HOUGHTON -- Displaying their signs to oncoming traffic near Veterans' Memorial Park in Houghton, a lively group of concerned residents rallied in solidarity with the statewide Michigan demonstrations against data centers on Friday, April 10. These events were a protest against Big Tech corporate-owned data centers with AI servers multiplying across the state and expanding even into the Upper Peninsula, where they threaten to invade the sensitive natural environment.
These huge developments threaten water supplies, raise energy demand and electricity bills, extend fossil fuel and nuclear energy use at a time of climate crisis, emit pollutants into the air and create harmful electronic waste, threaten jobs by replacing workers with more AI, and devour sensitive personal data.*
As participants gathered across from Veterans' Memorial Park in Houghton, Rich Canevez, a member of Keweenaw Indivisible's leadership team, accepted an invitation from organizers, Michigan United Action and Keweenaw Against the Oligarchy (KATO), to open the rally.
Speaking of his own love for the natural beauty of the Keweenaw, Rich Canevez of the Keweenaw Indivisible leadership team, opens the April 10, 2026, rally against data centers in Houghton, MI, in solidarity with the statewide event. (Video by Keweenaw Now)Canevez spoke briefly of the fact that these huge data centers threaten the water, land, life style and natural beauty of communities. He then introduced two speakers from the recently formed Northern Michigan Alliance for Responsible Development (NMARD) -- Nolan Wright and Emma Goodman.
Nolan Wright, mathematics student at Michigan Tech University and Student Organizer with NMARD, addressed the crowd, citing both environmental and economic costs of data centers -- their effects on water supplies, air quality, land use, electricity, infrastructure and (reduced) job opportunities.
During the April 10, 2026, Anti Data Center rally in Houghton, Nolan Wright, mathematics student at Michigan Tech University and Student Organizer with Northern Michigan Alliance for Responsible Development, speaks about the high costs associated with data centers. (Video by Keweenaw Now)Emma Goodman, of Saline, MI, where a huge data center has been proposed for the township, spoke to rally participants about the challenges to towns and townships where residents oppose data center development.
During the April 10, 2026, Houghton, MI, Anti Data Center rally, Emma Goodman speaks to participants about a Michigan community that lost its fight against such a center and another that won. She urges the crowd to organize and resist data centers by communicating their views to local officials, state legislators and the governor. (Video by Keweenaw Now)The Northern Michigan Alliance for Responsible Development (NMARD), begun this year, has organized and participated in multiple township meetings across the Upper Peninsula, educating townships on local ordinances that could protect them. To date they have provided training to over 250 Yoopers on the risks and impacts of data centers and cryptomines and are currently building up their organizing strength around this issue.
The organizers of the April 10 rally in Houghton -- Lexi Tater, Up North Advocacy (UNA) Community Organizer, and Audrey Gerard, Michigan United Action Northern Regional Manager -- are starting a hub of NMARD in the Keweenaw to draft these ordinances and moratoriums in order to bring them to local level governance.
"We formed around Big Tech issues in northern Michigan, but in pursuing that we realized there's a larger picture of what is 'responsible development,'" Tater told Keweenaw Now.
Gerard added, "Not only are data centers a hazard to the environment and a nuisance to their neighbors, they are also something the people, by and large, do not want! Yet DTE was able to get a bill passed, giving them major tax breaks to supply energy to data centers. How? It couldn't possibly have to do with the $100 million they gave in political spending. We are collecting signatures for a Michiganders for Money Out of Politics (MMOP) petition that will help clean up this corporate money and put the power back in the voters' hands! Find a circulator near you to sign the petition, or volunteer to circulate at https://mopupmichigan.org!"**
During the rally, Tater spoke to participants about joining the NMARD hub and signing the MMOP petition.***
During the April 10, 2026, Anti Data Center rally in Houghton, MI, Lexi Tater, co-founder of Keweenaw Against the Oligarchy and community organizer for Up North Advocacy, speaks to rally participants on what they can do to help keep data centers out of the Keweenaw. (Video by Keweenaw Now)While some participants signed the petition, local resident Chaundel, disguised as the Grim Reaper, led some chants as a warm-up for the walk to the Portage Lift Bridge.
As participants in the April 10, 2026, rally against Data Centers prepare to walk to the Portage Lift Bridge in order to display their signs to oncoming traffic, Chaundel, dressed as the Grim Reaper, leads them in chants against data centers. (Video by Keweenaw Now)
As the rally participants prepared to walk to the Bridge, Keweenaw Now noticed a Democratic candidate for the Michigan First District US Congressional seat, Kyle Blomquist, was present. Valorie Troesch of the Houghton County Dems interviewed Blomquist about his campaign.
Participants in the rally, displaying their signs, then walked peacefully to line the Portage Lift Bridge. Many passing drivers honked their horns to show support.
Participants in the April 10, 2026, rally against data centers walk toward the Portage Lift Bridge, where they will display their signs and posters to oncoming traffic. (Video by Keweenaw Now)Participants in the April 10 rally continue their walk toward the Portage Lift Bridge. (Video by John Peiffer for Keweenaw Now)
Some of the signs displayed during the rally and walk were created during a poster-making session held earlier in the week.
The Sierra Club Michigan Chapter, has said the following about data centers in Michigan:
"Big tech companies are flocking to Michigan with their data center projects for a few key reasons. Our Great Lakes offer an abundance of water and a cooler climate that lowers operating costs, as well as an abundance of land near major infrastructure. Perhaps most enticing to these companies, however, are the generous tax incentives in Michigan that are aimed at attracting large-scale development. As hype for artificial-intelligence technology and cloud-computing drive explosive demand for energy-intensive data centers nationwide, companies are looking beyond saturated coastal markets to Midwest states like Michigan that can accommodate rapid growth. This surge is driven by infrastructure and cost advantages -- not by local demand -- and raises important questions about energy use, utility costs, and long-term public benefit."
The Sierra Club Michigan Chapter has a petition calling for a temporary moratorium on all large-scale data center approvals until Michigan has a comprehensive state plan that ensures these projects will not harm our environment, our communities, or Michigan ratepayers. (Click here to learn more and sign the petition.)
Bernie and AOC propose legislation
On March 25, 2026, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) announced the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Data Center Moratorium Act, legislation that would enact a reasonable pause to the development of AI to ensure the safety of humanity.
The AI Data Center Moratorium Act of 2026 would institute an immediate federal moratorium on AI data centers until strong national safeguards are in place to ensure the following:
- AI is safe and effective -- preventing executives in the AI industry from releasing harmful products into the world that threaten the health and well-being of working families, our privacy and civil rights and the future of humanity.
- The economic gains of AI and robotics will benefit workers, not just the wealthy owners of Big Tech.
- AI does not increase electricity or utility prices, harm communities or destroy the environment.
Additionally, this bill will stop a global race to see which country is the first to eliminate hundreds of millions of jobs, or the first to build an AI that destroys the planet. It accomplishes this by banning U.S. exports of AI computing infrastructure to countries that do not have safeguards in place to guarantee AI is safe and effective, workers are protected and AI does not harm the environment.
Editor's Notes:
* See: "The Top 10 Reasons Data Centers Must be Stopped," in Food and Water Watch.
Tell your members of Congress: No New Data Centers! Pass the AI Data Center Moratorium Act.
** 356,958 valid signatures within 180 days are needed to get the MMOP proposal on the November 2026 ballot so voters can weigh in. Whether you want to sign the petition or collect signatures, there is room for you in the movement to get money out of politics! CLICK HERE to take action.
*** If you wish to join the local hub of the Northern Michigan Alliance for Responsible Development (NMARD), you can email Lexi Tater at Lexi@upnorthadvocacy.org or Audrey Gerard at Agerard@miunited.org.
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