Poll Finds Michigan Voters Don’t Want Data Centers Nearby

Source Domain: www.govtech.com

(TNS) — Most Michigan voters don’t want a data center built in their backyard. But that opposition softens with safeguards in place, like a guarantee that the power-hungry facilities won’t hike electric rates.

Those are some of the findings of a new poll released by the Detroit Regional Chamber Tuesday, May 26, underscoring data centers’ troubled public image in Michigan as several large-scale projects designed with artificial intelligence in mind advance.

The Detroit Chamber backs the megaprojects as a means to support economic growth, and they promise to be a major theme as the group hosts the state’s political and business elite for the annual Mackinac Policy Conference on Mackinac Island this week.

The chamber-commissioned poll of 600 likely voters, released as the conference kicked off Tuesday, found initially only one in three respondents was open to allowing a data center to be built within 25 miles of their home.

Some 55% were not, and 11% didn’t offer a definitive answer.

The voters were then quizzed on the importance of four separate sets of potential data center safeguards, with all receiving strong support.

They included a requirement that the facilities use “closed loop” systems that don’t regularly draw large amounts of water to cool computer servers, a prohibition on government officials signing non-disclosure agreements with developers and a ban on additional tax breaks for the projects.

The highest-rated of the guardrails was a guarantee that data centers — the largest of which can use more power than entire cities — pay their full costs for electricity.

Some 87% of respondents rated this protection as important.

With all of the safeguards in place, Michigan voters appear to view the facilities more favorably.

In that case, 48.7% of respondents said they were open to a data center being built in their area, while 41.3% were not and 9.3% did not…

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