We all know data centers aren’t popular – for good reason. They consume enormous amounts of electricity and water, they take up farmland, and too often they arrive wrapped in non-disclosure agreements, with tax breaks already promised before neighbors hear a word.

Communities across Michigan are fighting tooth and nail just to get the bare minimum: honest information about the deals their communities are entering into, and the time to actually consider them. Where they aren’t being steamrolled, more than two dozen Michigan townships and cities have passed their own local moratoriums – including right here in West Michigan – just to buy time to think.

Some are hoping the federal government will step in with rules. Let’s be honest: Washington isn’t going to regulate any of this anytime soon. But we can take care of ourselves.

My plan:

There’s bipartisan legislation in Lansing right now – House Bills 5594–5596 – that would put a one-year pause on new data center approvals statewide. Not a ban. A pause: time to make sure data centers pay the full cost of their own electricity and water, sign real community benefits agreements, and answer to the neighbors before the bulldozers arrive.

Republicans and Democrats introduced it together, and lakeshore lawmakers from both parties have championed it – because whether your water bill and your farmland get protected shouldn’t depend on your party.

But bills like this don’t pass on their own. They pass when Lansing is full of people who answer to their neighbors instead of corporate dollars. I don’t take corporate money – so when a data center deal comes to the 88th, I’ll be asking the only question that matters: is this good for the people who live here?

Growth is welcome in West Michigan. Steamrolling isn’t. Any company that wants to build here can start by being honest with the people who are already here.