More Than 1,700 Public Comments Filed as Wisconsin PSC Weighs Decision on ATC's Application
Wisconsin Eagle/10344858

PORT WASHINGTON, Wis. - WisconsinEagle -- Public response has been overwhelming, leading up to the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin closing later today a brief public comment period on one of the most consequential procedural questions in the Port Washington data center transmission line project: whether American Transmission Company's application to build new 345 kV transmission lines through Ozaukee and Washington counties was ever actually complete in the first place.

If declared incomplete, ATC would have to refile and start the entire review process, which commenced in December, all over again. More than 1,700 members of the public have weighed in, following the PSC's request for input.

Engagement has intensified dramatically as today's 1:30 p.m. deadline approaches: 1,441 comments were filed on Tuesday alone, the final full day before the cutoff. A social media posting by popular journalist/comedian Charlie Berens, issued midway through the comment period, went viral and fueled the frenzy of public attention on this important issue. Berens also submitted his own comment, urging revocation of the completeness determination.

The comment period was triggered by a petition filed July 29 by the citizen coalition, Responsible Energy Alliance, building on its original motion filed July 13. REA's earlier motion had already been publicly supported by various other parties, including the local land trust, Restoring Lands, as well as local landowners. The PSC responded last Thursday by issuing a formal notice and request for comments, inviting the public to weigh in directly on whether the Dec. 15, 2025, completeness determination should stand.

The public responded overwhelmingly. Just hours before the window closes at 1:30 p.m. today, 1,721 comments have already been logged. Of these, 279 directly address the specific question the PSC posed, 119 explicitly called for revocation of the Dec. 15, 2025, completeness determination outright, and another 160 ask the PSC to find the application incomplete and require ATC to refile.

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The remaining roughly 1,400 comments, while not framed around the specific completeness question posed by the PSC, register broader public opposition to the ATC-recommended transmission lines, particularly the greenfield segments of the routes, which will destroy environmentally and culturally sensitive undeveloped lands, as well as the hyperscale AI data center itself.

Even setting aside comments that did not specifically address completeness, the volume of input squarely calling for revocation and refiling reflects a substantial and clearly-expressed body of public opinion on a question the PSC specifically asked the public to weigh in on. A handful of comments – about 10 – expressed support for the project.

"The PSC asked the question, and the people of Wisconsin have spoken. Residents didn't just show up in large numbers - they answered the exact question the PSC asked," said Pastor Patti Plough, co-leader of REA. "Hundreds of Wisconsinites told the PSC directly, and in no uncertain terms, that the ATC application is not complete and should not move forward as written. This is not background noise — it's a direct answer to a direct question, and the PSC should treat it as such."

The record that REA and other commenters reference is substantial. Since the December 2025 completeness determination, ATC has filed no fewer than 564 additional application amendment documents and revisions, plus 168 staff data request responses.

The volume of changes is so extensive that the PSC's own administrative law judge found in a July 1 , 2026, order that "the nature, volume, and filing pattern of certain Applicant documents have unreasonably complicated the identification of the current application in this proceeding." PSC staff witness Ingwell testified that he does not recall "any other comparable case" with this many revisions and design changes throughout a proceeding.

Additional problems have been identified with ATC's application. Other testimony filed with the PSC has identified an unverified multimillion-dollar cost double-count, tens of millions of dollars in unaccounted regional impacts, unresolved obligations under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act relating to indigenous cultural heritage sites, and insufficient time to complete legally required endangered species surveys.

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All eyes now turn to the PSC itself. The PSC is scheduled to take up the completeness question at a hearing Thursday. Its decision will determine whether ATC's application, and the review clock that governs it, restarts from zero, or whether the PSC will allow the current proceeding to move forward toward the August 25–28 hearing on its current schedule … despite its being built atop an application that has been revised many hundreds of times since being first certified as "complete."

"The PSC has the authority to reconsider its own determinations, and it should exercise that authority now," said David Aversa, co-leader of REA. "The only responsible path forward is to revoke the prior completeness determination and require ATC to file an application the public, the intervenors, and the commission's own staff can actually evaluate. The clock must restart, and we need to see a responsible and careful process. The stakes for the public are simply too high to rush this project in the manner insisted upon by ATC. It is clear that this is what the residents of Wisconsin want to see happen here."

The PSC hearing to rule on the completeness issue, which is open to the public, will occur Thursday in Madison, Wis., at 10:30 a.m., in Hearing Room S105, 1st Floor, at the Hill Farms State Office Building, 4822 Madison Yards Way. The ATC application completeness question is item 14 on the agenda.

About Responsible Energy Alliance

Responsible Energy Alliance is a coalition of residents, landowners, and community members in Ozaukee and Washington counties, Wisconsin, opposed to routing new high-voltage transmission infrastructure through undeveloped greenfield land when existing-corridor alternatives are available. REA is an intervenor in PSC Docket 137-CE-221.

This remains an ongoing matter and developing story. Further updates will be provided as more information becomes available.