By Keanu Heydari, Environmental Storyteller Fellow, Rackham Graduate School
The University of Michigan’s proposed high-performance computing facility in Ypsilanti Township has become a central focus of debate about the environmental impact of artificial intelligence and the responsibilities of public institutions. The $1.25 billion project, developed with Los Alamos National Laboratory, would house powerful supercomputers used for energy modeling, AI research, and national security work. For many residents, the facility represents technological ambition as well as an uncertain environmental future.
A Facility with Heavy Demands
The Michigan Strategic Fund’s project materials describe a complex that will require more than 100 megawatts of power and a new DTE Energy substation, enough electricity to serve tens of thousands of homes. The University has committed to building an all-electric facility that will not draw from or discharge into the Huron River, presenting the project as a model of responsible design. These assurances have not resolved community concerns, because the University’s constitutional autonomy exempts it from township zoning review. Local residents and officials have emphasized that voluntary commitments are not the same as enforceable standards.
Energy and water use remain the defining questions. Federal research shows that U.S. data centers already consume over four percent of national electricity, a figure expected to rise sharply within a few years. Studies also estimate that direct water use for cooling exceeds tens of billions of gallons each year, with hundreds of billions more used indirectly through electricity generation. Each new facility adds to a growing cumulative burden on shared resources. The Ypsilanti project may not match the scale of a commercial hyperscale center, yet its resource footprint will still shape the region’s environmental trajectory.
Environmental Justice in Ypsilanti
Research from the Ford School of Public Policy and the Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition documents how data centers often promise economic benefits that rarely reach local communities. These projects typically create temporary construction work but few permanent jobs. They can also raise energy costs for households that share the grid. Ypsilanti Township’s decision to urge the University to consider alternate locations reflects an effort to ensure that the benefits and burdens of technological progress are distributed more fairly.
For residents, the debate is not only about one facility. It is about whether decisions on major infrastructure respect local input, address existing inequities, and safeguard air, water, and household budgets. The Ypsilanti discussion illustrates why environmental justice must be central to planning for digital infrastructure.
Policy and Precedent
Recent examples from other states show the risks of limited oversight. In The Dalles, Oregon, residents learned through a public-records lawsuit that a Google data center was consuming more than a quarter of the city’s water supply. In Memphis, Tennessee, a computing complex installed gas turbines that emitted significant pollutants before air-quality permits were issued. These cases illustrate how secrecy and weak oversight can leave communities with unexpected costs and risks.
Michigan’s policy environment makes local advocacy even more important. State law extends sales-tax exemptions for data-center equipment through 2050, which reduces the financial leverage of local governments. At the federal level, proposals to require greenhouse-gas disclosure by large contractors have been withdrawn. The result is a regulatory landscape that depends heavily on community organizing, investigative reporting, and nonprofit oversight to secure basic protections.
The Ecology Center’s Role
For the Ecology Center, the Ypsilanti project is part of a broader shift in Michigan’s energy and technology landscape. As data centers proliferate, the Center is clear that new facilities must not undermine the state’s climate commitments or prolong the life of fossil fuel infrastructure. Any effort to use legal “off-ramps” from clean-energy mandates, or to keep aging gas and coal plants running in order to serve new computing loads, conflicts with the long-term public interest. The Ecology Center approaches proposals like the U-M facility with a straightforward expectation: artificial intelligence and high-performance computing must operate within a genuinely decarbonizing energy system.
The Center also insists that the cost of new energy infrastructure for data centers should not fall on households or small businesses. Under Michigan’s rate-setting rules, the capital costs of new generation and grid upgrades are often recovered through higher utility bills. The Ecology Center will press regulators and utilities to ensure that large data users cover the infrastructure built for them, rather than shifting those costs onto residential and commercial ratepayers who already face significant energy burdens.
Environmental health is another central concern. Data centers can introduce PFAS into local environments through construction materials and cooling systems, and can place intense pressure on local water supplies. The Ecology Center supports strict limits on PFAS use in these projects and opposes any water use that would deplete local watersheds or drive up water rates for surrounding communities. Even when a project, like the Ypsilanti proposal, commits not to draw directly from a nearby river, the Center evaluates the full water footprint, including upstream demands from electricity generation.
The Ecology Center also treats data-center siting as an environmental justice issue. The organization supports communities that do not want these facilities in their neighborhoods, particularly in places that already face cumulative pollution and economic stress. Although the Center does not yet have dedicated staff or funding focused solely on data centers, it is committed to working with partners to secure strong safeguards. That work includes supporting campaigns for disclosure, climate-aligned power procurement, PFAS restrictions, and water protections, as well as backing local leaders who call for development that respects both community well-being and ecological limits.
A Broader Vision for Accountability
Ypsilanti Township’s organized response has already led to a delay in construction and renewed scrutiny of the project’s location. The University’s willingness to revisit its plans suggests that community engagement can influence even powerful institutions. Similar questions are beginning to surface around other proposed data-center developments in Michigan, which makes the stakes of this moment even clearer.
The future of the Ypsilanti project remains uncertain, yet the core lesson is already visible. Environmental responsibility needs to be built into the foundations of emerging technologies, not added as an afterthought. Artificial intelligence and advanced computing should not move forward on the assumption that communities will absorb the environmental cost. Instead, any promise of AI must be matched by enforceable protections for environmental health, transparent decision-making, and a meaningful role for local residents in shaping what comes next.
While the outcome in Ypsilanti is still unsettled, data center construction is advancing elsewhere in Washtenaw County and across Michigan. The proposed 1.4 gigawatt facility in Saline Township, now tied to a special contract case before the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC), reflects many of the same tensions over climate and community costs that have surfaced around the Ypsilanti project.
Public oversight of this build-out is already moving into formal regulatory venues. On Dec. 3, the MPSC will hold a virtual public hearing in Case No. U-21990 on DTE Electric’s proposed special contracts to serve a 1.4 gigawatt data center in Saline Township, to be operated by an Oracle subsidiary. Although the Commission does not control where data centers are built or how much water they use, it does set the rates and terms under which utilities serve them, including protections intended to shield other customers from subsidizing very large new loads or absorbing the costs if a facility later leaves the system. Public participation in hearings like this is one of the few ways residents can press regulators to treat data centers as part of Michigan’s climate and equity commitments and to insist that large users pay the full cost of the infrastructure they require. It is also a chance to demand transparent contracts that protect households and small businesses as AI infrastructure expands across the state.
Sources
- Ford School of Public Policy and Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition. What Happens When Data Centers Come to Town? Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 2025. [Link]
- Hedin, Glenn. “Ypsilanti Residents Protest UMich Data Center Construction.” The Michigan Daily, October 16, 2025. [Link]
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. United States Data Center Energy and Water Use Report: 2023 Update.Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Energy, 2024. [Link]
- Michigan Department of Treasury. Data Center Equipment Sales and Use Tax Exemption Extension Act. Lansing, 2025. [Link]
- Michigan Strategic Fund Board. Meeting Minutes and Project Packet: University of Michigan / Los Alamos National Laboratory High-Performance Computing Facility. Lansing, December 10, 2024. [Link]
- Perkins, Tom. “Los Alamos and University of Michigan Plan National Security, AI Data Center in Ypsilanti Twp.” Michigan Advance, October 8, 2025. [Link]
- Rogoway, Mike. “The Dalles Settles Public-Records Lawsuit over Google’s Data Centers; Will Disclose Water Use.” OregonLive, updated February 22, 2023. [Link]
- Wittenberg, Ariel. “Elon Musk’s xAI in Memphis: 35 Gas Turbines, No Air Pollution Permits.” Politico, May 6, 2025, 10:32 a.m. EDT. [Link]
- University of Michigan. Frequently Asked Questions: U-M / Los Alamos National Laboratory High-Performance Computing Project. Ann Arbor: Office of the Vice President for Research, July 2025. [Link]
- U.S. Department of Energy. Electricity Consumption Trends in Data-Center Infrastructure. Washington, D.C.: Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, 2024. [Link]
- U.S. Federal Acquisition Regulation Council. Withdrawal of Proposed Rule: Greenhouse Gas Disclosure for Major Federal Contractors. Washington, D.C., January 2025. [Link]