Caledonia, WI – On October 8, residents of the small village of Caledonia in southeastern Wisconsin - just south of Milwaukee, scored a m...

Caledonia, WI – On October 8, residents of the small village of Caledonia in southeastern Wisconsin – just south of Milwaukee, scored a massive victory against megacorporation Microsoft. As a result of an outpouring of negative community feedback, the tech giant announced that they would not be moving forward with the data center project at this time.

Microsoft had targeted the small Racine County community to construct a new data center, but concerns arose for residents as time went on after the initial announcement of the proposal. More than 2000 people signed a petition calling for the project to be halted. For some perspective, Caledonia as has a total population just north of 25,000.

As with most data centers, this plant would’ve had significant environmental impacts. Water usage at the plant was another major concern. Residents also cited the general air of secrecy around the project, something many of them weren’t comfortable with. The rural plot would’ve impacted farmers on the surrounding land. Caledonia has never seen a project of this scope, causing some to warn that Microsoft, as the would-be single largest tax contributor for the village, could dominate the local political landscape to maintain its own interests.

Microsoft is not done with the region, though. They have a separate project that has already broken ground in Mount Pleasant, another village further south of Milwaukee and nearer to the Illinois border. Despite their Caledonia setback, Microsoft indicated in their statement that they look forward to further conversations in the future to find a “more suitable” location for the data center there.

With the Great Lakes as an abundant source of the water that is necessary for these plants, states in the Midwest like Wisconsin will continue to be in the crosshairs of companies looking to build AI data centers. As such, the need has never been greater for activists to organize against them and other attacks against the environment.

#CaledoniaWI #WI #PeoplesStruggles #Environment

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