Janesville: Fact-checking the City’s fact-checking
On November 4, 2025, the city administrator of Janesville held a townhall meeting to discuss the data center proposal they received in response to their RFP. The content that made up his presentation is presented here. It includes an embedded YouTube video of his talk and the public comments. The crux of his presentation was “Data Centers: Myths and Facts” in which he offered his fact-checking of the public comments and concerns surrounding the project.
Let’s fact-check his fact-checking. His text is copied verbatim from the city’s webpage. The fact-checking of each item follows the label “Reality:”
Data centers escalate power costs for residents. (FALSE)
There are opportunities to build in provisions and protections to ensure that large industrial customers, like data centers, do not shift costs to residential or small business customers. These facilities operate under special rate structures and long-term agreements that protect all other ratepayers. While broader economic or supply-chain factors can influence overall energy markets, the presence of a data center itself will not directly raise the community’s energy bill.
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Reality: Anecdotal evidence exists that data centers do impact power costs: https://www.cnbc.com/2025/11/14/data-centers-are-concentrated-in-these-states-heres-whats-happening-to-electricity-prices-.html
Prices were rising in WI before the data center projects came along, let alone were operational. There is very little consensus on why rates are rising, and rates are influenced by many variables. It is unlikely that the city administrator is saying anything here other than "the people who are negotiating with the developer assure me rates won't rise as a result of this deal." Absent some concrete understanding of why rates are rising before hyperscale data centers are turned on, it is impossible to assert that any future rise isn't at least partially due to data centers.
Data centers would strain local energy grids. (FALSE)
Utilities often invest in stronger power lines, faster broadband, and more reliable infrastructure to support data centers. Project planning can work with energy partners in advance to expand capacity, invest in renewables, and strengthen infrastructure to meet future demand without disrupting service or cost stability. Additionally, Wisconsin is part of the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) network, which means that power can be added to the Wisconsin grid from Louisiana to Northern Canada.
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Alliant Energy - https://www.alliantenergy.com/our-energy/data-centers
Reality: The city administrator points to the state's participation in the Midcontinent Independent Systems Operator (MISO) network, saying that it provides regional sharing of power production and transmission. While true, he neglects to inform you that MISO has been criticized by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) as being at 'elevated' risk of power shortfalls due to premature retirement of natural gas and coal-fired generation.
It is possible that Alliant will build enough capacity for the data center campus such that the problem will not worsen, but it's somewhat misleading for the city administrator to claim that all is well with the regional network.
Sources: https://www.americanexperiment.org/miso-at-elevated-risk-of-blackouts-this-summer-warns-grid-monitor/, https://www.nerc.com/globalassets/programs/rapa/ra/nerc_sra_2025.pdf,
Data centers are noisy and create light pollution. (NO LONGER TRUE)
New technologies, like advanced cooling systems and sound-dampening enclosures, prevent operational noise from escaping. The typical modern data center building produces sound levels ranging from 50-70 dB, equivalent to the noise associated with light rain to that of a vacuum cleaner, making noise virtually unnoticeable from outside the facility. While modern technology has dramatically reduced these concerns, development agreements can also be written to meet specific standards for the community.
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Future Bridge Americas - https://future-bridge.us/noise-control-in-data-centers-key-design-strategies/
Reality: It is true that noise control with modern data centers is improving. However, what the city administrator conveniently leaves out is the sound level of the construction. While residents begrudgingly tolerate construction for short-duration projects such as a new home or even office building, the schedule for an 8 or 11 building data center campus is likely to be 8-10 years long. As we all know from personal experience, construction noise can be quite invasive. So while the noise level post construction might be tolerable or even unnoticeable to residents, they might have to suffer through 8-10 years of the equivalent of heavy industrial noise to get there.
Data centers pose an environmental risk. (FALSE)
Modern data centers are clean, safe facilities that are increasingly carbon-neutral. Data centers often sign long-term renewable energy contracts, invest in solar and wind, and use battery or fuel-cell backups instead of diesel. These factors can be written into development agreements.
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Rambøll Group A/S - https://www.ramboll.com/en-us/news/nycw-2025-developing-sustainable-data-centers
Reality: Yes, data center deals often have developers commit to a percentage of their energy use being renewable, and the deals often require them to fund the development of renewable energy production. Data centers, however, do not consume 100% renewable energy. They are simply buying "credits" to offset their energy use. Data centers use a large and relatively steady amount of energy 24x7x365 that cannot be served by renewables when the sun isn't shining and the wind isn't blowing. And their usage is so vast, it can't be supported by battery storage either.
The claim that data centers are "increasingly carbon-neutral" is misleading at best.
A data center wouldn’t make a significant economic impact in our community. (FALSE)
While there is still much to learn and understand about the costs and benefits of a data center development, there are clear indications that a project in Janesville could have a significant economic impact. First, there is the obvious tax revenue growth. Second, there is the immeasurable value of a data center taking on one of the most serious environmental concerns in our community – the brownfield remediation of the former GM/JATCO site, estimated at $35M. Finally, direct and indirect job creation and infrastructure investments benefit the entire community’s economic ecosystem. Development of the GM/JATCO site turns an economic drain into an economic driver and allows City staff to focus resources on other catalytic projects in the community.
Reality: That link goes to a whitepaper that says "The total accumulated capital investment of data centers in Virginia amounts to $203 billion, employing 12,140 operational workers, with about 90% in Northern Virginia." 90% of 12,140 is 10,926. Northern VA has 549 data centers, which makes the per data center employment equal to 20 jobs per data center.
Even if we assume the Janesville data center campus is 8 or 11 data centers instead of 1, that means the maximum number of permanent jobs will be 220, not the 600 that the developer is claiming. $203B in investment … for 220 jobs maximum. Hardly “significant.”
Source for data center count in Northern Virginia - https://baxtel.com/data-center/northern-virginia
Data centers create direct and indirect local jobs. (TRUE)
During the construction phase, a large data center project could bring in thousands of jobs over six years. Once operational, the site could employ hundreds of direct employees with salaries ranging from $80,000 to six figures. The project would also require skilled contractors and partners from Wisconsin-based employers for ongoing facility maintenance, supply chain, and technical services.
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Reality: Indirect jobs were defined as 3.5x of the permanent jobs. Indirect employment multipliers, however, don't work at the low end. Eg, 1 new permanent job easily gets absorbed in a community without any noticeable indirect economic impact. On the other extreme, 10,000 jobs would certainly generate indirect economic growth: new homes, grocery stores, retail shops, etc. What should the multiplier be for 220 jobs in a town of 65K? Far closer to 0 than the 3.5x 220.
Data centers do NOT generate economic activity. Construction of data centers does. And the construction ends at some point. Northern VA has seen tremendous economic growth because they've been constructing 549 data centers for over 15 straight years. Prineville OR similarly has been developing Meta and Apple data centers for 15 years. They have seen some economic activity from the construction, but they have also seen upward pressure on rental housing prices as the constructions workers increase demand but don't generate new housing units because their work is temporary.
Economic activity is generated by people. Data centers are nearly "lights out" operations. Some benefit is seen from the construction period, which can be quite long, but don't expect it to persist after construction.
Conclusion
An honest assessment of a proposal this massive should result in a list of pros and cons. Nothing this big can be that easy. There have to be trade-offs and uncertainties. The city administrator lists none. The proposal is all good, all benefit to the community, easy money, and a simple answer to the community’s GM site problem. Sounds great. Where do we sign?