- Democratic US Senate candidate Mallory McMorrow is latest Michigan candidate to propose data center regulations
- McMorrow and fellow candidate Abdul El-Sayed have both endorsed strict requirements for prospective data center developers
- Data center debates have cropped up throughout Michigan as tech companies eye sites in at least 16 communities
Democratic US Senate hopeful Mallory McMorrow on Thursday became the latest Michigan candidate to call for increased guardrails around proposed data center developments, proposing a plan that would require transparency and local investments from corporations looking to build.
Among other things, McMorrow wants federal legislation to ban non-disclosure agreements between local governments and technology companies exploring locations for new data centers. She also wants requirements for developers to bear the costs of any additional infrastructure or power generation associated with data center facilities.
“When it comes to data centers, Michigan has an opportunity to show the country how to do it right,” McMorrow said in a statement announcing the plan, which also proposes requirements for data centers to source at least 90% of their projected electricity needs from renewable sources and use local union labor.
“Michigan revolutionized auto manufacturing to be safer, cleaner, and union-built,” she continued. “We can do the same for data centers – and show the rest of the country how it’s done.”
Of the three major candidates competing for votes in Michigan’s Democratic US Senate primary, McMorrow is the second to roll out a full policy platform on how to handle data center developments as tech firms descend upon the state in search of land and electricity to compete in the global artificial intelligence sector.
About 14% of respondents identified data centers or artificial intelligence as top concerns in Bridge Listens, an unscientific survey of election-year issues that candidates should address.
McMorrow, who is currently a state senator, in late 2024 voted for tax breaks to lure data centers to the state.
Under the new law, developers can avoid paying sales and use taxes through at least 2050 if they invest at least $250 million, employ 30 people and meet other requirements. That could amount to hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks per facility.
The law also sought to ensure data centers use municipal water with available capacity and pay electric rates that do not cause residential customers to “subsidize the costs” of powering the facilities. At the time, critics feared the provisions wouldn’t be enough to make the presence of data centers — and the tax breaks to lure them — a worthy tradeoff.
Since the new law took effect, data center developers have purchased land or pitched projects in at least 16 Michigan communities. Another 19 communities have proposed or voted on moratoriums to temporarily halt new data centers as they consider limits on where, when and how the facilities can operate.
Tech giants like Microsoft have pushed local officials to sign non-disclosure agreements for potential data center developments, a practice McMorrow said she’d like to end. As a state legislator, McMorrow signed an NDAin 2023 to learn about potential economic development deals but later called it a “broken system” and proposed reforms.
McMorrow said Thursday she wants to make sure data centers “bring in transformational investments for Michigan communities when they build here.”
“That means data center companies, not Michigan families, will pay for their own energy, grid upgrades for the benefit of all ratepayers; pay their fair share in taxes to fund our schools, roads, and communities; and pay our workers by creating good-paying union jobs,” she said in a statement.
In January, Democratic US Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed proposed “terms of engagement” for data center projects. The former Wayne County health director noted the size and scale of proposed facilities are causing “alarm and concern” about the impacts on water resources, electric bills and safety.
Data center developers and utilities should be held to binding agreements on keeping electric rates down, guaranteeing energy reliability, committing to a closed-loop cooling system to limit stress on local water resources and adhering to existing clean energy laws, according to his policy platform.
Those terms should be the “bare minimum that data center projects should be able to agree to if they want to move into our communities,” El-Sayed said in a statement at the time, arguing that his longtime stance on refusing campaign donations from utilities and corporations makes him the ideal candidate to hold data center developers accountable.
Both McMorrow’s and El-Sayed’s plans call for penalties for companies that don’t adhere to ratepayer protections and environmental requirements or fail to deliver on job creation.
US Rep. Haley Stevens, who is also seeking the Democratic nomination for US Senate, told Bridge Michigan in a statement that her top priority when it comes to data centers “is making sure costs don’t go up for Michigan families and that we are protecting good-paying union jobs.”
Stevens said there should be “a clear, responsible policy framework” for data centers and AI to “ensure these technologies are developed safely and securely,” noting she believes utility companies should not be allowed to pass new costs onto customers as data center projects move forward.
In the US House, Stevens supported the CHIPS and Science Act and also introduced legislation to strip federal funding away from investor-owned utilities if customer rates are raised within a year of a previous price hike.
None of the leading US Senate candidates from Michigan have called for the kind of national data center moratorium proposed by US Sen. Bernie Sandersof Vermont, a key figure in progressive politics.
The ultimate winner of the Democratic primary will likely take on Republican Mike Rogers, a former member of Congress who has worked to consolidate GOP primary support after coming up just short in his bid for another open US Senate seat two years ago.
Rogers recently endorsed President Donald Trump’s artificial intelligence policy framework, which calls on Congress to prevent increased electricity costs as a result of data center construction and streamline federal permitting for AI infrastructure.
“AI development, including data infrastructure buildout, should strengthen American communities and small businesses through economic growth and energy dominance, while ensuring communities are protected from harmful impacts,” the Trump administration’s policy agenda states.
In a Monday statement, Rogers said AI is already making powerful advancements in medical outcomes, manufacturing efficiency and agriculture innovation, adding that a consistent national framework gives the US “an opportunity to take it all to the next level.”
“The choice is simple: lead the charge or fall behind,” Rogers said in the statement. “Let’s get this done.”
Other declared candidates in the US Senate race, including Republicans Genevieve Peters Scott and Bernadette Smith and Democrat Rachel Howard, have not attracted the same level of attention.
Meanwhile, in Michigan’s race for governor, Republican candidate Tom Leonard has made opposition to data centers a central tenet of his campaign, traveling across the state to weigh in on local data center deliberations.
Ryan Friedrichs, husband of the leading Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jocelyn Benson, is a vice president of the company behind Michigan’s first approved hyperscale data center project in Saline Township. Friedrichs recently announced he’s taken on a new role with the company and is no longer working on Michigan projects.
A campaign spokesperson for Benson told Bridge last month that Benson sees data center investment as “a great thing for our people and our economy,” but believes Michigan needs to enact policies and guidelines ensuring the facilities use “the latest technology to limit water usage” and sign power contracts that “drive down energy costs.”
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