ICYMI: Dr. Abdul El-Sayed Joins Press Conference at “The Barn” Data Center in Saline

MICHIGAN –  Yesterday, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed joined Saline Indivisible, at the site of “The Barn” data center to stand in solidarity with the community. The Barn is a massive data center project that broke ground this year that has faced intense scrutiny from local residents who are raising red flags about its energy consumption, potential for noise and environmental pollution, and its corrupt dealings with DTE and the Michigan Public Service Commission.

Today at a press conference, Abdul and community members called for increased transparency and accountability for data center developers and utility companies that fast-track the centers. In January of this year, Abdul put forward his “Terms of Engagement,” for communities like Saline to use as guidelines when data centers come to town. 

While Abdul has emerged as a leader on the data center issue and been pushing policy informed both by impacted residents and leading experts, Haley Stevens has avoided taking a real position due to her financial connections to the utility companies that have recklessly abetted data center construction. Over her career, Haley has taken $47,500 from DTE – including $5,000 this cycle – a clear conflict of interests that puts her out of touch with Michiganders and the issues impacting their daily lives.

This week, Congresswoman Stevens completely avoided questions on this project. As reported by Detroit News: “Asked about her stance on the Saline Township project after an appearance in Lansing on Wednesday, Stevens responded by asking a reporter what the status of the project was…When a reporter attempted to ask a follow-up question about her stance on the Saline Township data center, a staff member of Stevens intervened and said Stevens was running out of time to answer more questions. The staff member then allowed a reporter from a national media outlet to ask three questions of Stevens, including how many LinkedIn connections she has.”

Immediately following the press conference, Abdul stood in solidarity with Saline Indivisible, Honk for Democracy and Saline community members at a data center protest near the site of the proposed center. 

Key excerpts from Abdul’s speech are noted below:

Abdul El-Sayed: “ …Unless and until the federal government stands up to act, we are going to watch dirty data centers get approved because they’re able to truck local politicians using exactly the same way that corporations get their way in our politics all the time. Political contributions, lobbying, and an army of lawyers. And unless and until we have those terms of engagement at the federal level, I stand with local and state elected officials saying that we cannot approve any more of these until we have federal level guardrails.” 

So, if a state government is saying, “How do we act here?” I think a moratorium makes sense. If a local government says, “How do we protect ourselves?” I think a moratorium makes sense. And I think at the federal level, we need the kinds of guardrails that the terms of engagement would have offered. We needed them yesterday to protect local communities like Saline Township from being run over by the likes of DTE and the likes of Oracle and the likes of Open AI, and so we have a responsibility to stand up and act…”

Too often, when we ask why bad things happen in our democracy and good things don’t happen, it almost always goes back to that central question of who’s paying for it, and how much power do they have? Because they pay for it. Y’all probably know by now. I’m running

[on] three things: money out of politics, money in your pocket, Medicare for All. That money out of politics part is this story right here. When DTE gives to that many elected officials, DTE tends to get its way. When the largest corporations in the history of the world can come in to a local community, they tend to get their way. When 680 billion dollars, nearly a trillion dollars, is chasing a particular bubble, it tends to get its way. And unless and until we protect local communities from the power of corrupting money in politics, we’re going to continue to see projects like this get pushed on to local communities despite themselves… 

Unless and until a community has its own oversight, at this point, no more data centers. We need action at the federal level. We needed it yesterday. We need politicians who are going to get elected without taking corporation money, and are going to show up and act accordingly.” 

You can watch the full video here.

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