UPDATE: Sunday, Dec 21, 2025 · 4:54:59 PM +00:00 · everythingbluberry
When I last checked late Saturday night, there were some recs and about a dozen comments. This morning, I am floored by the attention it's getting - good or bad. Thanks to you all! I wrote this because I have been watching Dkos for a diary about the unchecked rush to build data centers and haven't seen one (apologies if I missed anything),and I am happy to see a conversation has started. I, too, would love to see someone write something more thorough and researched.
I haven't made it through all the comments yet, but here is a response to some of what I have seen...
This is in no way about progressives abandoning Dems. This is not Republicans vs Democrats. This IS about taxpayers in MI paying for monumental tax breaks for some of the top 5 or 10 wealthiest corporations in the world and those same corporations expecting that people who are already struggling to keep the lights on pay for the increased power demand. This is about our leaders, and the people who want to be our next governor, listening to the people and letting us know where they stand.
I want to say that this is not an all or nothing proposition; I have never been a single issue voter. (Has anyone here ever voted for anyone with whom they were in 100% agreement on everything?) This could be my dealbreaker next year, though.
The issues, all very real and valid concerns-
>Data centers are known to consume massive amounts of power resulting in sharply increased rates for electricity.
>They use so much water that it poses a very real threat to the aquifer and our neighbors' wells.
>A data center only destroys farmland and open spaces while increasing traffic, heat, pollution, and the risk of more severe water pollution.
>There is an abundance of anecdotal evidence about the negative impact to quality of life in terms of light and noise and there are ongoing studies about the harmful health effects of living near a data center.
This is a small rural township of less than 9000 people. Typical board meetings, sadly, only pull in a handful of citizens, but for the last2 months or so, those meetings have been packed. The board has paused making any decisions for 6 months. What we are pushing for now is the adoption of ordinances that would lessen the harm if it does go through but we would prefer that such ordinances be so prohibitive that the developer would just walk away. The best outcome, of course, would be the board to just flat out say NO.
Back in 2018, voters in Michigan elected Democrats to the governor's office, the attorney general's office, and secretary of state. We followed that up in 2022 re-electing those three and and giving the Dems both houses of the state legislature as well - all Democrats running the state for the first time in 40 years! And the effect was almost immediate.
The legislature got right to work repealing bad republican passed laws (and the 1931 law banning abortion) and restoring some of their cuts. We have since seen enhanced civil rights protections for LGBTQ, red flag laws, and free breakfast and lunch for all school kids.
That's not an all inclusive list, but you get the idea. So did Michiganders; Whitmer was frequently referred to as a "rock star" way back when...
Then came 2025.
After proudly wearing the moniker "that woman from Michigan," she has been kissing up to Trump. She now brags about working with Republicans - her compromises include signing a budget that cuts funding for the Great Start Readiness program for pre-schoolers. But by far, the worst is what she's doing right now and it will overshadow and negate every good thing anyone can say about her governorship.
The state of Michigan is being inundated with billionaire tech bros wanting to build data centers. Gov. Whitmer has invited them to destroy our state and is happily giving them millions in tax breaks. She just successfully pushed the MI Public Service Commission to approve an ex-parte motion for a secret* deal between DTE - our predominant power company - and the companies that want to build a massive hyperscale data center in Saline, MI. Saline's residents have objected every step of the way - protesting, pleading, even crying. The governor basically ignored them but they are still fighting.
Communities across Michigan, including mine, are fighting against these developments that threaten our environment, our resources, and quality of life. Some have won and the developers walked away, and that gives the rest of us hope. And this is not an R versus D issue. Opposition to data centers may be, in fact, the ONLY thing that will bring otherwise warring factions together. I know there are plenty of magas in my local group, but right now, that doesn't matter.
So how is Michigan lost? For one thing, fair or not, Democrats are being blamed for this. And that is mostly fair since they were running everything when those tax incentives were passed (my rep voted no, but that is little comfort now). For another, if Gretchen Whitmer runs for president in 2028, she will be humiliated when she loses her home state. Nobody here will vote for her. Everyone knows she sold us out, threw us under the bus, fucked us over - however you want to say it - and it will take a lot more than 2 or 3 years for people to forget that.
In state government, only a handful have come out in support of the people fighting for their homes (my rep, a Democrat, has been very active and vocal). We have a governor's race here next year that right now would be impossible to predict. Two of the Democrats who have thrown their hat in the ring are the current Lt. Governor Garlin Gilchrist, who looks good but I worry he'll just follow in Whitmer's footsteps, and our Secretary of State, Jocelyn Benson, whose husband is a top exec for Related Digital, one of the corporations behind the Saline data center (definitely a no-go). I'm not paying much attention to any republicans yet. And the former Democratic mayor of Detroit, who has a mostly good track record in his 12 years there, is running as an Independent. I am not aware of any of them making a statement about where they stand on these data centers. I have emailed a few of these campaigns to ask but have not heard back from anyone and that is not a good sign. The only candidate that is being very vocal and wooing all of us in this fight is an unknown who at first glance I thought is probably a maga redneck (I immediately felt ashamed of that knee-jerk reaction to just his appearance, so I looked up his campaign page and...well, yeah, he kinda is).
At the federal level, I know the country is coming back around to wanting an actual functioning government and realizing they can't have that if we keep electing crazy, cowardly, corrupt people. But I'm afraid you won't be able to count on Michigan helping to get the House and Senate back to Democrats. I always vote, and almost always for Democrats (never repubs), but I am feeling angry and betrayed. I will still go out next year and vote Dems for Congress, but I can understand why other democrats in Michigan may not. And we may lose a big chunk of independents. The Democratic leaders in Michigan have to pull a complete 180 on this shitshow if there is to be any hope for us, and I don't mean just politically.
*Not hyperbole - the attorney general wanted to review the contract to weigh in on it, and what they gave her was so heavily redacted, she couldn't make head nor tail of it. Even the signatures were redacted!
