Wednesday, April 1, 2026

April Newsletter

 

 

APRIL 17 AT 5:30 P.M. - ACTION GATHERING - DATA CENTERS - PART 2     Join CRSC friends and members as we learn about an important environmental issue and then take meaningful action together. All are welcome - you don’t need to be a Sierra Club member to participate. This month, we’ll continue learning about data centers and what we can do about them. In addition to energy and water use, what other issues surround data centers and the drive to build so many of them so quickly? RSVP (optional) by calling 608-315-2693 or at https://forms.gle/34yPvEL5putiuUtR7 to help us know how much pizza to have on hand. Please enter at the back door. BYO non-alcoholic beverage.

EARTH MONTH     SIERRA CLUB BOOK CLUB! Join the Sierra Club Wisconsin to read and discuss great books! WEDNESDAY, April 8 at 6:30 p.m., we’ll  discuss The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World by Robin Wall Kimmerer. 
Our economy is rooted in scarcity, competition, and the hoarding of resources, and we have surrendered our values to a system that actively harms what we love. Meanwhile, the serviceberry’s relationship with the natural world is an embodiment of reciprocity, interconnectedness, and gratitude. Kimmerer considers the gift economy, Indigenous wisdom. Learn more about it at https://tinyurl.com/wisc26bookclub

HIGHWAY CLEAN-UP  Saturday, April 25 at 9:00 a.m. join fellow CRSC members and friends to help pick up litter along River Valley Drive. We’ll meet at the pumping station just northwest of the Gillette Street stop light. Vests and bags are provided. For more information, please email CRSierraClub@gmail.com or call 608-315-2693.

CLIMATE COLLAGE CRAFT NIGHT - Tuesday, April 21 at 5 p.m. at UW-La Crosse Student Union (East Ave. and La Crosse Street - take the #4 bus!)  Come craft with us at the UW-La Crosse campus! We'll do some collaging in response to the questions "what do you want to protect from climate change?" and "why do you care about climate change?" Celebrate what you want to protect in the world, from lands and waters to the people around you. Drop by to craft and meet fellow Sierrans as well as new people interested in Sierra Club. There will be a presentation on Sierra Club's work, the Line 5 fight, and how people can get involved. All are welcome! Save room for snacks!  RSVP (optional) to help us plan! https://tinyurl.com/wisc-cccn0421

CAN YOU HELP US TABLE on Sunday, April 26 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the LA CROSSE EARTH FAIR at Myrick Park? Please email or call to volunteer!  

EARTH MONTH ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION GRANTS     We are happy to announce five new environmental education grants for Earth Month projects! These annual grants for K-8 programming help local agencies and educators enhance students’ connections with and understanding of the natural world. Along with our annual High School Environmental Stewardship Award, these grants solidify the Coulee Region group’s commitment to the next generation of environmentalists. This year’s recipients are:

  • Southern Bluffs Elementary School (La Crosse) - plants and supplies for third grade plants and soil project.
  • Logan Middle School (La Crosse) - safety vests and special shirts for students participating in school and neighborhood clean-up and environmental events. 
  • The Nature Place (La Crosse) - materials, supplies and prizes for elementary and middle school students’ participation in “The Community Science Game,” an exercise that helps students and families learn about projects they can get involved with.
  • Southern Bluffs Elementary School (La Crosse) - help fund a program by the International Owl Center for Earth Week.
  • Coulee Region Sparks Leo and Cub Club - help purchase edible shrubs and fruit trees which will be planted by club participants at the REACH Center in La Crosse.

Watch for our next environmental education grant - the High School Environmental Stewardship Award. Learn more about our education work and how you can help support it at https://sierraclub.org/Wisconsin/Coulee/Education

DRIVE ELECTRIC EARTH MONTH     Drive Electric Earth Month is a national campaign to share information about electric vehicles throughout the month of April. In addition to being better for the environment, electric vehicles are more fun to drive, more convenient to fuel and less expensive to operate than gasoline vehicles. 

The Sierra Club is an original national sponsor. Transportation is a major source of air pollution and has the largest, fastest-growing climate emissions in the US. Shifting to pollution-free vehicles, accessible public transit, and making our communities more walkable, bikeable, and transit-friendly for all, no matter their zip code, race, income level, age, or any other factor, can have a major impact on greenhouse gas emissions. 

To counter a deliberate, well-funded campaign opposing clean energy and clean transportation, these events can help people learn more about buying and owning an electric vehicle with real EV owners providing facts and answers to questions about range, charging, costs, traveling and more.

Saturday, April 18 - Wisconsin Electric Vehicle Association Ride-n-Drive from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the PDC Movie Theater, 1205 E Prairie Street, in Prairie du Chien. https://driveelectricearthmonth.org/event?eventid=5086

Sunday, April 26 - Ask Me About My EV from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the La Crosse Earth Fair (lower level near trail head). https://driveelectricearthmonth.org/event?eventid=5121 

WISCONSIN CONSERVATION CONGRESS     The Wisconsin Conservation Congress is the only statutory body in the state where citizens elect delegates to advise the Natural Resources Board and the Department of Natural Resources on how to responsibly manage Wisconsin's natural resources for present and future generations. The Congress accomplishes this through open, impartial, broad-ranged actions.

The 2026 Spring Hearing will be held in each county in person on April 13 and online from April 13 to 15. The annual Spring Hearing is an opportunity for the public to provide input on a wide array of natural resources-related proposed rule change questions presented by the DNR and advisory questions presented by the Conservation Congress. 

The public also has the opportunity to provide input on resolutions that members of the public previously submitted online between Jan. 5 and Feb. 9, 2026. New in 2026: The WCC will also consider resolutions submitted during the in-person county spring hearings. Day-of submissions are required to follow the same criteria as a resolution submitted via the Citizen Resolution Submittal Form. Guidance for submitting a resolution is found under the "For Your Information" heading on this page.

Public input received through this process is advisory to Natural Resources Board members, DNR staff and anyone working on these issues.

Learn more about the WCC and Spring Hearings - where they are, how to participate, and where to find the online survey and questionnaire by visiting  https://dnr.wisconsin.gov/about/wcc/springhearing 

ACTION GATHERING - DATA CENTERS by Chris Miller, CRSC Board Member

Together We Can
"When two violins are placed in a room
if a chord on one violin is struck, 
the other violin will sound that same note. 
Know how powerful you are.
Know you can make music in the people around you
just by playing your own strings."

The CRSC Action Gathering group met on March 20 at the Unitarian Universalist Church to become educated about the explosion of Hyperscale Data Centers. We want to acknowledge the UU church for welcoming us. 
We welcomed Representative Tara Johnson as a guest speaker. She gave us a detailed history of the attempts at cultivating a law to address Data Centers. None of them have met with success. The legislature has adjourned without voting on the new Data Center Bill: Assembly Bill 840 and Senate Bill 729 - Data Center Accountability Act. More information needs to be obtained about the exact requirements this bill establishes. Tara answered questions from the audience and a lively discussion ensued. 

We signed individual letters to the three Public Service Commissioners detailing our concerns. We also sent thank you notes to Rep. Jill Billings and State Senator Brad Pfaff for sponsoring one of the data center bills. 

At our next session–April 17 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.–we will continue to look at data centers. All are invited.  

Chris Miller presented a power point informing us about the concerns about data centers. You can view it at https://tinyurl.com/crscdatactrppt.
Basic Points: 

  • A hyperscale data center is a very large campus housing buildings that hold networked computer servers, serving AI, cloud storage, cryptocurrency. 
  • Wisconsin is seeing a data center explosion.
  •  Wisconsin is vulnerable to data center encroachment because it lacks a clean energy requirement written into law
  • It also lacks an integrated resource planning requirements which would help keep utilities accountable for their long-term energy investments and provide more opportunities for things like stakeholder engagement.
  • The state budget established broad sales and use tax exemptions to attract certified data centers that include land, equipment and electricity exemptions.
  •  Utility companies have actively recruited these large data centers.
  • Last January, President Trump signed an Executive Order encouraging a loosening of economic and environmental regulations to pave the way for hyper-scale data centers.  
  • A more recent executive order “seeks to limit the ability of states to regulate artificial intelligence, while attempting to thwart some existing state laws.
  • Wisconsin has water and land that these Data Centers need. 

There are many unanswered and worrisome questions, including: 

  • What is the demand on local water resources? 
  • What is the impact on local electrical capacity?
  • What is the ecological impact?
  • Who will pay the cost?
  • What is the sound and light pollution impact?
  • What are actual employment opportunities?
  • Will there be local revenues that are recouped?

Problems include 

  • Lack of transparency: Use of non-disclosure agreements (NDA’s) with host communities and labeling information such as water usage as a trade secret. 
  • Rapid Growth without plans
  • Energy Consumption: for example, two proposed facilities will use as much energy as 4.3 million Wisconsin homes in a state with only 2.8 million housing units.
  • Water Consumption: Clean potable water is used to cool data centers. The water is not returned to ground, it evaporates. 
  • Fossil fuel use: Some companies are using fossil gas which is about 90% methane, and they’ll depend on diesel fuel for backup generators.
  • Land Impacts: Large tracts of farmland will be permanently lost with no plans for decommissioning abandoned facilities. 
  • Who Pays?: Utilities are building billions of dollars of new generation facilities, transmission lines, and related infrastructure. Data centers could be responsible for over a third of electricity costs by 2050 and these costs are usually socialized or spread out among all the customers.

Solutions include coalition-building, lobbying for sunshine laws or public access to public records and open meetings, and community engagement. Four projects were canceled last year due to local efforts. 

Get yourself educated: read Tool Kit for Hyperscale Data Centers in Wisconsin and learn about local actions at https://cr-sierra.blogspot.com/p/crsc-action-data-centers.html 

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