Hundreds of community members met virtually with the Michigan Public Service Commission Wednesday evening to share their opinions on DTE Energy’s request to supply power to a data center planned for Saline. The data center was proposed by OpenAI, Oracle and data center developer Related Digital. The meeting featured comments from residents about environmental, ethical and economic concerns regarding the plan for the data center.
DTE filed the request ex parte, which means interested parties, such as Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office, cannot file testimony or conduct discovery before the MPSC decides whether to approve the project.
MPSC Chair Dan Scripps started the meeting by noting that the state of Michigan is at a crossroads regarding artificial intelligence facilities in local communities. He said the Michigan Legislature passed incentives last year to attract data centers to the state — including tax breaks exempting data centers from equipment sales and use taxes — in order to facilitate economic growth…