Michigan AG Urges Revisit on Oracle Data Center Power Plan
(Bloomberg) -- Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel moved for a reconsideration of the approval for utility DTE Energy to power a massive data center development planned by Oracle and OpenAI and called the companies “untrustworthy” in a statement Thursday.
Nessel said regulators should reopen the matter because DTE hasn’t done enough to protect its customers. “These contracts are simply too consequential for the future of energy affordability in Michigan to keep granting fast-track secret review and approvals to untrustworthy partners like DTE, Oracle and OpenAI,” Nessel said in the statement.
The fast and unexpected build-out of US data centers has transformed the energy industry, with growing anger directed toward facilities that can suck up as much electricity as entire cities. The increasing backlash comes as consumers are facing surging power bills.
A representative for the Michigan Public Service Commission, which regulates utilities in the state, said in a statement that they would review the AG’s filing. “The Commission and its expert staff thoroughly reviewed the data center special contracts to ensure the strongest possible safeguards against residential and other customers paying any costs associated with serving this data center,” the representative said in a statement.
The conditions outlined by the MPSC in their approval of DTE’s data center contracts ensure its customers will not subsidize data center rates, a DTE representative said in an email, adding that the company plans to file a response to the AG’s motion on Friday.
An OpenAI spokesperson said that in Michigan and across all of its US Stargate sites, the company was “committed to paying our own way on energy so that our operations do not increase local electricity prices.”
Michael Egbert, an Oracle spokesperson, said in an email that DTE Energy’s power contracts are “approved by the Michigan Public Service Commission, which ensures Oracle pays its own way and ratepayers are protected.” He added that “construction for our data center campus in Saline Township, Michigan, continues to move forward on schedule as planned.”
DTE shares pared gains on the news.
(Adds comment from OpenAI spokesperson in sixth paragraph.)
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