- A new survey finds that fewer than 20% of local officials believe data centers are worth the cost
- Data centers are least popular among rural leaders, where the projects are typically built
- Leaders worry the project may do environmental harm and boost utility costs
Less than 1 in 5 Michigan local government officials believe large-scale data centers are worth their costs, and a majority want tighter statewide regulations, according to a survey released Tuesday.
Most skeptical are leaders in rural Michigan, where the centers are typically built, according to the survey by the University of Michigan’s Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy.
Among officials from rural communities, only 12% agree that data centers’ benefits outweigh their costs, compared with 40% of officials from urban areas.
Those sentiments reflect a backlash to the mega projects originally hailed as economic boons. At least 18 local governments around Michigan have voted or have proposed temporary halts to new data centers. Laws against exclusionary zoning, however, make it difficult to ban data centers altogether.
Rural Michigan communities “are more likely to be targets for large-scale data center development because they typically have more inexpensive available land,” said Stephanie Leiser, director of the U-M center that conducted the survey of 1,328 jurisdictions across the state.
“While they acknowledge the potential benefits of data centers in terms of economic competitiveness, they don’t believe it’s fair that they will bear a disproportionate share of the costs of hosting them in their communities.”
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- Residents, officials feel powerless in Michigan data center fights
Data centers have become a major, bipartisan issue in Michigan and nationwide in the midterm elections. More than 16% of respondents singled it out as a top issue in Bridge Listens, Bridge Michigan’s election-year survey.
The U- M survey indicated that nearly 6 in 10 local government leaders believe regulation of hyperscale data centers by Michigan’s state and local governments should be a very high priority.
Both candidates for governor, Republican John James and Democrat Jocelyn Benson, have called for a moratorium on the centers, as have the major party candidates for Senate, Democrat Abdul El-Sayed and the GOP’s Mike Rogers.
A recent poll found nearly two-thirds of Michigan residents opposed the building of data centers in the state.
“Data centers are polling about as well as herpes right now,” said Eric Paul Dennis, research associate at Citizens Research Council of Michigan. “We’ve got an election coming up, and there’s a lot of tough talk. It’ll be interesting to see what happens after the election.”
Two years ago, lawmakers in Lansing narrowly agreed to exempt large data centers from sales and use taxes in an effort to lure the industry to Michigan.
But with backlash growing, lawmakers now are considering a flurry of new bipartisan proposals, tax-break rollbacks, and potential moratoriums.
Rep. Joey Andrews, D-St. Joseph, authored the bill to provide tax breaks to data centers two years ago and remains a proponent of the projects.
He said he’s not surprised that local officials have soured on the centers, likening sentiment to a backlash against about battery plants and wind energy projects.
“No one wants a room full of activists showing up and yelling at them,” Andrews told Bridge. “(But) this mood we’re in where we’re rejecting growth is not healthy for the state. We have to figure out how to get back to being pro-growth.”
The U-M’s Leiser said local officials “feel like they’re between a rock and a hard place.”
“On one hand, they’re facing vocal opposition or outright revolt from their residents who are demanding they stop any data centers from being built. On the other, they’re facing the daunting prospect of fighting expensive and protracted legal battles with deep-pocketed data center developers.”
Among the U-M survey’s findings:
- Metro Detroit officials are the most likely to have a positive view of data centers, with 27% saying they are worth the cost. Northern Michigan (10%) and the Upper Peninsula (13%) are the least likely to have positive views of the projects.
- Local leaders believe residents are even more opposed to data centers. Statewide, just 2% thought that the majority of the people they represent favored data centers, while 13% said that they themselves held a favorable view.
- A majority of local leaders believe that development of data centers in their communities would have a negative impact on water supply (60%), utility costs (57%), public health (55%) and overall quality of life (53%).
This article first appeared on Bridge Michigan and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.