Lansing, MI – On December 16th, 2025, concerned citizens from across the political spectrum and across the state rallied on the steps of Lansing in a rare moment of nonpartisan opposition to data centers. Referring to themselves as Michiganders Against Data Centers, everyday folks converged on the state capitol to call out the rampant political corruption driving the explosion in data center proposals rippling across Michigan.
Saline resident Tim Bruneau summarized the situation on hand: “Saline Township is under siege by corporate greed and political overreach from a billion-dollar company and a monopolizing utility company bullying a small rural township with limited resources. When the township board voted no to rezone the property, the developer Related Digital sued. The entire project was fast-tracked, and now DTE wants to do the same, filing an ex parte to circumvent the MPSC process and public scrutiny. DTE and Related Digital want this project to be treated as critical infrastructure, like a hospital, school, or roads. Well, it's not critical, and there is no demonstrated need for a data center in Saline Township. It’s exploitation ressed up as innovation.”
Dr. Mitchell Ryan Distin, Director of The New People Foundation and one of the lead organizers of the event, noted: “DTE’s dirty utility money is influencing the push for sweetheart deals with our Public Service Commission–all for the benefit of their shareholders, while all our bills go up and they utilize our Great Lakes water. Enough is enough! Science and a transparent democratic process driven by responsible public policy experts should be dictating these permitting decisions–not corporate lobbyists and elected officials that have been corrupted by Michigan’s broken campaign finance system. This is not a protest. This is a message to Big Tech that our lands, our water, and our people are not for sale.”
Dr. Distin was joined by lawmakers from both parties as well as Michiganders coming from as far away as Charlevoix and Lowell, as well as around the corner in Lansing.
“The scar upon our rural landscape that these data centers will create is long-lasting and 100% negative for our rural communities. There are no benefits, and even if there were any, they would be drastically outweighed by the water and noise issues they create,” said Republican Representative Jim DeSana from Michigan State House District 29. He continued, “Storing data on prime farmland is one of the most asinine things I have ever seen.”
Rep. DeSana owns and operates a farm in Ash Township, lending experience and credibility to his comments. He was joined by Democratic Representative Dylan Wegela from Michigan State House District 26.
Rep Wegela called out the wealth disparity behind this boom in construction, “The richest .001% own more than 50% of the world's wealth, and the richest men in the world are leading the push for Data Centers and AI. The same technology that will lead to more consolidation of wealth and power as AI destroys millions of jobs. AI is a powerful destroyer of jobs–not the job-creator that backers claim. Far too many legislators prioritize delivering for donors over protecting regular people. We have to get money out of politics so that we can repeal the tax breaks for Silicon Valley billionaires, hold utilities accountable, and get back to making sure regular Michiganders can afford the cost of living, while protecting communities from data center air and water pollution. It’s the corruption of money in politics making all that work impossible right now.”
Democratic Representative Reggie Miller from Michigan State House District 31 strongly opposed the sales and use tax exemptions for data centers without adequate ratepayer protections that passed during the last legislative session. Rep. Miller joined her colleagues Representatives DeSana and Wegela, stating, “I support legislation protecting ratepayers in Michigan. Right now, regular folks are going to get stuck with increased utility bills along with environmental and health risks from data centers. The scale and intensity of today’s proposed data center build out raises serous questions about whether or not there are any enforceable protections in practice. Without clear requirements to protect Michiganders the massive energy demand from these facilities are going to raise everyone’s bills. Laws on the books must be matched with real accountability.”
As speakers lined up to share stories of how these egregious deals are unfolding at the local level, Clean Water Action Michigan State Director Sean McBrearty lifted up Clean Water Action’s work to get money out of politics with a ballot initiative currently collecting signatures to get on the ballot for 2026.
According to McBrearty, “Without the extreme corrosive influence of corporate money in politics, we wouldn’t have to be here today protesting. This is a systemic, non-partisan problem. Recent reporting in the Detroit News showed that our Democratic Governor Whitmer, received $550,000 from a DTE-associated group in 2024, while the same group gave Republican House speaker Matt Hall $750,000.” He continued, “This is why we are collecting signatures directly with Michigan voters–including with all the folks here today. This is a bipartisan problem that requires a citizen-led non-partisan solution. Getting enough signatures to make sure that voters in Michigan can directly kick DTE and Consumer’s dirty money out of Lansing is our best bet to protect Michiganders from the worst impacts of this wildly irresponsible data center buildout.”
McBrearty concluded, “Michigan deserves better than selling out our Great Lakes and our democracy to the highest bidder in Lansing. If Michiganders for Money Out of Politics gets on the ballot, we have a chance to fix that in 2026.”
Kalskan resident and MC of the event, Seth Bernard, noted: “Hyperscale AI data centers serving private companies are being fast-tracked due to the merging of state and corporate power, bypassing public input and forcing working-class communities to subsidize industries that have no oversight, powering an unprecedented upward transfer of wealth with no tangible benefit to the communities that host them. There’s a dark shadow to Big Tech, and the presence of corruption and tyranny has never been clearer to folks across the entire political spectrum. The current boom of hyperscale data centers is an imminent threat to national security, as they are destroying watersheds, polluting the air, lowering property values, raising electricity rates, and stealing working-class jobs. Enough is enough.”