Michigan's Attorney General Can't See the Contract Either
DTE Energy signed contracts in October to supply power to the Saline Township data center, the $16 billion Oracle project connected to Stephen Ross and the university's endowment. The Michigan Public Service Commission approved those contracts in December without a hearing, behind closed doors, company names and signatures blacked out on the public copies. The companies had also signed non-disclosure agreements. Attorney General Dana Nessel asked the commission to reopen the case so her office could see the actual terms. In March, all three commissioners voted no.
So in April, Nessel filed an appeal with the Michigan Court of Appeals. Her argument, laid out in the official filing, is technical but pointed. State law lets the commission skip a hearing only for a narrow exception, which include a rate change that won't cost customers more. DTE has said directly these contracts aren't a rate change at all, and nobody has confirmed whether customers will end up paying more anyway. The commission used an exemption that doesn't fit its own description.
"Our utility companies are preparing to bring aboard massive new data centers in the years to come," Nessel said. If this approval stands, it becomes the template for every future data center deal in the statem meaning things will be approved fast, kept secret, and never tested by anyone outside the room.
This is the same data center Sam Altman flew in to tour in June, the one with the $40 million nonrefundable deposit and the farmland already being cleared. At a town hall in Howell in March, Nessel held up a sign showing the redactions, company names blacked out on a public document. Whitmer has called this the largest investment in Michigan history. The state's own Attorney General still isn't allowed to read the contract that makes it possible.