Brown County

Moratoriums and bans

1. June 16, 2026 Wrightstown: Moratorium. Village board paused data center zoning and planning until after an Aug. 11 advisory referendum, in which voters said no 1,033 to 151. (NBC 26, June 16, 2026; NBC 26, Aug. 11, 2026)
2. Aug. 12, 2026 Bellevue: Moratorium. Village board unanimously enacted a one-year moratorium after a public hearing. (NBC 26, Aug. 12, 2026)
3. July 7, 2026 Hobart: Moratorium (proposed). Village board held a hearing July 7, 2026, on Ordinance 2026-07, a one-year data center moratorium, with action set for the same meeting; a vote record was not found in the sources opened. (Village of Hobart, June 26, 2026; WBAY, July 7, 2026)
4. June 24, 2026 Ashwaubenon: Moratorium. Plan commission voted unanimously June 2 to pause hyperscale data centers for 12 months (defined as over 100,000 square feet and 20 MW); WFRV reported June 24 that village leaders had approved it (date is WFRV's report date; the signed ordinance was not found). (NBC 26, June 2, 2026; WFRV Local 5, June 24, 2026)

Updates, newest first

1. Aug. 12, 2026 Bellevue: Moratorium · Village board unanimously enacted a one-year moratorium after a public hearing. (NBC 26, Aug. 12, 2026)
2. Aug. 11, 2026 Cloverleaf data center land search, Wrightstown · Voters rejected village support for large data center infrastructure, 1,033 to 151. (NBC 26, Aug. 11, 2026)
3. July 7, 2026 Hobart: Moratorium (proposed) · Village board held a hearing July 7, 2026, on Ordinance 2026-07, a one-year data center moratorium, with action set for the same meeting; a vote record was not found in the sources opened. (Village of Hobart, June 26, 2026; WBAY, July 7, 2026)
4. June 24, 2026 Ashwaubenon: Moratorium · Plan commission voted unanimously June 2 to pause hyperscale data centers for 12 months (defined as over 100,000 square feet and 20 MW); WFRV reported June 24 that village leaders had approved it (date is WFRV's report date; the signed ordinance was not found). (NBC 26, June 2, 2026; WFRV Local 5, June 24, 2026)
5. June 16, 2026 Cloverleaf data center land search, Wrightstown · The village board froze data center zoning and planning work until the referendum was held. (NBC 26, June 16, 2026)
6. June 16, 2026 Wrightstown: Moratorium · Village board paused data center zoning and planning until after an Aug. 11 advisory referendum, in which voters said no 1,033 to 151. (NBC 26, June 16, 2026; NBC 26, Aug. 11, 2026)
7. May 27, 2026 Cloverleaf data center land search, Wrightstown · Village trustees put an advisory data center question on the August ballot; Cloverleaf confirmed it had tried to buy land in the area. (WFRV Local 5, May 28, 2026)
8. Jan. 13, 2026 Cloverleaf land offers, Greenleaf · Cloverleaf and village officials confirmed the company was no longer looking at Greenleaf, after offers of $50,000 to $120,000 an acre through Bear Creek DevCo LLC. (UpNorthNews (Green Bay Press-Gazette reporting, USA Today Network), Jan. 13, 2026; Insight on Business, Jan. 14, 2026)

Statewide

2023 Wisconsin Act 19 (the 2023-25 budget) created a sales and use tax exemption, Wis. Stat. 77.54(70), for server, network, power and cooling equipment, other property built into or used at a qualified data center, and electricity, once the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. certifies the center; certification requires a qualified investment within five years of at least $150 million in a county of more than 100,000 people, $100 million in a county of 50,001 to 100,000, or $50 million in smaller counties. (Wisconsin Department of Revenue, July 31, 2024) The Legislative Fiscal Bureau did not price the exemption when it passed in 2023; a later fiscal bureau projection, reported by Wisconsin Watch in April 2026, put the cost at about $1.5 billion in sales tax not collected during construction plus $369 million a year once the Beaver Dam, Port Washington and Mount Pleasant campuses (and a smaller Epic project in Verona) are running. These are forgone-revenue estimates, not payments. (WPR (Wisconsin Watch), April 27, 2026) Assembly Bill 840 / Senate Bill 843 (Zimmerman, Quinn), which would have barred shifting data center grid costs to other customers, required water recycling and DNR water reporting and required on-site renewable generation, passed the Assembly 53-44 on Jan. 20, 2026, and cleared a Senate committee 3-2 on March 13, 2026, but died without a Senate floor vote when the session ended March 23, 2026. (Wisconsin State Legislature, Oct. 20, 2026; Wisconsin State Legislature, Oct. 20, 2026) Assembly Bill 1036 / Senate Bill 969 (Moses, Jacque), which would have barred data centers and local governments from agreements, including nondisclosure agreements, that keep data center plans from the public, and barred local approval of a project tied to a violating agreement, cleared a Senate committee 4-1 on March 13, 2026, but failed to pass when the session ended March 23, 2026. (Wisconsin State Legislature, Oct. 20, 2026; Wisconsin State Legislature, Oct. 20, 2026) Assembly Bill 722 (Democratic bill from Rep. Angela Stroud, with Sen. Jodi Habush Sinykin) would have created a very large customer utility class, water-use rules, a 70% renewable requirement and prevailing-wage rules for large data centers; WPR reported in January 2026 that Republican leaders had not scheduled a hearing, and it failed when the session ended March 23, 2026. (Wisconsin State Legislature, Oct. 20, 2026; WPR, Jan. 7, 2026) PSC docket 6630-TE-113: We Energies proposed its Very Large Customer tariff and a companion Bespoke Resources tariff in March 2025; the commission approved them with changes on April 24, 2026 (final decision May 21, 2026), lowering eligibility from 500 MW to 100 MW, requiring 15-year minimum terms, removing a capacity-only option so these customers pay 100% of new generation costs, and tightening credit and collateral rules. (WFRV Local 5, April 24, 2026; Clean Wisconsin (filing in PSC docket 6630-TE-113), June 2026; Clean Wisconsin (press release via Urban Milwaukee), July 9, 2026) We Energies, Vantage and Cloverleaf asked the PSC to reopen the credit-support terms in docket 6630-TE-113 so Oracle could take service at Port Washington; the commission did not take it up, so Clean Wisconsin said the request would be denied by operation of law on July 10, 2026. Oracle America Cloud Services separately petitioned Ozaukee County Circuit Court on June 19, 2026, for review of those terms (case 2026CV000256). (Clean Wisconsin (filing in PSC docket 6630-TE-113), June 2026; Clean Wisconsin (press release via Urban Milwaukee), July 9, 2026; Ozaukee County Circuit Court (posted by WPR), June 19, 2026) PSC docket 6680-TE-115: on May 7, 2026, the commission approved, with changes, Alliant Energy's (Wisconsin Power and Light) individual electric service agreement for Meta's Beaver Dam data center, strengthened the termination charge and directed Alliant to propose a separate large-load tariff under which future data centers above 100 MW must take service. (Public Service Commission of Wisconsin, May 7, 2026; Clean Wisconsin, May 7, 2026) Xcel Energy (Northern States Power-Wisconsin) filed a proposed large-load tariff with the PSC on June 22, 2026, for new loads or expansions of 100 MW or more, with binding 15-year terms, minimum monthly bills and exit fees so these customers cover the full cost of serving them; it cited about 2.9 GW of large-load requests and sought approval by February 2027. Docket number not found in the sources opened. (Xcel Energy (release posted by WPR), June 22, 2026; WPR, June 24, 2026; New Project Media, Aug. 4, 2026) Generation tied largely to data center demand: the PSC approved We Energies' 1,100 MW South Oak Creek gas turbines (docket 6630-CE-317) and 128 MW Paris engines (6630-CE-316), with final decisions July 2, 2025; in November 2025 We Energies sought approval for about 3 GW more (solar, battery and two gas plants, about $5.4 billion), and Invenergy's 1,186 MW Red Oak Ridge gas plant in the Town of Paris (9837-CE-100) is under review, which We Energies plans to buy. (Public Service Commission of Wisconsin, Oct. 20, 2026; Public Service Commission of Wisconsin, Oct. 20, 2026; Public Service Commission of Wisconsin, Oct. 20, 2026; Insight on Business, Nov. 6, 2025; Utility Dive, July 22, 2026) Wisconsin data centers →