By Nick Smith
Gongwer News Service
Attorney General Dana Nessel continued her fight against the approval by state regulators of special contracts for a large data center project in Washtenaw County, this time through the courts.
Last Friday Nessel filed two claims of appeal with the Court of Appeals, seeking to challenge the Public Service Commission’s approval of two special contracts in December 2025 for the proposed large data center to be located near Saline Township.
On Dec. 18, 2025, the PSC gave ex parte approval of the special contracts between DTE Energy Company and OpenAI and its partners for a multibillion-dollar data center near Saline Township that would require 1.4 gigawatts of battery storage to help power the facility.
The PSC defended its actions, while Nessel has repeatedly sought to appeal the decisions through the commission unsuccessfully, most recently when the commission rejected her latest appeal to reopen the docket on the case.
Nessel in a statement last Friday said her effort for a contested case review of the special contracts was ignored by the PSC and her petition for rehearing was denied.
“Now our only choice, to protect the state and utility customers from the worst hazards and liabilities these contracts pose, is to challenge our commission’s unlawful approval of these secret data center contracts in the courts,” Nessel said. “It is our hope that the Michigan Court of Appeals will agree, and that the commission’s ex parte approval of these contracts will be voided by the courts.”
Nessel has alleged the PSC used what she called a flawed interpretation of a narrow exemption in statute for the ex parte approval of the contracts without a contested case proceeding.
PSC Chair Dan Scripps in a Friday statement defended the commission’s decision making in the case.
“The commission’s conditional approval of these contracts included some of the strongest consumer protections in the country and is consistent with literally decades of applicable precedent,” Scripps said. “We look forward to vigorously defending these conditional approvals in order to realize the projected $300 million in affordability benefits to customers.”
Since approval for the contracts, Scripps said there were provisions in the approval that were included to protect consumers. These include a minimum billing demand on the customer, assurances that the costs will not be passed on to other customers and requirements that DTE file a renewable energy plan, clean energy plan, analysis of the utility’s capacity compared to the data center’s usage need and an energy waste reduction plan.
The $300 million Scripps pointed to in his statement is data in the power supply agreement and energy storage agreement that showed an estimated net $300 million benefit to DTE’s other customers per year. He has said the PSC ran those projections independently and were found to be accurate.
Approval of the contracts has drawn concerns from some area residents and conservation groups over the potential environmental effects of the project and of costs being passed on to other customers for the enormous energy storage and power needs for the proposed data center.
Gongwer News Service
Attorney General Dana Nessel continued her fight against the approval by state regulators of special contracts for a large data center project in Washtenaw County, this time through the courts.
Last Friday Nessel filed two claims of appeal with the Court of Appeals, seeking to challenge the Public Service Commission’s approval of two special contracts in December 2025 for the proposed large data center to be located near Saline Township.
On Dec. 18, 2025, the PSC gave ex parte approval of the special contracts between DTE Energy Company and OpenAI and its partners for a multibillion-dollar data center near Saline Township that would require 1.4 gigawatts of battery storage to help power the facility.
The PSC defended its actions, while Nessel has repeatedly sought to appeal the decisions through the commission unsuccessfully, most recently when the commission rejected her latest appeal to reopen the docket on the case.
Nessel in a statement last Friday said her effort for a contested case review of the special contracts was ignored by the PSC and her petition for rehearing was denied.
“Now our only choice, to protect the state and utility customers from the worst hazards and liabilities these contracts pose, is to challenge our commission’s unlawful approval of these secret data center contracts in the courts,” Nessel said. “It is our hope that the Michigan Court of Appeals will agree, and that the commission’s ex parte approval of these contracts will be voided by the courts.”
Nessel has alleged the PSC used what she called a flawed interpretation of a narrow exemption in statute for the ex parte approval of the contracts without a contested case proceeding.
PSC Chair Dan Scripps in a Friday statement defended the commission’s decision making in the case.
“The commission’s conditional approval of these contracts included some of the strongest consumer protections in the country and is consistent with literally decades of applicable precedent,” Scripps said. “We look forward to vigorously defending these conditional approvals in order to realize the projected $300 million in affordability benefits to customers.”
Since approval for the contracts, Scripps said there were provisions in the approval that were included to protect consumers. These include a minimum billing demand on the customer, assurances that the costs will not be passed on to other customers and requirements that DTE file a renewable energy plan, clean energy plan, analysis of the utility’s capacity compared to the data center’s usage need and an energy waste reduction plan.
The $300 million Scripps pointed to in his statement is data in the power supply agreement and energy storage agreement that showed an estimated net $300 million benefit to DTE’s other customers per year. He has said the PSC ran those projections independently and were found to be accurate.
Approval of the contracts has drawn concerns from some area residents and conservation groups over the potential environmental effects of the project and of costs being passed on to other customers for the enormous energy storage and power needs for the proposed data center.
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