Mayor Sheffield: Detroit Data Center Moratorium Now!

Mary Sheffield, Mayor, City of Detroit

Detroit City Council asked Mayor Mary Sheffield to pause new data center permits. While the moratorium sits on her desk, DTE Energy keeps pushing the same line: move fast, or some other city takes the deal.

That's not true, and it matters that it isn't true. Communities across the country have spent the last two years finding out what a hyperscale data center actually does to a neighborhood — the noise, the water use, the strain on the power grid — and deciding they don't want it. Nationally, seven in ten Americans don't want a data center anywhere near their home. Nearly 70 cities and counties have banned these projects outright.

Detroit isn't in a bidding war for this industry. It is being pitched what everyone else is turning away, and for good reason.

It's not hard to see who actually benefits if Mayor Sheffield lets this die on the vine. Every megawatt of data center demand DTE signs up grows the company's rate base and Michigan regulators guarantee DTE's shareholders a return of roughly 9.9% on that growth. DTE's investor disclosures describe a pipeline of up to 8.4 gigawatts of new data center demand in southeast Michigan. Independent testimony before state regulators put the residential cost of that buildout at 5-10% higher electric rates for every added gigawatt, meaning Detroit families could be looking at bills 40% to 80% higher than today's, on top of a company that's already raised rates well beyond inflation for two decades. Meanwhile, DTE holds seven of the seats on the city's own Data Center Working Group. Residents hold one.

Michigan has already lived through the political cost of getting this wrong. Governor Whitmer's embrace of the Oracle/OpenAI data center in Saline Township turned into one of the defining controversies of her final year in office with hot-mic moments, local officials publicly rebuking her, and her attorney general challenging the power deal DTE wrote for the project. Mayor Sheffield doesn't have to repeat that mistake. She has a moratorium sitting on her desk that would buy the city time to ensure residents are put ahead of a utility's balance sheet.

This is the moment to make clear that Detroiters are watching, and that we expect our mayor to choose us over DTE.
Sponsored by
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Great Lakes Environmental Law Center
Detroit, MI

To: Mary Sheffield, Mayor, City of Detroit
From: [Your Name]

We, the undersigned Detroit residents, call on you to immediately sign the data center moratorium requested by Detroit City Council.

Data centers are one of the most unpopular land uses in America right now, and for good reason. They consume enormous amounts of water and electricity, run generators and cooling systems around the clock, and deliver little in permanent local employment once construction ends. Across the country, communities are rejecting these projects in overwhelming numbers through bans, moratoria, and organized local opposition. That's because they have come to understand what these facilities do to a neighborhood's quality of life and to household utility bills.

Detroit is not competing with other cities for this industry. We are being offered projects that communities with more leverage, more transparency, and more regulatory power have already turned down. Signing on quickly does not protect Detroit's future. It exposes Detroit to costs that other cities refused to accept.

The primary financial beneficiary of this buildout is not Detroit residents. It is DTE Energy. Regulatory rules guarantee DTE's shareholders a fixed rate of return on new infrastructure investment, meaning every new data center directly grows DTE's profits while residents face the risk of significantly higher electric bills to pay for the power infrastructure these facilities require. DTE's disclosures describe gigawatts of new demand in the pipeline. Independent analysis presented to state regulators indicates this could raise residential rates substantially.

Meanwhile, the process that is supposed to protect Detroit residents from these harms is being shaped by DTE and the developers themselves, not by the people who will actually live next to these facilities and pay for them. Fundamental questions remain unanswered: How much water will these facilities draw from a system already strained in parts of the city? What will the noise, light, and air quality impacts be for the people living closest to them? What happens to electric reliability for everyone else when a data center and thousands of homes are drawing from the same grid during a heat wave or a cold snap? What happens to property values and neighborhood character in the areas targeted for development?

Residents should not be asked to accept these facilities on faith while the answers are worked out later, by the industry that stands to profit.

We call on Mayor Sheffield to:

+ Sign the data center moratorium passed by City Council without further delay.
+ Establish a public process led by and accountable to Detroit residents — not DTE or developers — to govern whether, how, and under what conditions any future data center proposals move forward.
+ Commit publicly to prioritizing the interests of Detroit residents over the financial interests of DTE Energy and hyperscale developers.

Detroiters are entitled to a say in what gets built in our neighborhoods, jeopardize our water and power systems, and threated to increase our utility bills. We are asking you to act before these projects move forward without the scrutiny they deserve.