Microsoft & Energy: A Smoky Future
Since 2020, Microsoft has unveiled a comprehensive environmental plan aimed at promoting sustainability in its water and waste management practices, while protecting the land on its campuses and data centers (Microsoft). Its most lofty promise lies in its emissions goals, including removing an equivalent amount of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere since the company’s founding in 1975 (Microsoft). However, recent developments in the company’s newest data center plans in Wisconsin signal a shift away from its original goals. In a recent conference, Bobby Hollis, Vice President of Energy, proclaimed that burning natural gas would “absolutely be on the table” as a method for supplying energy to its new data center hubs in Wisconsin (Clean Wisconsin). This announcement came shortly after ExxonMobil announced its first natural gas power plant aimed at data centers at the end of last year (Carbon Herald). These two announcements signal a worrying shift towards a “short-term” adoption of natural gas, and the effects can already be felt. In Wisconsin, major utility company We Energies has already begun construction on $1.5 billion worth of gas power plants and pipelines, using Microsoft’s plans as justification (Clean Wisconsin). Microsoft itself recognized the backlash this move would cause, attempting to classify key documents surrounding the centers’ water use in the city of Racine as trade secrets, thereby allowing them to be withheld from public records requests (WPR). When projecting the output of these data centers, the city of Racine found that the first phase of the data centers will use up to 2.8 million gallons per year, and the expected expansions are expected to raise that number to 8.4 million gallons per year (WPR). The village of Mount Pleasant and the Surrounding city of Racine would be hit hardest by these utility usages and carbon emissions rises, putting the local populations at long-term risk. As seen in places like Newton County, Georgia, these populations will be paying the highest price, with massive data centers often cutting off access to clean water for years (New York Times). In a city like Racine, with a poverty rate of 18 percent and a population of just 77,000, poorer citizens will face a future of dry taps and dirty water, all while the datacenters stealing it emit dangerous carbon dioxide just miles away.
Using Ella Tokay's “Deep Ecology and ‘New Materialism:’ Problems and Potential” as a reference, the story of Microsoft’s data centers can be seen as a harmful assemblage within the Wisconsin community, and it is our responsibility to recognize our role in addressing the climate issues we have created. In her essay, assemblages are not composed of a homogenized collection of humans and non-humans, but rather that specific agents, particularly humans, can carry a level of “agential differences” distinct from the rest of nature (Tokay 102). In this case, Microsoft’s data centers are a significantly large agent on the Wisconsin biosphere, and will affect the local environment far more than any natural processes. As Tokay writes, it is our responsibility to recognize that human agency is potent in the current environmental landscape and act with necessary precaution when impacting the environment (Tokay 95). Along with humanity’s general greater responsibility towards nature, it is also the duty of communities to fight against these extractive corporate endeavors, especially for community members who already face poverty. New Materialism provides a framework for acknowledging both humanity’s pivotal role in the climate crisis and its ongoing interconnection with nature, rendering it impossible to “innovate out” of environmental responsibility. Microsoft’s Wisconsin data centers are a prime example of big tech’s increasing role in exacerbating the climate crisis, and the responsibility we must take in fighting against extractive, outwardly dangerous infrastructure plans.
Works Cited
“Racine, Wisconsin Population 2025.” World Population Review, 5 Dec. 2025, https://worldpopulationreview.com/us-cities/wisconsin/racine.
Kimball, Spencer. “Microsoft Is Open to Using Natural Gas to Power AI Data Centers to Keep up with Demand.” CNBC, 11 Mar. 2025, https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/11/microsoft-is-open-to-using-natural-gas-to-power-ai-data-centers-ameet-ballooning-demand.html.
Kaeding, Danielle. “Microsoft Data Centers Will Use up to 8.4M Gallons of Water Each Year, Records Show.” WPR, 17 Sept. 2025, https://www.wpr.org/news/microsoft-data-centers-8-million-gallons-water-each-year.
Wisconsin, Clean. “Microsoft Shrugs off Company Climate Goals to Support Burning Methane Gas for AI Data Centers.” Clean Wisconsin, 14 Mar. 2025, https://www.cleanwisconsin.org/microsoft-shrugs-off-company-climate-goals-to-support-burning-methane-gas-for-ai-data-centers/.
“Our Sustainability Journey | Microsoft CSR.” Microsoft, https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/corporate-responsibility/sustainability-journey. Accessed 11 Dec. 2025.
Tokay, Ela. “Deep Ecology and ‘New Materialism:’ Problems and Potential.” ETHICS & THE ENVIRONMENT, no. 29, 2024, pp. 89–112, https://doi.org/%2010.2979/een.00009.
Tan, Eli. “Their Water Taps Ran Dry When Meta Built Next Door.” New York Times, 16 July 2025, https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/14/technology/meta-data-center-water.html.
George, Violet. “Exxon Wants To Satiate Power-Hungry Data Centers With Natural Gas & Carbon Capture.” Carbon Herald, 12 Dec. 2024, Tan, Eli. “Their Water Taps Ran Dry When Meta Built Next Door.” New York Times, 16 July 2025, https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/14/technology/meta-data-center-water.html.