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Posted on 08/11/2026 5:56:09 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
MARQUETTE, Mich. (WBUP / WJMN) — Communities across the Upper Peninsula are rallying against the expansion of artificial intelligence data centers, drawing support from local residents and a well-known Midwestern comedy star.
Dozens gathered at the Ore Dock Brewing Company in Marquette on Monday night for a panel discussion hosted by the Northern Michigan Alliance for Responsible Development. The event, one of four held across northern Michigan, aimed to educate the public on how to protect their communities from potential infrastructure strain and environmental impacts.
Comedian Charlie Berens, of Wisconsin, attended the Marquette event to lend his platform to the cause. He cautioned attendees about the narrative pushed by developers.
"A lot of the information comes from big tech, and a lot of that information is skewed. So it's good to balance it out," said Berens. "And really the bottom line is for, you know, you need to decide for the UP not for big tech to decide for the UP."
A major point of concern among organizers is the massive energy and water consumption required to run hyperscale AI facilities. Berens said these new developments operate very differently from traditional cloud storage centers.
"Comparing a traditional data set to an AI data center. It's kind of like comparing a dog to a wolf," said Berens. "You know, like they both kind of look like a dog. But I'm not trying to take a wolf to get neutered. That's not going to end well."
Local residents echoed the need for community solidarity. Mark Jamrozek, a Marquette resident who has been researching the issue and attending local township meetings, said the pushback is a bipartisan effort that is bringing neighbors together.
"The folks that were there were incredible. And you can tell that folks are coming from all different backgrounds and they're all concerned about not only themselves with their neighbors," said Jamrozek.
Jamrozek encouraged Upper Peninsula residents to stay informed and attend local government meetings to make their voices heard.
"Don't be afraid. Use your voice. It's powerful," said Jamrozek. "If our voices weren't powerful, people wouldn't be trying to silence us."
The Marquette panel was part of a broader coordinated effort Monday night, with similar discussions wrapping up in Hancock, Sault Ste. Marie, and Traverse City.
Organizers said that recordings of the events and registration details for future discussions are available through the Northern Michigan Alliance for Responsible Development.
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Should work out just fine.
Data Centers Don’t Just Consume Energy
A common misconception is that data centers are only power-hungry AI infrastructure driving environmental harm. In reality, they also support health care, utilities, airports, air traffic, national security, public safety, transport and banking. This matters because energy, cooling, resilience and sovereign capability must be planned carefully to prevent issues with privacy, security and data leakage. - Sriram Bhargav Madhav, IRIS by Argon and Co.
Charlie should stick to comedy. On data centers, he has no idea what he’s talking about.
In Loudoun County Va, 40% of their tax revenue comes from data centers.
Charlie is funny.
Charlie is smart.
Charlie is looking at the issue from the wrong “end of the pipe”.
They screwed up trying to scare people by saying China is behind all opposition to data centers.
Makes them seem like they are trying to just scare people into doing what they want.
Big tech tried the same thing with importing Indian h1b visa scammers
I was subscribed to Charlie’s channel, donchyaknow.
Then he moved to Los Angeles ... Ohpe!
LA doesn’t have Lefse, for cry-ai-ai!
The massive turbines noise is terrible.
The ungodly noise has to be addressed, and they are an eye sore.
All the county commissioners that okayed the mess lost their primaries due to a noisy and ugly center that made about 200 homes worthless.
Th builders built cheap and the politicians that okayed them are gone.
The new commissioners have already demanded serious turbine noise abatement systems and a new dark green color and lots of large privacy trees.
Never trust builders or politicians to do the right thing unless forced.
No reason to single-out data centers — as long as they pay their own way (no tax breaks or burden on other power or water users) and observe the same environmental rules applying to other businesses.
I didn’t know who he was, so I did a web search. I still don’t know who he is.
Heard a Michigan woman on a national call in show. She enlightened me and others about the Saline, Michigan situation. A large group of non disclosure agreements and quiet deals made with politicians has led to an enormous takeover of farmland and to a major boost in electric bills for the citizens before they could start their futile pushback.
Not what America used to be. Unless you count the robber baron railroad owners and bankers who forced farmers to give up their land and homes for pennies on the dollar followed by fortunes made by the crooks. And towns and street names named after the scoundrels.
Why would the people of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan conceivably oppose anything that generates scarece jobs up there? Lack of work opportunity is a perennial concern up there and a huge hindrance to improiving the quality of life for its residents.
How does it support banking?
They are just going to staff the data centers with real Indians from India. lol
They have zero plans to hire ANY Americans.
Everybody has suddenly become experts on A.I. datacenters. Yet, they still want all of their gadgets and apps to work on demand. It doesn’t just happen in a vacuum.
The anti data center thing smells like a chicom and neville roy singham psy op.
I think it’s so much worse than that. (For which side of the argument? I don’t know)
The tech in our lives is currently working. Everyone who will use AI is already using it. I don’t see where such a large update is necessary.
As Palmer Luckey points out - China is doing it and they are doing it for nefarious purposes. They fully intend to overpower the entire world and the only way to do it is to create our own system to do battle. It’s that or nukes.
On the other hand Flock cameras, NSA spying and domestic control doesn’t happen as well as they want. By “they” I mean our own government. I’ve worked for our government before. I don’t trust them and I don’t like them.
These data centers can be used for the ultimate in domestic population control. Imagine loading an advanced program where it could examine you and create an AI “you”. They could interview you by proxy. They can ask “you” about the crimes “you” may have committed without being caught. They could ask “you” the best time of day, where and how to raid you. They could ask “you” how you voted how you feel about President Trump, how many guns you have and if you have modified your AR. Wait until they get military information in this system. They could find out what “you” did under orders.
Now if this AI profile was built for every is citizen then yes data centers are that important to them.
The only thing missing in my evaluation is that Democrats don’t want them and the calls lately by Democrats to assume control of the country and physically come after us on the right are growing.
Dot, not feather? Hmmm. Hadn’t thought about that.
Let's see who's funding them!
So, in other words, this is a mainstream Democrat op. Certainly a big part of this is that they've done their polling, and have decided that this is a winning issue for their base, and has crossover appeal to independents and even some liberal Republican voters.
Interestingly, Antrhopic was funding opposition to Kevin O’Leary's mega-project in Box Elder county Utah.
Wheels within wheels.
Jeesh, another CCP supporter.
None of these supposed limitations are meaningful. Just put local restrictions on them so that the center has to meet all objections.
Don’t outlaw, that is commie trash think. Just employ supply/demand constraints that are reasonable and not touched by commie trash talking points.
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