Great Lakes States Face a Data Center Governance Gap

More than 220 data centers are planned across the Great Lakes region, but questions about their cumulative freshwater and energy needs remain unanswered. New guides from the Alliance for the Great Lakes and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's Center for Water Policy aim to inform both residents and lawmakers on how to better manage and regulate the industry. The guides offer policy options like moratoriums, water and energy reporting requirements, and clean energy mandates. Meanwhile, lawmakers in Wisconsin, Illinois, and Ohio are racing to introduce bills addressing transparency, renewable energy use, water consumption, and pollution from data centers. However, partisan divides have slowed progress, with competing bills from Democrats and Republicans in many states. In Wisconsin, a Democrat-backed bill would require data centers to source at least 70% of their electricity from renewables, while a Republican-backed bill with water conservation measures has a provision that may make it impractical. In Illinois, Democratic and Republican lawmakers have introduced bills focused on water security and pollution. And in Ohio, new bipartisan and Democratic-led bills aim to restrict water usage, mandate reporting, and shield residents from infrastructure costs.