American Transmission Company just refiled a $1.3 billion plan to build new power lines and substations across four Wisconsin counties — Fond du Lac, Ozaukee, Sheboygan, and Washington — all to connect one new data center in Port Washington to the grid.

Data centers like this one use enormous amounts of electricity to run and cool the servers behind artificial intelligence and cloud computing. But that infrastructure doesn't come free. Someone has to pay for the new transmission lines, the substations, and the disruption to the communities those lines run through. Right now, there's no guarantee that cost won't land on everyday Wisconsin ratepayers instead of the company that will actually use all that power.

Wisconsin regulators already sent this project back to the drawing board once, after the utility kept changing its design without clearly explaining why. That's a chance to get this right — including making sure the data center's owner, not the public, pays for the grid upgrades built specifically to serve it.

The Wisconsin Public Service Commission is reviewing American Transmission Company's new application now, and a fresh round of public comment is coming. This is the moment to demand that data centers cover the true cost of the power they use, instead of quietly passing a $1.3 billion bill on to households and small businesses across eastern Wisconsin.

Sign the petition to make data centers pay their fair share of Wisconsin's grid costs — before this bill lands on ratepayers instead.