Michigan House subcommittee hears testimony on data centers
Members of the House Subcommittee on Oversight heard testimony on Wednesday on data centers.
Energy rates, environmental and health impacts, transparency and whether jobs will be created when data centers come were discussed by experts who testified in Lansing.
"Data centers require incredible amounts of electricity, and this is straining the power grid in the regions where data centers are located," said Ben Green, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan.
Green urged committee members to consider repealing the tax breaks that data center companies get in Michigan. Those tax breaks were passed in 2024, and the state saw a major increase in the number of data center projects since.
Data showed 15 big data center projects just in the Lower Peninsula.
"We are not anti- AI in fact thousands of my ADHD screenshots are floating around the cloud, but we cannot ignore the red flag risks," said Kristen Meghan Kelly, an environmental health specialist.
Those concerns were echoed by a small group of community members who said there are potential data center projects in their neighborhoods. They said they attended the hearing not to speak but to learn more from experts.
"It's always a push and pull. Yes, we need data centers, or we could use data centers. The hyperscale data centers are a different animal," said Howell Township resident Curtis Hamilton.
Hamilton said his main concern is the transparency of these projects and how they're being built.
"Give us time to debate those things and just because a technology is available doesn't mean it's good for everybody," he said.
Lawmakers on the committee suggested another hearing to hear from the companies behind these projects.
"OpenAI, Oracle, and Related Digital would love to hear from them. We've been reaching out to them, we haven't heard back yet, but we will continue to press to get them to talk to us directly," said subcommittee chair Rep. Steve Carra.