MEMO: On Energy Costs, Pollution & AI Data Centers, Wisconsin Republicans Are Trump Rubber Stamps
tags
TO: Interested Parties
FROM: Climate Power
DATE: August 28, 2026
RE: On Energy Costs, Pollution & AI Data Centers, Wisconsin Republicans Are Trump Rubber Stamps
While polling has led Wisconsin Republicans to abruptly reverse course and posture as AI data center opponents, their record is clear: Wisconsin congressional Republicans gave massive tax breaks to the AI industry in Trump’s signature budget bill of 2025 while also gutting investment in cheaper, home-grown clean energy at a time when America’s energy needs are skyrocketing.
House Republicans, including Tom Tiffany and Derrick Van Orden, also rammed through the SPEED Act, a bill backed by trillion-dollar tech companies that allows them to rush through data centers regardless of local concerns. They even voted to ban Wisconsin and other states from placing their own guardrails on AI and data centers. concerns. And they have been silent as Trump has used his Justice Department and EPA as a strike team to silence and crush local opposition to data centers over massive pollution.
The result has been Econ 101, and has proven who these Republicans actually care about: cutting our energy supply while accelerating massive energy demand from data centers has meant skyrocketing utility bills for all of us.
No matter what Wisconsin Republicans say now as they panic at bad poll numbers, as soon as the election passes they will use their office for the same thing they always do: rubber-stamping Trump’s attacks on clean energy and his blank checks for data centers.
Boosting AI Energy Demand: The Republican budget bill provided tax breaks that benefited trillion dollar tech companies, including tax breaks for research and development and the immediate expensing of data center infrastructure. House Republicans’ SPEED Act was “designed to accelerate construction of new AI infrastructure projects like data centers” by dramatically shortening and limiting opportunities for local communities to object to permits. In fact, in the original House Republican version of the 2025 budget bill, they voted virtually unanimously to block almost all state laws looking to put guardrails on AI or data centers.
- “The Big Beautiful Bill may have just quietly boosted Big Tech earnings,” Business Insider, 7/9/25
- “Four Big Tech Companies Avoid $51 Billion in Taxes in Wake of One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” ITEP, 2/6/26
- “Bill to ease Big Tech project permits advances in House,” CNBC, 12/16/25
- “Almost Every House Republican Voted To Block State and Local Governments’ Ability To Protect Residents From AI Data Centers,” Center for American Progress, 8/24/2026
Cutting Clean Energy Supply: The Republican budget bill took a “sledgehammer” to America’s clean energy industries, just as they were dramatically expanding and just when America needed them to meet exponential growth in energy demand. Indeed, for the past 2 years, more than 90% of new energy capacity in the United States has come from wind, solar, and batteries – exactly the industries that Trump and Republicans in Congress targeted in their budget bill.
- Wisconsin companies face $1.5B loss as DOE plans to terminate clean energy project funding, Milwaukee Business Journal, 10/16/25
- “Trump Slams the Brakes on US Wind and Solar Growth,” Bloomberg, 7/22/25
- “How much Trump’s ‘big beautiful’ bill could raise electricity costs over the next 10 years, by state,” CNBC, 7/14/25
Skyrocketing Utility Bills: The result of this surge in demand and cratering of supply has been devastating in every corner of the country, with 49 of 50 states seeing rate hikes. Nationwide, utility bills have spiked as high as 18% compared to when Trump took office, several times more than the overall rate of inflation. In Wisconsin they are up 13% under the watch of Trump and Wisconsin congressional Republicans.
- “Trump’s 18-Month Deadline To Cut Electricity Prices in Half Has Arrived. Rates Are Up 18%,” Reason, 7/20/26
- “Economic, Consumer Cost, and Pollution Impacts of Federal Energy Policy Changes,” Energy Innovation, 7/8/26
- “Electricity costs went up in 2025 despite Trump’s promise to halve prices,” Wisconsin Independent, 3/17/26
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