Benson says no new Michigan data centers until they pay for their power and give up tax breaks

LANSING — Gov.-elect Jocelyn Benson says no new data centers should be built in Michigan until the state has rules that make developers negotiate in public, pay for the power they use and give up tax breaks, a plan she laid out in a sit-down interview with WDIV-TV in Detroit, the station reported Tuesday.

Benson told Local 4 anchor Ty Steele she supports a moratorium on new data center construction until safeguards for water and energy are in place, the station reported. The plan restates a promise from her campaign before the Nov. 3 election.

“As Governor, I will put a moratorium on data centers,” her campaign’s issue page says. “No data centers will be built in Michigan unless there are rules in place that make them negotiate with communities in the open, ban them from getting tax breaks and using up our water, and require them to pay for their power.”

What the rules would require

According to WDIV and the campaign page, the rules would require:

• public hearings before a project moves forward;
• disclosure reporting so deals are not made out of public view;
• proof before construction that a project will not harm water or land;
• data centers, not households, to cover the cost of the extra electricity they use;
• no tax breaks for data centers; and
• union contracts on the projects.

Benson also told WDIV that developers should address noise and sign community benefits agreements, and she proposed an online portal where residents could track proposed and existing projects and comment on them. Companies that break the rules would not be allowed to operate in Michigan, she said.

What is still unclear

Neither the interview recap nor the campaign page says whether the pause would come by executive order or need a vote of the Legislature, or how long it would last. Benson takes office in January.

The fight over data centers has played out township by township across the state this fall. Near Lansing, the Delhi Township board voted 6-0 to oppose data centers tied to the LEAP site in Holt, and Attorney General Dana Nessel has sought a rehearing on DTE’s contracts for a Google data center in Van Buren Township. For ratepayers, the central question in Benson’s plan is who pays for the new power plants and lines those projects would need.

Sources:
WDIV-TV (ClickOnDetroit), “Michigan data centers: Governor-elect Jocelyn Benson proposes new regulations on water, energy, tax breaks,” Nov. 10, 2026, https://www.clickondetroit.com/news/local/2026/11/10/michigan-data-centers-governor-elect-jocelyn-benson-proposes-new-regulations-on-water-energy-tax-breaks/
Jocelyn Benson for Governor, “Data Centers” issue page, https://www.jocelynbenson.com/issues/data-centers
Photo: 123net, “123Net Data Center (DC2).jpg,” Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped, color-adjusted and resized; derivative shared under the same license, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:123Net_Data_Center_(DC2).jpg

Lansing

Tags: Lansing · Data centers · Jocelyn Benson · Electric rates · Tax breaks · Michigan government