A host of Michigan communities are weighing proposals for the hulking computing facilities? How many of those will come to fruition? And why is Michigan suddenly seeing a data center surge?
Michigan Environment Watch
Michigan Environment Watch examines how public policy, industry, and other factors interact with the state’s trove of natural resources.
Great Lakes News Collaborative
Bridge Michigan, Circle of Blue, Great Lakes Now at Detroit Public Television, The Narwhal and Michigan Public work together to report on the most pressing threats to the Great Lakes region’s water. This independent journalism is supported by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. You can find all of the collaborative’s stories here.
Shockwave
The Great Lakes region is in the midst of a seismic energy shakeup, from skyrocketing data center demand and a nuclear energy boom, to expanding renewables and electrification. In 2026, the Great Lakes News Collaborative will explore how shifting supply and demand affect the region and its waters. Read the series here.
Posted inMichigan Environment Watch
Anti-nuclear groups file suit against Palisades restart in southwest Michigan
The groups have accused the plant’s owners of a “bait-and-switch” that has cleared regulatory shortcuts to approving the plant’s reopening. They fear the aging plant can’t be reopened safely — an assertion that proponents of the restart contest.
Posted inMichigan Environment Watch
Climate change is shrinking fish in Michigan lakes
A new study digitized decades’ worth of written observations about Michigan’s fish to show a connection between warmer waters and smaller fish. Prized species like northern pike are among the affected species.
Posted inMichigan Environment Watch
Michigan lawmakers seek $500M to stop mussels, save Great Lakes whitefish
US Reps. Debbie Dingell and Tim Walberg are planning legislation to boost research to control invasive mussels, following Bridge Michigan reporting about the impending collapse of whitefish.
Posted inMichigan Environment Watch
How a dam removal is helping revive Michigan’s sacred wild rice
Follow a manoomin harvest on the Au Sable River, where new rice beds now grow. The wild rice was once abundant across the Great Lakes region. Efforts are underway to bring it back.
Posted inMichigan Environment Watch
Tensions mount as data centers eye ‘sleepy’ Michigan farm towns
In a scenario likely to repeat statewide, a $7 billion data center planned for a rural Saline Township is prompting debate about jobs versus environmental impacts and noise.
Posted inMichigan Environment Watch
Michigan OKs landmark regulations that push up-front costs to data centers
New rules require big data centers in Consumers Energy’s territory to sign long-term power contracts and pay all costs to build transmission lines, substations and other infrastructure needed to serve the energy-hungry facilities.
Posted inMichigan Environment Watch
Consumers: Selling Michigan dams, paying double for power cheapest route
Company officials hope to get regulators’ signoff on plans to essentially give away 13 dams, then buy back the power at twice the going rate. They say that’s cheaper for ratepayers than the alternatives of keeping the dams or decommissioning them.
Posted inMichigan Environment Watch
Tech giants announce $7B data center, Michigan’s first hyperscale campus
Three tech companies have announced plans to build a massive data center on 575 acres in rural southwest Washtenaw County.
Posted inMichigan Environment Watch
After long legal battle, Michigan toughens poop patrol at factory farms
State regulators first announced stricter pollution regulations for industrial-scale livestock farms back in 2020. But years of legal challenges from farming interests kept them from enforcing them until now.