OPINION | SCHAUER: STATE SHOULD MOVE FORWARD ON DATA CENTER DEVELOPMENT
By: Mark Schauer
The Detroit News
December 18, 2025
Michigan has always been a place that builds things. From the earliest days of the auto industry to today’s resurgence in advanced manufacturing, our state has been strongest when we embrace innovation, invest in our workers, and lead the nation in building what comes next. Now, we have another opportunity to carry that legacy forward.
The next-generation data center campus being developed in Saline Township, my former Congressional district, for Oracle and OpenAI, represents a huge investment in our state’s future. It’s also an opportunity to signal to our workforce — from our laborers to electrical workers to AI engineers currently studying in our world-class universities — that they can be a part of the digital infrastructure economy right in Michigan.
This once-in-a-generation project would create more than 2,500 good-paying union construction jobs, generate hundreds of permanent jobs in the facility and thousands more in the greater metropolitan area, and deliver millions in new local and state tax dollars that strengthen our schools and support our communities.
As a long-time Democrat committed to responsible development, I strongly believe that projects of this scale must also uphold our values: protecting workers, safeguarding natural resources, benefiting communities and ensuring consumers are not left holding the bill. This project meets that test.
Under Michigan’s bipartisan framework, passed last year by a coalition of Democratic and Republican lawmakers, large data centers must pay the full cost of the electricity they use. Ratepayers cannot and will not subsidize the energy needs of this facility. The legislation was thoughtful, balanced, and rooted in fairness. And because of that clarity, Michigan was able to compete for this transformational investment.
In fact, all of the project’s electric infrastructure, including a new battery storage facility, will be paid for by the project itself, not Michigan families. The data center will also contribute an estimated $300 million annually to DTE’s fixed grid costs, benefiting all customers. That is what responsible growth looks like, and I am pleased that Oracle and DTE worked together to ensure this was in the contracts.
Just as important, the project balances environmental stewardship: it does not use evaporative cooling technology, which would consume millions of gallons of water daily. Instead, it utilizes a closed-loop system — meaning its water use is comparable to that of an office building. And the data center footprint covers less than half of the total acreage of the site, with hundreds of acres of open farmland preserved.
While I understand that data centers may be new to many communities and are undergoing rapid growth across the country, they have actually been part of our state and landscape for decades. Michigan is already home to 35 data centers, but we are notably behind other states, such as Illinois and Ohio, in terms of development. They are both home to more than 100 data centers. That’s why I find calls for delays, moratoriums and outright bans on data center development deeply frustrating.
Like any development, proposals for data centers should be examined on their individual merits — how they are designed, their potential impact on our natural resources, and the benefits they will bring to our state and economy. Michigan should not be setting up new barriers — especially those based on unfounded fears — that keep us from being competitive against other states. We need to invest in the infrastructure of the future and in our workforce.
This moment calls for leadership— the same leadership our lawmakers demonstrated when they passed the commonsense, bipartisan laws that made America’s technology leaders look at our state. I urge state leaders to reaffirm their commitment to responsible economic growth, support a timely review process and ensure that Michigan continues to move forward.
Mark Schauer is a former U.S. Congressman from Michigan