Month: April 2026

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday announced it will leave interest rates unchanged amid concerns about inflation rising further amid the war in Iran.

Fed policymakers voted to leave the benchmark federal funds rate unchanged at its current range of 3.5% to 3.75%. The move follows the central bank’s decision to hold rates steady in January and March after three successive 25-basis-point rate cuts in September, October and December to close out last year.

The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), the central bank’s panel responsible for monetary policy moves, voted 11-1 to leave interest rates unchanged. Fed Governor Stephen Miran dissented in favor of a 25-basis-point cut.

The FOMC meeting is expected to be the last under the leadership of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, as his term as Fed chairman is due to expire on May 15. Powell said at his press conference that he intends to continue serve his term as a member of the Fed’s Board of Governors for a period of time that’s to be determined due to his concerns regarding the Trump administration’s investigations of the Fed.

Last Thursday, in coordination with the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, the United States Small Business Administration (SBA) announced that it has referred  562,000 suspected fraudulent loans to the United States Department of Treasury (Treasury) for collection, marking the SBA’s largest referral package on record.

The borrowers are tied to $22.2 billion in delinquent Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and COVID Economic Injury Disaster (EIDL) loans that were previously flagged for suspected fraud during the Biden Administration but never sent to Treasury for collection nor referred to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) for investigation.  The SBA has transmitted the borrowers to the DOJ. And with today’s referral, Treasury will begin collecting on the outstanding debt as part of the Trump Administration’s commitment to recouping stolen pandemic-era funds on behalf of American taxpayers and small business owners.

By law, SBA must refer delinquent debts to Treasury’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service once they become sufficiently past due. Likewise, when SBA’s internal fraud controls flag loans for potential fraud, the agency is expected to refer those cases to the appropriate investigative and law enforcement authorities.

Until today, none of the 560,000 borrowers had been compelled to repay the $22.2 billion they owed American taxpayers. Fewer than 1,000 of these borrowers had been subject to investigations by the SBA Office of Inspector General. Thanks to the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, the SBA and Treasury are now launching an aggressive effort to claw back the outstanding debt.

Last Friday, the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin (PSC) took up We Energies’ Very Large Customer (VLC) and Bespoke Resources Tariff application and issued a decision that protects existing customers and improves public transparency into the energy-related costs data centers will pay.

Utility tariffs set the rates, terms, and conditions of service utilities provide to customers within their service territory. When a utility wants to create a new tariff or make changes to an existing tariff, it must receive PSC approval to do so because the PSC regulates electric, gas, and water utilities in Wisconsin. The Commission does not regulate the permitting, construction, or operations of data center facilities.

In March 2025, We Energies submitted an application proposing the new tariffs in response to large data center customers entering the utility’s service territory. The PSC conducted a thorough, year-long review of the tariff application, which included detailed scrutiny and analysis by PSC staff and intervening parties, and a robust public engagement process. Throughout the proceeding, members of the public and participating organizations raised concerns about aspects of the utility’s application and how it could impact existing customers.

In its decision, the Commission made major modifications to improve the tariff. The following is a non-exhaustive list of actions taken to strengthen protections for We Energies’ existing customers and increase transparency and visibility:

• The Commission extended the VLC tariff minimum initial term length to 15 years. This change prevents cost-shifting to existing customers.
• The Commission lowered the energy demand threshold for tariff eligibility from 500 MW to 100 MW. This change expands tariff applicability to smaller data centers, which further shields existing customers from data center-related costs.
• The Commission required tariff revisions to address the risk of transmission cost shifting from data center customers to existing customers.
• The Commission removed a capacity-only option that would have allowed data centers to only pay for 75% of the costs of generating facilities. The removal of this capacity-only option and the approval of the Full-Benefits resource model protects existing customers by requiring the VLCs to pay 100% of their costs.
• The Commission ordered additional reporting requirements to provide visibility into how the tariffs work in practice and created a mechanism for the Commission to make future adjustments if needed.
• The Commission ordered additional reporting requirements to bring greater transparency to agreements between the utility and its VLCs.

If the Commission had denied We Energies’ application, and/or a new very large customer tariff was not established, large data centers would receive utility service without conditions specifically designed to safeguard existing customers from data-center related costs.