Sign the AI Data Center Pledge

Dear Michigan candidates for federal office,

We support the work of grassroots communities across Michigan. As you may be aware, there are currently more than 36 hyperscale data center developments proposed across the state, and there are many more local grassroots coalitions which have formed to oppose these developments. 

Michigan residents are deeply concerned about the local and statewide impacts of these projects on the health of Michigan’s land, water, and energy affordability. In 2025, DTE and Consumers Energy released plans to provide 12.8 gigawatts of power to AI data centers, which is the equivalent of adding six or seven major cities to Michigan’s energy grid in just two to three years. This proposal would impose an unacceptable burden on Michigan’s residents and its natural resources, in the form of air pollution, water usage, and spiking energy rates. Michigan residents already pay 19% above the national average for energy costs, and there are no safeguards on how this AI buildout would impact residential rates.

Meanwhile, hyperscale data centers can consumer 1-15 million gallons of water per day, with their indirect water consumption being even higher. PhD candidate Alex DeVries Gao has recently published that “on average, the water that is consumed to generate the power that’s ultimately used by data centers is 10 times higher than the water that’s actually consumed inside the data centers themselves,” with Meta’s indirect water usage being 24 times higher. This would put Michigan’s aquifers at risk of losing trillions of gallons of water each year, and its aquifers of being annually polluted by hundreds of millions of gallons of wastewater. 

Other significant concerns residents have over the widespread development of AI data centers include: 

- the rise of AI scams, which prey on society’s most vulnerable: the young, elderly, and disabled

- the rise in use of AI in automatic license plate readers (ALPRs) such as Flock Safety Cameras and other technologies to surveil citizens through public-private partnerships between law enforcement and private corporations

- the replacement of human jobs and human labor with inferior AI services

- the rise in psychosis and cognitive decline caused by AI

- the decline in mental health and educational achievement tied to AI

- that AI is an economic bubble which will burst, with catastrophic results

Most local townships are simply not prepared to deal with zoning for large-scale data centers, which has led to destructive, legally contentious situations like we’ve seen with Saline’s Project Stargate, aka “The Barn”. This is why so many Michigan residents support a statewide moratorium on data centers; to give townships and state legislators time to build and enforce proper regulatory frameworks which protect communities and natural resources against being bullied and bulldozed by large developers.

Of the 36+ communities in Michigan battling AI data center developments, 9 of these communities have stopped developments, and another 12 have brought the development to a standstill. Poll after poll has found that an overwhelming majority of Michiganders strongly oppose public subsidies for AI data centers, they believe more regulatory safeguards should be in place, and most simply oppose their development altogether.

As a candidate running for Federal office, we invite you to demonstrate your solidarity with your constituents by taking a firm stand on the issue of AI data center development, in Michigan, and across the nation. Specifically, we urge you to pledge your legislative support for:

- a national data center moratorium

- state and local zoning rights

- environmental and energy regulations for AI data centers

and against:

- tax cuts and subsidies for AI data center development

- regulatory rollbacks for AI data centers

- AI surveillance of the public

We also urge you to pledge that you have rejected, and that you will continue to reject, donations or Super PAC support from the big tech lobby.

Thank you for your consideration,

EDRA of MI