Several people were left ambivalent walking out of Saginaw Valley State University’s Ott Auditorium on Tuesday after participating in a panel meant to create awareness around data center development.
The organization Michigan for Responsible Data Centers brought four experts ranging from public policy to energy development to address concerns raised around data centers and how local governments can address them.
Michigan has 70 operational data centers, two under construction and 15 in the planning phase, according to the U.S. Data Center Map. There are currently no proposed plans for a data center in the Saginaw Bay region.
Data centers have become a major issue for voters ahead of the midterm elections. People across the country of all political stripes have voiced concerns about their use of natural resources and how they could impact utility bills.
Director of External Engagement for Consumers Energy Lindsey McGurik was one of the panelists. She said her company must file a formal rate case with the Michigan Public Service Commission to change prices.
“I can confidently say that rates will not go up because of data centers,” she said. “Because of data centers, they are installing all new infrastructure that’s going to strengthen the backbone of the grid.”
Multiple people abruptly left the panel after McGurik made reference to the Gulf of America instead of Gulf of Mexico while answering an audience question. She said she was using “the newest name on the map” and doesn’t have any political biases.
“It totally invalidates anything that I was willing to listen to,” said Saginaw resident Amanda Vandenboseh. “They undermined themselves.”
Jeff Guilfoyle is a senior strategist for Public Sector Consultants, a public policy firm based in Lansing.
He told attendees that the hyperscale data center by OpenAI and Oracle known as The Barn in southeast Michigan's Saline Township will boost the small government’s tax revenue. He said it will create jobs as well, further boosting the local economy.
According to its website, The Barn is set to provide $29 million to Michigan schools and at least $10 million to the township annually.
“If you're looking at $10 million in property taxes, you can double the amount of property taxes the community gets,” he said. “[Saline Township can] goes from $500,000 to $1 million, and then that's enough money you could send everybody in the township a check of a couple thousand dollars every year.”
The township originally denied development for the data center following backlash from community members but agreed after they were sued for allegedly having exclusionary zoning.
The moderator of the discussion read questions off notecards submitted by attendees. This style of Q&A left some people frustrated.
“There was a lot of frustration from a lot of people there because they felt that there wasn't even time for their questions to be answered,” said Saginaw resident Lauren Cleckner.
She said that she left the panel more worried than relieved about data centers.
“I was honestly hoping to get some answers that would maybe give me some relief about the idea of a data center in the region, but honestly the discussions that they had made me realize that they are more predatory than I thought they were,” Cleckner said.
Panelist and Clean Energy Land Use Specialist Madeleine Krol of the University of Michigan said that “the scale of data centers matters” to our everyday use of technology and that these centers have been around for decades.
“I think it's really important to distinguish between scale [of centers] and unintentionally ban all small data centers because we need those … we all are having reliance on computing services,” she said.
Midland resident Serra Kigar, who frequently interrupted the meeting to ask the panelists questions, asked if they would like a data center in their backyard.
President of Saginaw Future Tom Miller and Eric Dennis, who specializes in civil infrastructure policy for the Citizens Research Council, said they wouldn’t mind.
“On one side of my yard is about a 15-acre lot where there's a church; across the street from me is about a 150-acre lot where there's a school,” Dennis said. “I would be very concerned about the noise. I would want to be involved in the sound study, but there are ways to make these things basically quiet past the fence line.
It would probably be much quieter than a church which runs a daycare in a school, to be honest with you.”
This upset Kigar, who left the meeting after shouting at panelists and other attendees.
“I think that if they actually wanted to bring experts in, they would’ve brought experts like doctors and environmentalists,” she said.
The meeting ended with an applause from those remaining in attendance. Miller said that data centers are a “sensitive subject" and "not everybody is going to agree.”
“We certainly at Saginaw Future are doing the best that we can do to engage the public to talk about issues before they come to our doorstep,” he said.
