Data Center tax-break legislation missed opportunity to ensure protections for water, ratepayers

LANSING – The Michigan League of Conservation Voters today issued the following statement regarding House passage of HB 4906, a companion piece to controversial legislation that would provide tax breaks for data centers. The last time it was brought up for a vote in September, the bill failed to garner enough votes to pass, largely due to concerns over water usage, residential energy costs and lack of environmental protections.

“Economic development and what makes Michigan great – our water, land and clean air – should go hand-in-hand, but the legislation voted out today falls far short of ensuring our rates won’t go up and we won’t see the rush to build additional fossil fuel plants to power these data centers, said Bob Allison, deputy director of the Michigan League of Conservation Voters. “Big Tech CEOs and our state’s utilities had the chance to come to the table and ensure these developments align with their own lofty environmental goals that they readily tout, but apparently some lawmakers – including ones who just ran for office attacking tax breaks for corporations and big special interests – were fine to let them off the hook now.” 

Michigan LCV advocated for changes to the legislation to include specific protections for ratepayers so rates wouldn’t spike due to increased demand for electricity or water, as well as common sense water protections and a commitment that new energy generation needed to power the data centers would come from renewable sources. 

“Because Michigan was unable to be a leader in setting out clearly how these large-scale projects operate, they will now face the same ‘not in my backyard’ opposition we’ve seen across this state in the past year, which is unfortunate and a major missed opportunity,” Allison said.