Grassroots Organizers in Wisconsin Offer Blueprint for Beating Back Data Centers | Truthout

This investigative article profiles the successful grassroots campaign in DeForest, Wisconsin, where residents organized to defeat a proposed 1,600-acre data center backed by Blackstone subsidiary QTS, culminating in a unanimous village board vote against the land annexation. The piece also examines the broader role of private equity firms like Blackstone, BlackRock, KKR, and Carlyle in driving the data center boom, investing nearly $200 billion in data center deals and acquiring utilities and fossil fuel assets to power AI infrastructure. It offers practical organizing lessons for communities facing similar data center proposals and highlights the growing national resistance movement against data center development.