through Saukville, and presented its application to the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin, which has the final say on where the lines will go.

The PSC determined the application to be deficient. ATC has since filed another application that doesn’t include proposed routes through Saukville or Trenton. The PSC is requesting more information on that application.

Fredonia Town Chairman Chris Janik said the impact of the town’s resolution may be limited.

“Our resolution really doesn’t have any weight over the Public Service Commission. People have a say over the Public Service Commission,” he said.

“The Alliance has done a wonderful job in mobilizing all the people, but I think ATC played a pretty smart game by dropping a very vocal group (Saukville and Trenton) from the party.”

Trustee John Depies said the resolution has value.

“While there are some severe limitations as to what this Town Board can do, the resolution coming from the Town Board does give a great deal of credence to the Wisconsin Public Service Commission, and that in and of itself, I think, is a valued contribution from the Town Board,” he said, adding that last month the town gave $5,000 to the Alliance “to assist them in fighting this egregious and reprehensible assault on our township.

“So we are doing what we can. We will continue to do what we can and more.”

Town resident Christine Luft warned that properties affected by the power lines will become blighted and, even if ATC buys easements from property owners, the payments will be nowhere near the value of the land.

“There’s got to be a way. Put the power on site,” she said.

The Alliance recently said it will answer questions through its attorney Erik Olsen, who did not respond to an Oct. 20 request for comment.