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Hold We Energies Accountable for Health Harms

We Energies is a monopoly utility corporation, which means communities cannot shop around for a cleaner, more affordable energy provider. We Energies’ rate hikes, pollution, and delays in the transition to clean energy directly impact communities’ health and wallets.

We mobilize health professionals across the We Energies service territory to hold the utility accountable to communities. Together, we advocate for safe, clean, and affordable energy so every community can be healthy and thrive. Click here to join our health team >>
Wisconsin Health Professionals Call Out We Energies for Polluting our Air for Hyperscale Data Centers in a quarterly report, contrasting WE Energies' Q2 earnings release

In the July quarterly earnings report, We Energies reported $299 million in second quarter earnings. In the first six months of this year, the company spent $2.1 billion on capital projects — up from $1.5 billion in the first half of 2025, a 36% increase. Under Wisconsin's regulatory structure, that is the base on which the utility earns its guaranteed 9.8% return, paid for by everyone who opens a bill.

 

Building more is how the company earns more. This edition traces how We Energies is smoothing the path for hyperscale data centers and how large gas plant proposals to fuel them are being split into separate regulatory cases, so that no single proceeding is ever asked to weigh the whole. We look at who lobbied for the tax breaks that made Wisconsin attractive to big tech and at what unchecked buildout would mean for the air we breathe, the water we drink, the heat outside our homes and the noise inside them.

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​The report covers:

  • The health harms and economics of hyperscale data centers

  • How We Energies is paving the way for more and bigger hyperscale data centers in Wisconsin

  • The upcoming We Energies rate increase case

  • How Wisconsin communities are responding to data centers

Wisconsin Health Professionals Investigate Energy Unaffordability Impacts on Community Health in a quarterly report, contrasting WE Energies' Q1 earnings release

In the May quarterly earnings report, WE Energies reported $804 million in first quarter earnings. Meanwhile, Wisconsin health professionals share the second edition of a report we did not want to need. WE Energies' harms are compounding while its profits do the same — and the patients absorbing those harms are sitting in our exam rooms. We are releasing this report alongside the company's earnings call to make sure both ledgers are read on the same day.

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​The report covers:

  • The health consequences of energy insecurity

  • The end of WE Energies' disconnection moratorium, its impact on health, and policy solutions

  • The potential costs of increased methane gas production

  • WE Energies' $700 million in stranded assets

  • The Public Service Commission's decision on the WE Energies data center rate case

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Wisconsin health professionals hold WE Energies accountable for harming community health in a new quarterly report, contrasting WE Energies' Q4 earnings release

In the February quarterly earnings report, WE Energies reported record profits of $1.6 billion in 2025. This was paid for by communities at the expense of their health and rising energy bills. Wisconsin health professionals hold WE Energies accountable in a new report to raise awareness of how WE Energies’ predatory practices result in health harms that show up in our waiting rooms and communities.

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​The report covers:

  • ​WE Energies raking in record profits while households absorb the costs

  • WE Energies taking advantage of the AI data center boom to build fossil fuel plants

  • WE Energies submitting buy-sell dockets to purchase new fossil fuel projects from Invenergy, a merchant utility, avoiding the level of review typically expected of a utility monopoly

  • WE Energies data center rate case before the Public Service Commission, which has communities picking up the tab for big tech

WEC Energy Group reported

$1.6 Billion

in net income in 2025

WE Energies' top executives received a combined total of 

$32.7 Million

in compensation in 2024

Regulators approved rate increases that will raise average bills by

12%

over 2025–2026

of households cut back on food or medication to pay energy bills

34%

See references

Wisconsin health professionals raise awareness of how WE Energies’ predatory practices result in health harms that show up in our waiting rooms and communities.
When WE Energies raises rates, emits more pollution, or delays transition to clean energy, the effects show up in our waiting rooms as asthma attacks, heart failure decompensation, heat-related illness, and financial stress that worsens nearly every chronic condition.
- Annie Carrell, NP
If left unchecked and unchallenged WE energies and the big tech companies building the hyper scale data centers have the potential to negatively affect almost every part of our environment, from the air we breathe and the water we drink to the temperature outside and the noise in our homes. This is why every Wisconsinite and all of our legislators need to make our voices heard and to prioritize our safety and happiness over the profits of megacorporations.
- Landon Zimmerman, third-year Medical Student
“Wisconsin is committing enormous public resources to data centers for some of the world’s largest corporations. These projects could raise utility bills, worsen pollution, and create relatively few permanent jobs. Imagine what the same investment could accomplish for clean energy, housing, or health care. Our public resources should build a healthier, more resilient Wisconsin, not subsidize corporate profits!”
- Stephanie Siwak, MPH
By purchasing the methane gas plant [Red Oak Ridge Energy Center, Kenosha County] from Invenergy, WE Energies can expand their fossil fuel infrastructure in Wisconsin, while avoiding the level of review typically expected of a utility monopoly. This limits transparency and weakens community participation in decisions that will have long-term public health consequences.
- Ifadha Jayah, MPH
In my time as a medical student, I have seen far too many community members whose health has been impacted by climate change. Communities will continue to face growing health risks if companies like WE Energies continue to prioritize profits and the interests of big tech companies over the health of people and our planet.
- Landon Zimmerman, third-year Medical Student
References
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