Board members of a small township in Michigan agreed to \u201cfight to our very last breath\u201d against an AI data center planned in their community. America\u2019s nuclear scientists and the University of Michigan want to build a massive data center in Ypsilanti Township, Michigan. If built, the data center will, among other things, run simulations to help America build nuclear weapons.The residents of Ypsilanti Township overwhelmingly oppose the construction of the data center and voiced their opposition to the computer warehouse during a public board meeting on June 16. In a show of support that\u2019s often rare from local leaders in communities with data centers, Ypsilanti Township\u2019s board vowed to fight UofM and Los Alamos National Laboratory, which is partnering with the university, with everything they had.<\/p>\n
Throughout most of the three hour board meeting, a photograph from a data center groundbreaking in nearby Saline Township was projected onto a wall behind the board. The photo showed a grinning Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer standing in line with Oracle CEO Clay Magouyrk. It was taken at the June 1 groundbreaking of an Oracle and OpenAI data center in nearby Saline Township, one of several Stargate projects. Saline Township is a community of only 2,300 people and the fight against the data center was so contentious that the Township treasurer resigned in tears during a public meeting in May.<\/p>\n
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During the groundbreaking, a videographer caught Whitmer talking with Magouyrk. In the video Whitmer appeared to tell the billionaire, \u201cWe\u2019re used to people saying no, and doing it anyway.\u201d Whitmer\u2019s office has officially denied she said that, but many of the residents of Michigan\u2014including the people of Ypsilanti Township\u2014believe she did.Governor Whitmer had a hot mic moment at the Saline Data Center groundbreaking, where she tells Oracle CEO Clay Magouyrk, \u201cWe\u2019re used to people saying f*ck no, and doing it anyway.\u201d I\u2019m old enough to remember when she doxxed Marshall constituents who opposed her BlueOval project. pic.twitter.com\/PRFnjGY5l9\u2014 Heather Dow (@PatriotPostGirl) June 8, 2026
\nCilla Cresswell shot the video of Whitmer and was present at the Ypsilanti Township board meeting on Tuesday. \u201cOn June 1 I was standing just to the left, right there,\u201d Creswell said, referring to the photo that loomed behind the board during the meeting. \u201cI was there. I recorded that clip [\u2026 ] I was right there. And they want to say it\u2019s fake, but I just want to let you guys know it\u2019s real. You can play it on my camera.\u201dMembers of the board and the community referenced the photograph often during the meeting. \u201cYou have people in that photograph worth billions of dollars. Not just millions, we\u2019re talking trillions. Soon to be trillionaires. Yet this state, in its zeal to become the data capital of the country, has extended unprecedented tax credits to the richest corporations in the world,\u201d Douglas Winters, a lawyer representing Ypsilanti Township, said in the meeting.\u201cHaving to stare at this picture during this meeting has my blood boiling,\u201d said Ypsi resident Laura Witowski. \u201cI did not realize how emotional I would be. The waste of space. The complete lack of regard for humans and animals and for what?\u201dDuring the hours of community comments, residents stepped forward to voice complaints that have now become common about data centers in America. The people of Ypsilanti Township worried about the rising cost of electricity, how much water the building will use, and how noisy the data center would be once finished.They also called on the Township board to do everything in their power to stop it from even being built. \u201cPut yourselves on the line. Those people will listen to you better than they will listen to us. Please put yourselves, your jobs, and your comfort on the line to stop this for us,\u201d Ypsi resident Jane Wolf said. \u201cGet creative. Tear up the road. Block the road. Break the law. Do whatever you need to do for us. You will be remembered better in history for the job that you did if you can get creative and really put yourselves out there.\u201dJill Warren, the wife of a Methodist pastor, suggested residents brush up on the OSS\u2019 Simple Sabotage Field Manual. \u201cSimply slow things down bureaucratically,” she said. \u201cMake sure we block where we can. Use very slow agendas and response times and do, within your power, the work that you are entitled to do. For those who aren\u2019t familiar with it, please look up the Simple Sabotage Field Manual and use it in your own lives of action as well […] they may not care about us, but we care about us and we\u2019re here and we\u2019ll continue to be here and support the work that you\u2019re doing on our behalf.\u201dAlyssa, an Ypsilanti resident, cited long passages from John Hershey\u2019s Hiroshima\u2014a 1946 book that focused on the victims of the first atomic bombing. \u201cWe don\u2019t need simulations to know what a nuclear strike looks like,\u201d she said. \u201cWe have pictures, videos, and audio of what happens. We know what it does to bodies. We know what it does to children and what it does to life.\u201dBoard supervisor Brend Stumbo vowed to fight. \u201cThis is going to harm our community in our future. We will fight to our very last breath, but we need help. And we need it from the people who have the power to stop things,\u201d she said.Stumbo explained that, early on, she and other members of the board were ignorant about data centers and that she was grateful to the Township\u2019s residents for informing her. \u201cNow we know and we\u2019re thankful for the residents and non-residents that came to our meetings early and told us, \u2018don\u2019t trust UofM,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cWe do not love nor do we appreciate what the board or regents is doing to our community. It needs to stop. And everyone that showed up here today, we greatly appreciate it and we will keep going, like everyone has said, by doing it together [\u2026] I will stand with you. I will fight with you. And I know this entire board and our Township attorney will as well. So let\u2019s keep doing it together.\u201dThe Township has, so far, made good on its word and it\u2019s been creative in its opposition. In April, the board voted to institute a 365 day moratorium on supplying water to data centers so it could conduct a scientific study into how hyper scale data centers might affect the community water supply. In response, UofM threatened to sue and claimed that withholding water from an AI data center meant to power nuclear weapons research was unlawful discrimination. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"