Lansing — Attorney General Dana Nessel criticized Michigan energy regulators’ approach to a massive data center planned for Washtenaw County, saying Tuesday that the oversight of the project, so far, appeared to be a “rush job” and was “deeply concerning.”
Nessel, a Democrat and the state’s top law enforcement official, participated in a press conference with environmental groups, eight days before the Michigan Public Service Commission will hold a two-hour virtual hearing on DTE Energy’s plans to service a 1.4-gigawatt data center in Saline Township. The project, announced on Oct. 30, involves the tech companies Oracle and ChatGPT maker OpenAI.
The Detroit-based utility company has asked the commission to provide “expedited” approval of the plan for the data center and has contended the project will not increase the cost of service to existing customers. However, the attorney general’s team wants the commission to authorize a contested case process and provide at least two months for DTE’s documents to be reviewed and for research into the impacts of the proposed data center.
The deal between DTE and the joint-venture data center already called for regulator approval by Dec. 5.
“My concern is that it appears as though the commission is under extraordinary and unprecedented political and industry pressure to ram through these special contracts for DTE without any public discovery,” Nessel said Tuesday.
Nessel added that the commission’s handling of the matter so far appeared to be “a rush job.”
“I do think it’s deeply concerning. It’s concerning,” Nessel said. “I do think they have an obligation to have this be a contested hearing.”
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat who appointed the three members of the Michigan Public Service Commission and has been backed politically by DTE Energy in the past, has voiced support for the Saline Township project.
Her office has called it the “largest investment in Michigan history” and said the project would create more than 450 jobs on site and 1,500 more across the county.
The contested process would extend the timeline before the commission could approve the plan and would give opponents of the project the ability to gather additional information from DTE.
The contracts DTE wants the commission to approve have the potential “to shape state energy policy for decades to come,” Nessel contended, referencing multiple data center projects that are in the works in Michigan.
Nessel’s press conference Tuesday featured representatives from the Michigan Environmental Council, the Citizens Utility Board and the Natural Resources Defense Council. They voiced questions about what would happen if the data center closed earlier than expected, how to verify the statements that customers won’t be impacted and about how the electricity would be generated, given it’s expected to use as much energy as is needed to power more than 1 million average American homes.
During an October shareholder presentation, DTE officials touted the Saline Township project and said they saw “opportunities” for 6 gigawatts of additional data center projects.
“Data center opportunities will drive significant incremental growth investments,” their presentation said.
Over the summer, Whitmer decided not to reappoint Alessandra Carreon, who had advocated for trying to make the Michigan Public Service Commission’s operations more accessible for the public, to the panel. Instead, in July, Whitmer appointed Shaquila Myers, who had been Whitmer’s senior adviser, to Carreon’s commission seat.
Asked about the commission appointee change occurring a few months before the data center project was announced, Nessel said she had “deep concerns” about the way the Michigan Public Service Commission has operated.
“Of all cases and all matters involving a major utility to rush through, this is the worst of all cases that I’ve seen, at least during my time in office,” Nessel said of the DTE data center deal.
Matt Helms, spokesman for the Michigan Public Service Commission, declined to respond to Nessel’s statements.
“Because this matter is pending before the commission, we will decline comment,” Helms wrote in an email Tuesday afternoon.
In a Nov. 18 filing with the Public Service Commission, lawyers for DTE Energy said Nessel’s concerns about the future “lack relevance to this matter” and maintained that the company had shown the arrangement with the data center doesn’t increase the cost of service for other customers.
“Together, the special contracts also provide enhanced protections to ensure a long-term commitment to DTE Electric, mitigate potential stranded asset risks and protect existing customers from potential cost subsidies,” the DTE lawyers wrote.” The Attorney General’s request seeks to transform a straightforward special contract approval into a wide-ranging exploration of issues properly addressed in other dockets.”
cmauger@detroitnews.com
