Wisconsin PSC Overwhelmed by Public Comments Encouraging Rejection of ATC Power Lines Application
Wisconsin Eagle/10344887

PORT WASHINGTON, Wis. - WisconsinEagle -- The window for public comments regarding the completeness of American Transmission Company's application to build new 345 kV transmission lines through Ozaukee and Washington counites, in order to service the Port Washington hyperscale AI data center, has closed. Public response has been overwhelming, with over 2,500 citizens weighing in on the question in a short six-day comment period, prior to a hearing of the PSC that will be held in Madison Thursday.

If declared incomplete, ATC would have to refile and start the entire review process, which had commenced in December, all over again.

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.

Of the 2,589 comments filed before the deadline, 405 directly address the specific question the PSC posed, 160 explicitly called for revocation of the December 2025 PSC completeness determination outright, and another 245 asked the PSC to find the application incomplete and/or require ATC to refile. From century farmers to rural families to comedian/journalist Charlie Berens, who had posted on social media about the issue, hundreds of citizens oppose the project and feel that the ATC application has never been complete and should be rejected.

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The remaining comments, while not framed around the specific completeness question posed by the PSC, register broader public opposition to the ATC-recommended transmission lines. Many cited the greenfield segments of the routes, which will destroy environmentally and culturally sensitive undeveloped lands, as well as the hyperscale AI data center itself. A small number of comments, including from Denver-based Vantage Data Centers, the company actually constructing the mega data center in Port Washington, supported the project and encouraged the PSC to stay the course.

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.

"The PSC has now received the input of the public they serve. Now, let's see how the agency chooses to respond," said Pastor Patti Plough, co-leader of REA. "We all hope that the PSC will make the right decision tomorrow, acting in the public's best interest, and revoke the completeness determination, so that a responsible and thorough regulatory review process may occur."

The record that REA and other commenters reference in their commentary is substantial. Since the PSC's completeness determination in late 2025, 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.

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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.

All eyes now turn to the PSC itself. The PSC is expected to take up the completeness question at a hearing in Madison tomorrow (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 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.