Nik Rajkovic / news@whmi.com

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel and the Michigan Environmental Council held a roundtable Tuesday on DTE’s ex parte application with the Michigan Public Service Commission for approval of two special contracts to service a 1.4-gigawatt data center in Saline Township. The discussion focused on the need for a full contested case before the MPSC to ensure transparency and protection for Michigan ratepayers.

The roundtable included Attorney General Nessel, state Senator Jeff Irwin, state Representative Morgan Foreman, and representatives from the Department of Attorney General, the Michigan Environmental Council, the Citizens Utility Board, and the Natural Resources Defense Council.

According to the AG's office, DTE has specifically requested that its application be approved with no formal hearings or any of the traditional oversight in place that secures the interests of ratepayers and the public. It is anticipated that DTE’s costs to build the infrastructure to support this data center will number in the hundreds of millions of dollars. During the roundtable, representatives expressed their concerns about the current process and stressed the importance of transparency and oversight.

“DTE expects to spend half a billion dollars to service this new data center, making unverified promises that no one else will shoulder these costs, while urging the Commission to fast-track this application without any of the usual public scrutiny,” Nessel said. “My call here is not that data centers don’t belong in Michigan, but that we can regulate these entities responsibly, and we have an obligation to do so. We can’t claim fair regulation if we’re starting out with shortcuts. I appreciated hearing from the Michigan Environmental Council, Citizens Utility Board, and Natural Resources Defense Council, and I’m grateful to Senator Irwin and Representative Foreman for joining us to learn how we work to protect Michigan ratepayers.”

DTE issued a statement saying the data center contracts will not raise rates. It says it asked the MPSC to approve terms that create safeguards for existing customers.

“This project has the potential for a big upside for Michigan-significant investment in our state, build out of clean energy and energy affordability benefits. But none of those things are a given,” said Charlotte Jameson, chief policy officer of the Michigan Environmental Council. “We need to ensure that the infrastructure and energy costs the project necessitates don't unjustly burden Michiganders. We also need to see real growth in renewable energy to power data centers in order to stave off a rush to build expensive methane gas plants by our utilities. Without full transparency in this case, and from other utilities who want to invest in data centers, we can't properly safeguard our communities from unintended environmental and financial harm.”

The Department of Attorney General filed a notice of intervention to request public hearings, but the MSPC has yet to grant the request. Currently, public comment in case U-21990. The MPSC will also hold a public comment forum on DTE's application on December 3 . However, AG Nessel says the comment forum is limited only to virtual participation via the Microsoft Teams application and will last only two hours.

The MPSC is scheduled to meet formally on December 5, which is the date by which DTE has requested these special contracts be approved.

Video of Tuesday's roundtable and details on MPSC's virtual hearing December 3 are linked below.