Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is pushing back against a proposed agreement between DTE Energy and Google, arguing that the current terms could leave everyday citizens footing the bill for a massive new tech facility.
Nessel recently filed testimony with the Michigan Public Service Commission regarding a 20-year special contract designed to power a 1-gigawatt Google data center in Van Buren Township. The Attorney General claims the deal lacks the necessary safeguards to prevent the costs of the project from shifting onto residential customers.
“Michiganders are already facing an energy affordability crisis and should not have to pay a single penny to service a data center,” Nessel said. “Many of these contract terms are meant to be financial safeguards against stranded assets, bad bets, and failed investments to protect both DTE and their customers over twenty years, and they need to be carefully considered. The MPSC must ensure that ratepayers are protected and that any purported benefits from this project go toward lowering bills for families, not padding utility profits.”
To better protect the public, Nessel’s office is recommending that Google be required to pay a minimum of 90% of its anticipated monthly power demand, up from the originally proposed 80%. She is also asking the commission to significantly increase the required exit fees so residents are not left paying for stranded assets if the tech giant walks away.
Additionally, the Attorney General wants strict cost tracking put in place. She argues this would ensure that any transmission upgrades required to run the data center are not subsidized by typical ratepayers, and that any financial benefits from the project actually lower residential bills instead of boosting DTE’s corporate profits.
Unlike a previously approved agreement between DTE and Green Chile Ventures for an AI data center in Saline Township, the new Google deal is subject to a public “contested case” review. This process allows outside parties to review documents, file testimony, and cross-examine witnesses. Nessel recently filed an appeal over the commission’s private approval of the earlier Saline contract.
“This is the first time our office is getting a look at data center contracts with real numbers and structures to examine,” Nessel said. “If what DTE is willing to show us has this many issues, what are they hiding in their secret agreements? We need transparency, and the MPSC must use this opportunity to stop rubber-stamping backroom deals and reevaluate previous agreements before Michigan ratepayers get burned by contracts none of us are even allowed to read.”
The two DTE contracts proposed for the Van Buren Township data center are currently accessible to the public for limited review in a redacted format.
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