The Wisconsin Public Service Commission (PSC) approved on May 22, 2025 two methane gas plants for more than $1.5 billion proposed by WE Energies. Construction of the 1,100-megawatt plant in Oak Creek and the 128-megawatt plant in Paris is slated to begin this year and will come online in the following few years. A large contributing factor to the plants’ approval is the demand for additional energy generation to power the Microsoft data center under construction in Mount Pleasant. The data center is expected to be the state’s largest individual electricity consumer; it’s likely to consume the same amount of energy required to power a few hundred thousand homes.
The PSC approved the plants even though they received hundreds of public comments opposing additional fossil fuel energy production in Wisconsin. While We Energies stated that compared with their coal plants, these natural gas plants would decrease CO2 emissions by 3.5 million tons, a report released by Healthy Climate Wisconsin and the Union of Concerned Scientists highlights the negative health consequences from the two fossil fuel plants. It states that in addition to greenhouse gas emissions, the plants will pollute the air with nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, particulate matter, and volatile organic compounds proven to worsen conditions like heart disease and asthma as well as increase the risk of premature death. Wisconsin Environmental Justice & Infrastructure Initiative (EJII) has written a letter to the PSC and WE Energies asking them to reconsider the impacts the fossil fuel plants will have on Wisconsin public health and safety. MJS.