The Defender
Clean Wisconsin: Your environmental voice since 1970
Recent Episodes
Don't look at the gas plant behind the curtain! If you feel like tech companies and energy utilities are gaslighting you with their assurances that AI data centers won't hurt our environment, you're probably right.
In this episode, how AI is causing a fossil fuel boom in Wisconsin and the lawsuit just filed to try and stop it.
Host: Amy Barrilleaux
Guests:
Katie Nekola, General Cousnel, Clean Wisconsin
Ciaran Gallagher, Climate & Air Manager, Clean Wisconsin
Resources for You:
Petition: Take A Stand Against Unchecked Data Center Development
New Analysis: Data Center Water Consumption Will Be Far Higher Than Tech Companies Claim
PSC approves plan to power AI data center with gas plants
You may have heard, Wisconsin needs more power and we need it fast. In the next few years, AI data centers will cause an unprecedented surge in energy demand across our state. There are already large expensive new powerplants being built to help meet that demand with more to come. But the big question is, will Wisconsinites be left shouldering the cost?
In this episode, the shocking energy needs of AI, why our power companies are rolling out the red carpet, and the lasting environmental and economic harms that could be left in the wake.
Host: Amy Barrilleaux
Guest: Tom Content, Citizens Utility Board (CUB)
Resources for You:
Citizens Utility Board Data Centers Page
Petition: Take A Stand Against Unchecked Data Center Development
New Analysis: Data Center Water Consumption Will Be Far Higher Than Tech Companies Claim
PSC approves plan to power AI data center with gas plants
What if you could make a difference in the fight to protect our environment by doing nothing at all? In this episode, why fall is the perfect time to be lazy - for the planet.
Host: Amy Barrilleaux
Guest: Elizabeth Braat, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
Resources for You:
Episode 43: The hidden pesticides that could be lurking in your pollinator garden
Neonic Pesticides and their Impact
The amazing story of one Wisconsin food that was banned, burned, disappeared from our plates - and the comeback that's being helped along by solar farms.
Host: Amy Barrilleaux
Guest: Lily Hislop, Savanna Institute
Resources for You:
Black Currants: A once-forbidden fruit
Farming for the Future: Charting a course for a new food system
A Clean Wisconsin analysis shows just two approved data centers in Wisconsin will use more power than all the homes in our state combined. More than the generation capacity of the Point Beach nuclear plant, the single-largest source of power in Wisconsin. And that leaves a lot of people are wondering, where is all this leading us? What will it mean for Wisconsin's precious water resources, our land, our energy bills? And why is it so hard to find out? In this episode, an in-depth conversation on the secrets of data centers.
Host: Amy Barrilleaux
Guest: Michael Greif, Midwest Environmental Advocates
Resources for You:
AI data centers in Wisconsin will use more energy than all homes in state combined
Large Wisconsin data center tax breaks make benefits unclear
MEA Takes Legal Action to Compel City of Racine to Disclose Data Center's Projected Water Use