Outside the scope

We maintain a local focus at the newspapers I co-edit, reporting on what happens in and immediately around our designated coverage areas. Happenings farther off may receive mention if they have a more or less immediate impact on the aforementioned areas.

To decide whether to report on activity in the state capitol or even Washington, D.C., we monitor and analyze other media. Here are our views on some recent, trending Michigan news topics.

Data centers

Around the state, local residents have been responding to data center construction proposals in or near their communities. Recently in nearby Kalkaska County, residents loudly opposed plans by Rocklocker LLC to develop a data center on 1,400 acres of public land. The company ceased their pursuit of the development after numerous public fora at which residents were overwhelmingly opposed.

Developers are meeting similar opposition to plans in Saline Township, Howell and Lansing. Michigan is already home to over 40 data centers, many of which are clustered around Detroit. Northeast Michigan hosts just one so far: 1010 Technology Center in Alpena. The next nearest is in Mount Pleasant.

These centers are known for their tremendous consumption of electricity and water and for emitting noise and air pollution, to the detriment of nearby residents. In Oregon, where a cancer cluster emerged in the vicinity of a 10,000 square foot Amazon data center, residents have compared the crisis to the water quality disaster that still impacts Flint today.

New facilities are attractive prospects for Michigan’s two biggest energy providers, DTE and Consumers, who are planning for data center expansions that are predicted to double energy demands in the state. They’re attractive prospects for data center companies because of tax exemptions signed into law last year.

Existing data center contracts have been blamed for electricity rate increases for consumers, and for overselling benefits. In 2015 a Nevada company promised 1,000 jobs and $5 billion in investment relating to a data center in Grand Rapids. By 2022, they had created only 26 jobs. The state’s response has been to provide more incentives (tax exemptions) while lowering expectations around job creation and investment.

The data centers also power so-called “artificial intelligence” services, for whatever that’s worth — not much, in my view.

Water rights

Periodically someone will write an article to remind Michiganders that while we are paying anywhere from $400 to $2,000 per year for potable water in our residences (where they are supplied by public water systems), private companies pay a one-time $2,000 application fee and an annual administrative fee of $200 to withdraw hundreds of millions of gallons of water to put in plastic bottles and sell to consumers for tremendous profits.

This has been going on for too long already. Meanwhile, the Michigan PFAS Action Response Team (MPART) recently has claimed that continuing investigation into the source of per- and polyfluoroalkyl contamination of private wells in Cadillac is too expensive. This means that residents will bear the cost of testing and the companies who did the polluting will not be made to pay for cleanup.

Holding multinational companies, the federal government and even the state government to account can be challenging. But we can push back in our local communities and protect our natural resources and our way of life in rural Michigan. We’ll just need to pay attention and stick together.