Data Center Outrage Catches Up to Renewables Outrage in Michigan

1. Central Michigan – I regret to inform you of this back-and-forth between candidates running for Congress and a would-be constituent because it’s a warning sign for the renewable energy sector (and sort of broke my brain).

• This week brought the first and likely only debate between Rep. Tom Barrett and Sunrise Movement cofounder Will Lawrence, who are locked in a tight contest over the Michigan 7th congressional district. As I’ve written, their race is a must-watch not only for control of the U.S. House but also the political fortunes of the data center sector.
  
• The debate contained a remarkable exchange: Moderators played taped remarks from Paula Caltrider, identified as “a local resident” in the city of Mason to ask the candidates a question about data centers. Instead, she offered a comment. “You know, you can’t be a part of this no data center movement without renouncing the large solar farms and dangerous battery storage facilities that power these data centers.” (Quick TL;DR on Caltrider: She’s been quoted in national media coverage of the data center backlash and last year won a legal settlement after allegedly being fired for refusing a vaccine mandate.)
  
• Barrett then ran with Caltrider’s baton. “I appreciate Paula linking these together, the stripping away of local control that took place in pursuit of this Green New Deal agenda in Lansing that took away control from communities” – a reference to the state’s primacy law that other Michigan Republican candidates have opposed.
• Lawrence, whose support for a federal data center moratorium made him a national political test case, did not take the bait, nor did he criticize renewable energy. Instead, this part of the debate became a tit-for-tat about whether the sitting congressman once backed tax breaks for data centers. “He stuck his finger up into the wind, saw which way it was blowing, did a complete 180 on this issue,” Lawrence said. Then Barrett and Lawrence got into a confusing back-and-forth about whether the Inflation Reduction Act was a giveaway to data centers.
  
• To the best of my knowledge, this is the first time the Data Center Trojan Horse has reared its ugly head on any kind of prominent debate stage, but it won’t be the last. For example: The Wisconsin gubernatorial debate is Oct. 21, and we’ve warned you about that one.

2. Doña Ana County, New Mexico – I suggest you pay closer attention to the federal permitting fight playing out over Oracle’s Project Jupiter.

• On Monday, New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez filed comments challenging the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s environmental assessment for a Transwestern gas pipeline key to the project known as Green Chile. The comment reads like the prelude to litigation, claiming the environmental assessment produced under the National Environmental Policy Act was plainly illegal and inadequate. It also argues that the commission inappropriately claimed the pipeline was a public necessity by citing Trump’s pro-AI policies without regard to the benefits for New Mexicans.
  
• “Project Jupiter is both the client and the catalyst for the pipeline. Project Jupiter in its current form cannot function without this pipeline, and this pipeline has no reason to exist other than to provide fuel for Project Jupiter,” the comment reads. “Yet FERC’s EA seeks to treat the pipeline as if it were wholly independent from Project Jupiter, asking us to pretend that Transwestern is building a pipeline large enough to supply a city that connects to nothing, merely terminating in the desert.”
• This is, to the best of my knowledge, the first major challenge to a large gas pipeline project’s environmental review rooted entirely in its connection to a data center project. On those grounds alone it becomes significant – and even more so within the context of broader debates in Congress about the future of NEPA and stakeholder power to challenge these documents in court.

3. Phoenix, Arizona – Does anyone want to tell me what happened to the Lava Run wind and solar Project?

• In late September, the Arizona Corporation Commission scheduled a vote on Lava Run’s transmission line for this week. Then it was suddenly pulled from the agenda without any public explanation from the commission or Repsol, the project developer.
  
• I asked Repsol to explain why it was pulled and whether this had anything to do with the midterm elections in a few weeks. Maybe the company and the commission were trying to wait until after such a sensitive time? Repsol directed any “questions regarding the ACC agenda” to the commission. All the company would tell me is, “We can confirm that the Lava Run matter was removed from the ACC agenda.” (I didn’t hear back from the ACC.)
• As I’ve previously reported, Lava Run is a large wind project proposed in Apache County with opposition fierce enough to prompt discussion in the state legislature about pausing new wind projects entirely. I’d note that the line was pulled from the agenda after many neighbors and impacted landowners filed comments against its approval.

4. Nashville, Tennessee – Data center developer DC Blox is hitting a roadblock in Nashville. Let’s hope it doesn’t turn into a legal zoo.

• On Wednesday, a federal judge dismissed the lawsuit DC Blox filed against Nashville’s attempt to pause its projects, apparently because – per local reports – many of the claims the company raised would create conflicts between federal and state court jurisdiction. As I previously explained, the hullabaloo about data centers in Nashville was over a project sited near a zoo. The lawsuit claimed this was unconstitutional, but the judge found that argument meritless. If you’re Brad Paisley, or a fan of zoos without data centers nearby, you’re probably pretty happy right now.
  
• DC Blox says they’ll be amending their legal complaint to continue the effort. But these kinds of legal pressure maneuvers usually only work when a community can’t actually withstand the pressure, like Hill County, Texas. I’m not sure I would want to bet on Blox here.