The Michigan House of Representatives Oversight Subcommittee on Corporate Subsidies and State Investments hosted its final hearing to investigate the economic and environmental impacts of data centers Wednesday.
Rep. Steve Carra (R-Three Rivers), the chair of the subcommittee, said that more than 170 Michigan residents signed up to testify at the hearing. Of those signed up, only two claimed to be in support of data centers. Neither of the supporters showed up to speak at the hearing.
Instead, committee members listened to more than 30 Michiganders voice opposition to the data centers.
People raised a variety of concerns about the influx of data center proposals across the state, ranging from potential water usage to government officials signing non-disclosure agreements with data center companies.
Tammy Bruno is a resident of Saline Township, which has been at the center of the data center discussion. Related Digital, Oracle and OpenAI are constructing a $7 billion, 1.4-gigawatt AI data center within the township.
Bruno and her husband, Tim, formed the Rural Michigan Defense Fund in an attempt to halt the development.
“My community, roughly 2,300 residents, mostly generational farm families, found itself standing alone against billion-dollar corporations and powerful political interests,” she said at the subcommittee hearing. “This is not what I wanted to spend my retirement years doing, fighting for the life I thought it was just going to be able to work hard and get to.”
In Cass County, residents are speaking out against Hyperscale Data’s recent acquisition of more than 45 acres of land near Vandalia. Though no data center development has been confirmed, Hyperscale Data has another AI data center in the county.
Vandalia resident Lauren Hodges said she was worried about how a data center nearby could impact the local environment.
“The proposed site is within five miles of not only my home, but one of only three International Dark Sky parks in the state of Michigan,” Hodges said. “Once light pollution enters, you don't reclaim the night. Once constant industrial noise becomes part of the landscape, you don't return to quiet. No peepers, no bullfrogs.”
Carra said he shared the voiced concerns about data center development, calling it “more dangerous than nuclear bombs.”
Now, the subcommittee will review testimony from previous weeks and decide whether the pros outweigh the cons in the Michigan data center debate.
Legislation to place a moratorium on new data center development in the state that was introduced earlier this year has stalled.
