More than 150 people attended the Michigan Public Service Commission meeting Thursday, but they left without answers on how the state plans to handle data centers in their community.
The meeting comes months after MPSC’s decision to approve the construction of a $7-billion data center in Saline Township.
Eric Greene, a resident from Saline, called in to the meeting while driving. He said he was frustrated by the commission’s silence on the data center debate since the approval.
“Saline is a nightmare right now,” Greene said in his public comment. “Every other city in the state looks like they have some hope to stop these data centers and this monstrosity from happening. However, here in Saline, it just continues. And I’m not going to stop coming onto meetings and asking for your accountability to do the right thing.”
The data center in Saline Township is being constructed by Oracle, Related Digital and DTE Energy.
Green said the MPSC’s decision to sign non-disclosure agreements with DTE to view the company’s contracts with the AI companies was “shady.”
“I expected some kind of response from the commissioners,” he said. “I don’t know why I have an expectation of you, because at this point none of us should have much of an expectation of any of you. That’s pretty disheartening.”
Despite Greene’s insistence that commissioners discuss the data centers, the topic did not appear on the meeting agenda.
Instead, Commissioners Katherine Peretick, Shaquila Myers and Chair Dan Scripps discussed possible updates to the commission’s cold and hot extreme weather policies and other unrelated topics.
The next commission meeting is scheduled for Friday, March 27, and the agenda has not yet been released.
