Graded Moderate and tightening. 18 laws, orders, rulings and local actions, each with its source, reviewed 27 October 2026.
The We Energies tariff (April 24, 2026) is mandatory above 100 MW with credit rating requirements, and the May 7, 2026 Alliant order added safeguards.
The We Energies class (April 24, 2026) requires a 15-year minimum and 100 percent funding of dedicated resources; Alliant was ordered May 7, 2026 to match.
Milwaukee's one-year moratorium (13 October 2026) joins pauses in Bellevue, Kronenwetter and Cottage Grove; the DNR will run a statewide environmental review under an October 2026 settlement.
The sales tax exemption is intact with investment tiers, but Port Washington voters (April 7, 2026) must approve any tax increment district over $10 million.
No water, air or disclosure rule is in force; AB 840's water reports died in March 2026.
Scored on rules in force, 1 to 5. 5 is the most regulated. Pending rules set the arrow.
Wisconsin's Legislature adjourned in March 2026 without passing any data center bill; the Assembly's AB 840 never got a Senate vote. The Public Service Commission has filled the gap. In April 2026 it made We Energies' very large customer tariff mandatory above 100 MW with a 15-year minimum term and full cost responsibility, in May it ordered Alliant Energy to file a stand-alone large-load tariff, and in July it let a petition to loosen credit terms lapse. Local limits are spreading: Milwaukee adopted a one-year moratorium in October 2026, Port Washington voters must approve any tax increment district over $10 million (a rule a judge upheld in October), and projects in Caledonia, DeForest and Menomonie were withdrawn or blocked. A settlement commits the DNR to a statewide environmental review by January 2028. Incentives are unchanged.
The 3 November 2026 election will choose a new governor and Legislature, and data center cost, transparency and NDA bills are expected in the 2027 session; both nominees say data centers should pay for grid upgrades and want NDAs with local governments banned, and neither backs a statewide moratorium. Alliant's stand-alone large-load tariff filing and the commission's review of it are pending. The DNR statewide environmental review runs to January 2028. Milwaukee's moratorium runs to October 2027 unless permanent zoning comes first, and an appeal of the Port Washington referendum ruling is possible.
No statewide moratorium, but 4 local pauses are in force as of 27 October 2026, in Bellevue, Cottage Grove, Kronenwetter, Milwaukee. Proposals and expired pauses are not counted.
Tightening. Wisconsin is graded Moderate, which means incentives alongside new costs, limits or local pushback. Regulators set the rules after Legislature passed no data center bill. The outlook above says what is pending.
Wisconsin sits in MISO. The grid operator decides how a new large load is studied, what it must bring or pay, and whether it can be curtailed first; the state decides siting, permits, tariffs and incentives.
No. Wisconsin's data center incentives were not pulled back in 2025 or 2026 as of 27 October 2026.
On Genloop's five-line rubric (1 least regulated, 5 most) Wisconsin scores grid connection 3, power rates 4, siting and land use 3, tax treatment 2, permits and water 1, a mean of 2.6. The most regulated line is power rates: The We Energies class (April 24, 2026) requires a 15-year minimum and 100 percent funding of dedicated resources; Alliant was ordered May 7, 2026 to match.
18 items: each is a law, order, tariff, ruling, utility action or local decision that changes what a data center must do, pay or disclose, or where it may be built. Failed and pending measures are marked. Each links to its source.
On 13 October 2026 the Common Council voted 13 to 0 for a one-year moratorium on construction of new data centers and expansion of existing ones, of any size, while the city drafts zoning standards; the mayor signed it the next day. Developers may still seek site-specific detailed planned development zoning.
Source: urbanmilwaukee.comOn 19 October 2026 Ozaukee County Judge Adam Gerol dismissed a January 2026 lawsuit by the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce and other business groups against the ordinance requiring voter approval of tax increment districts over $10 million. The ordinance stays in place; MMAC said it may appeal.
Source: wpr.orgA settlement dated 16 October 2026 ended a Sierra Club suit over DNR permits for the Port Washington Vantage campus issued without an environmental impact statement. The DNR must complete a statewide strategic analysis of data center water, energy, air and infrastructure effects by January 2028, paid for by Vantage, and apply the Wisconsin Environmental Policy Act project by project.
Source: sierraclub.orgIn September 2026 Ozaukee County Judge Adam Gerol dismissed a lawsuit by Great Lakes Neighbors United, filed earlier in 2026, challenging the city's tax increment district 5, which funds about $175 million of infrastructure for the $15 billion Vantage campus for Oracle and OpenAI.
Source: wpr.orgVillage trustees voted 5 to 0 on 12 August 2026 to block data center development for 12 months while they review health, land use and environmental effects.
Source: fox11online.comThe village board voted 7 to 0 in August 2026 to stop accepting or approving data center applications for one year while its plan commission and utility committee study the issue; no proposal was pending.
Source: wausaupilotandreview.comOracle sued the commission in June 2026 over credit rating requirements and ratepayer protections applied to the Port Washington project, then dropped the suit in August 2026, leaving the tariff terms in place.
Source: wislawjournal.comOn 20 July 2026 the village board unanimously approved a 12-month moratorium on new data center development while it reviews zoning and its comprehensive plan, and said it intends to extend it by six months. No project was proposed.
Source: wmtv15news.comWe Energies, Vantage, Cloverleaf and Oracle asked the commission to reopen its May 2026 order and lower credit and collateral requirements for data center customers. The commission took no action at its 9 July 2026 meeting, so the petition was denied by operation of law.
Source: urbanmilwaukee.comOn 7 May 2026 the commission approved the electric service agreement for Meta's Beaver Dam campus with a stronger termination charge, financial safeguards and reporting, and ordered Alliant to file a stand-alone large-load tariff that future data center customers must use. The commission called the decision preliminary, with a final written order to follow.
Source: psc.wi.govOn 24 April 2026 the commission lowered the very large customer threshold to 100 MW and made the tariff mandatory above it, removed an option that would have left 25% of generation costs with other customers, and added reporting. Trade press reports a 15-year minimum term and 100% funding of dedicated resources.
Source: urbanmilwaukee.comOn 7 April 2026 voters approved, with 66%, a measure requiring city voter approval before creating any tax increment district worth more than $10 million. A judge had declined in February to block the vote; a business group challenge to the ordinance was dismissed in October 2026.
Source: milwaukeenns.orgA $12 billion QTS proposal in DeForest was dropped in January 2026 and moved to Iowa. In Menomonie a data center opponent unseated the mayor on 7 April 2026. Janesville ($8 billion) and the Town of Beloit proposals remain contested.
Source: milwaukeenns.orgPassed the Assembly 53 to 44 in January 2026: no shifting of data center grid costs to other customers, renewables serving a data center must be on its site, closed-loop cooling, annual water reports and a reclamation bond. The Senate adjourned on 17 March 2026 without a vote.
Source: spectrumnews1.comWould have put data centers in a very large customer class, required quarterly energy reports and an annual fee, and tied the sales tax exemption to labor standards and 70% renewable energy. Republicans voted it down when Democrats offered it as a floor amendment in January 2026.
Source: wisconsinexaminer.comMicrosoft dropped a 244-acre data center site on farmland in Caledonia in October 2025 after resident opposition. Menomonie's council revised its zoning on 5 January 2026, stopping a $1.6 billion proposal on about 320 acres.
Source: wisconsinexaminer.comSigned 8 July 2025. Exempts Port Washington's district 5 and Beaver Dam's district 10 from the 12% equalized value limit if all project costs relate to a data center.
Source: biztimes.comStill available and unchanged by the 2026 session. Qualification is tiered by planned investment and county population, with a $50 million minimum in rural counties.
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