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David Nicholas: A data center under construction in Southeast Michigan's Saline Township has been facing opposition over questions about environmental impact and energy use.
This comes as the state considers plans for up to seventeen more of these data centers. Tom Leonard, a Republican candidate for governor, is calling for a one-year moratorium on any further construction or development of these data centers.
I had a chance to speak with him earlier this week about his vision for handling this situation, and Mr. Leonard started the conversation by explaining why he's against tax breaks to attract businesses to the state.
Tom Leonard: I've been very clear. We should not be taking money out of the taxpayers' pockets and giving it to big tech to buy up our farmland and build these data centers. That is wrong. But you know, my biggest concern, David, is the fact that right now in Michigan, we have the highest electricity rates in the Midwest, and we have some of the highest in the country.
In one data center alone, the one being proposed in Saline Township would require as much energy as the entire city. I'm sorry, more energy than the entire city of Detroit, the equivalent of a million homes. So my biggest concern is, what is this going to do with our energy costs and our energy rates?
That's why we've called on this one year moratorium, because our people frankly cannot afford to pay more.
DN: And when you reference the issue regarding the use of the farmland, is that really what we would be looking at here?
TL: The calculation that I did was that one of these large data centers could require the equivalent of over seventy thousand football fields. To put this in perspective, seventy thousand football fields in solar farms and solar panels and data centers that are being proposed. So I've been very clear. I said, listen, I'm running for governor because I want my kids to stay here. I don't know how it helps to have them stay here if we have tens, if not hundreds of thousands of acres of solar farms across the state, that are there because they've got to energize these data centers. It makes no sense to me.
I'm going to these local communities. Some of them only have a population of, you know, two thousand, two thousand five hundred, and there's three hundred, four hundred people that are showing up to these town halls or these meetings because they're terrified of what's going to happen. So I can tell you there is a widespread, it could be opposition or just fear, with people saying, hey, take a pause right now. Let's figure this out, let's get this correct, because we can't do this to our state until we've really thought this through and we've got the right policies in place.
DN: If that one year moratorium were to be allowed to take place, how would you want to see them approach the reshaping of our policies or the current permitting of the lands from the Michigan Public Service Commission? How would all those things come into play within that year to fix this as you say it needs to be done.
TL: We should not even have the conversation. We shouldn't even have the debate about data centers until the legislature, until we have done four simple things.
Number one, let's end the subsidies. They do not need them. Again, we should not be taking money out of your pocket to give it to big tech data centers.
Number two, we've got to make one hundred percent certain that they are not going to drive up our energy rate. So they're going to have to figure this out with the utilities, whether this means that they build or produce their own energy. But again, we've got to make one hundred percent certain that they're not driving up our rates.
Number three, we've got to protect our natural resources and our water.
And number four, we have to demand that local governments are not signing non-disclosure agreements. Some of these local governments across the state have signed these non-disclosure agreements and their people are in the dark. They don't know who's going to be building these data centers. They don't know who's going to be operating them. That's wrong. We've got to have full transparency.
So again, in the corporate welfare, make certain our rates are not driven up, protect our water, but also ban these non-disclosure agreements so that there's full transparency.
DN: Tom Leonard is a Republican candidate for governor, the election coming in November of 2026. Tom, thank you very much for taking the time to talk with us. We appreciate that.
TL: Thank you. And I would ask everybody to go to Protectmicommunities.com. That's our initiative that we're pushing to the legislature to have them implement this one-year moratorium. Protectmicommunities.com. Go sign the petition. Let's get the legislature to act. Thank you, David.
DN: I spoke with Tom Leonard earlier this week. He added that he expects a bill to be introduced in the state house that would call for the end of business development subsidies and the one-year moratorium on data centers.
