Multimillion dollar tech companies are set to build a massive AI data center, one of the largest in the United States, right here in Saline Township. Below is a rundown of what’s happened so far.

The site of the proposed data center, which sits along Michigan Avenue, was purchased by Related Digital but will be leased to Oracle and Open AI, the developer of Chat GPT.

After the Saline Township Board rejected the data center proposal, they were sued by Related Digital and the project is moving forward. And we’re not the only small town affected by tactics like these. Tech giants like Oracle and Open AI predate upon our small towns, knowing we do not have the resources to beat them in court, in effect, steamrolling the will of the people in order to impose their will instead.

To accomodate the data center, DTE must expand the capacity of the current electrical grid. DTE is now trying to fastrack special contracts to fund grid expansion and bring the tech giant on as DTE’s largest customer.

DTE alleges these new costs will not be passed on to ratepayers—you and I—but because of the secrecy of this process (much of DTE’s proposal is redacted) and what we know about the impact of data centers on electric bills nationwide, we can’t trust them. And while Oracle (which is in billions of dollars of debt) is offering $40 million towards the cost of expanding electrical capacity, DTE says they need $300 million to service the data center. THIS IS HOW RATE HIKES HAPPEN!

The Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC), which is charged with approving contracts between utility companies and customers held a public hearing via Microsoft Teams on December 3rd. Ahead of that meeting, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel “filed a request to intervene in the case, as did several environmental and consumer advocacy groups, asking the public safety commission to treat the matter as a contested case, allowing different parties to intervene, request discovery and file testimony for the commission to review before making a decision on the contracts.”

Almost 900 people attended the 12/3 meeting, and nearly 50 gave public comments, the majority of which were in opposition to the data center. Among the speakers was state Senator Sue Shink (D-14), who earlier that day submitted a letter signed by twenty-two other state legislators to the public record in opposition to DTE’s proposal.

On December 4th, we learned that the MPSC had removed a vote on DTE’s proposal for special contracts ex parte from their Friday, December 5th meeting agenda. At the December 5th meeting, the public comments were flooded with more opposition to the data centers, even though it had been removed from the agenda. The theme common to all of the opposition was simple:

No Secret Deals for DTE!

This data center will destroy fertile farmlands for industry, and residents see the writing on the walls about water usage, light and noise pollution, and increased traffic. It will disrupt rural life in profound ways but this affects all Michiganders as these centers pop up all over the state. WE SHOULD NOT HAVE TO FOOT THE BILL FOR THIS!