LANSING — While members of the board overseeing Michigan’s energy resources consider long-term plans for the energy grid, residents from across the state joined together in Auburn Hills to demand protections from data centers.

The Michigan Public Service Commission took public comment Tuesday on guidelines for its integrated resource plan, offering residents a chance to weigh in on the state’s energy future during a hearing at Oakland Community College’s Auburn Hills Campus.

“It’s the spooky season, but the scariest thing in Michigan right now is AI data center’s threat to the Great Lakes state,” said Michelle Martinez, the inaugural director of the Tishman Center for Social Justice and the Environment at the University of Michigan during a rally held ahead of the meeting.

Data centers house servers, storage devices and other pieces of online infrastructure. They are considered essential for artificial intelligence and have contributed to a significant increase in demand for electricity across the nation due to their continuous, energy intensive operations, and similarly demand large amounts of water for cooling.

While the Legislature approved tax incentives for data centers in 2024 in a bid to court investments into Michigan communities, Martinez warned that failing to act will sacrifice water resources, balloon energy costs and risk accelerating climate change.

Martinez pointed to an analysis from Bloomberg News which found that energy prices had increased 267% within five years in areas located near data centers, warning that Michigan communities could face a similar threat, with seniors and people with disabilities particularly at risk.

Christy McGillivray, the executive director of Voters Not Politicians slammed the Legislature for moving forward with incentives for data centers without protections for ratepayers, while Andrea Pierce, the policy director for the Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition warned these facilities could deplete groundwater aquifers and disrupt ecosystems through thermal pollution of surface waters, alongside pollution with PFAS, methane and other harmful chemicals.

“The only way to protect our water is through airtight regulations at every level, including the MPSC,” Pierce said.

Through its integrated resource plan, the Public Service Commission should require utilities to plan within water limits, Pierce said, factoring in cooling water needs, growing demand from various industries and climate-adjusted water scenarios.

The commission’s chair, Dan Scripps spoke with reporters ahead of the meeting. He noted that the commission is currently weighing consumer concerns in a contested case with Consumers Energy intended to protect ratepayers from the additional costs brought on by data centers, telling reporters he expected those issues would be addressed on a utility by utility basis.

When asked what role the commission could play in looking at the water use associated with energy generated for data centers, Scripps said that was not a role the Legislature had given them.

However, when asked about the extent of the commission’s ability to institute air and water protections, Scripps noted there are statutes barring residential, industrial and commercial energy customers from shifting costs from one customer class to another. He also pointed to clean energy laws passed in 2023 – with one law instructing the commission to weigh factors like equity, environmental justice, affordability, public health and more when reviewing energy companies’ operations plans – as another piece of those considerations.

During the hearing, residents continued to raise concerns that a proliferation of data centers would bring additional costs to ratepayers and derail the state’s goal to meet a 100% clean energy standard by 2040.

Mikal Goodman, a member of the Pontiac City Council, stressed the importance of energy affordability and the environmental impact of expanding energy infrastructure, particularly as it affects low income residents and communities of color.

He noted that many Michigan communities still have lead water lines, raising further concerns about the ability of Pontiac and communities like Detroit and Benton Harbor to access clean water should data centers open up nearby.

“If our city of Pontiac is not able to get clean and affordable drinking water on a regular basis, that is a catastrophic outcome beyond the decades of disinvestment that have already happened,” Goodman noted.