Deep Green: How Would You Vote?

LANSING, Mich. — The Lansing City Council is being asked to approve a permanent land sale and rezoning for the Deep Green data center. If a council member asked to see the evidence behind every promise made about this project, here is what the public record contains.

What was promised and where it is written

Promise	Who said it	Enforceable?
Financial benefits
$900,000/year in property tax for city services	Deep Green CTO Matt Craggs, March 23	No. ~$453,000 captured by the Downtown TIFA. $0 reaches the city general fund for police, fire, roads, or schools.
$1,000,000/year to the city from BWL power sales	Craggs, March 23; Mayor Schor, supplemental budget	Unknown. Based on full 24 MW capacity. Craggs told the Eastside Neighborhood Organization it is "not based on 100% utilisation" and could be $300,000 at reduced capacity. Contract terms are under NDA.
$400,000 for fire department hazmat and rescue	Mayor Schor, March 23; formalized in March 30 budget presentation	In the budget book as a "future allocation" contingent on Deep Green approval, not an appropriation. The revenue it depends on is 5-8 years away per Council Member Kost. Not referred to the Committee on Public Safety.
$400,000 for housing rehabilitation	Mayor Schor, March 23; formalized in March 30 budget presentation	Same status as the fire allocation. Contingent on revenue that does not yet exist from a project that has not been approved.
No local tax incentives or abatements	Craggs, March 23	Yes. In the buy-sell agreement. However, the TIFA captures the city's share of property tax before it reaches the general fund, which functions similarly to an abatement.
Environmental and safety
Fuel cells "do not contain, require the storage of, or generate any toxic chemicals"	Bloom VP Marisa Blackshire, written letter to Council, March 22	Contradicted by public record. Bloom is an EPA-designated Large Quantity Generator of hazardous waste including benzene, chromium, lead, and ignitable waste. EPA fined Bloom $1.16 million for 258 violations at its Delaware facility.
50% reduction in CO2 emissions	Craggs, March 23	Measured against the single dirtiest unit on the regional grid, not the grid average. The fuel cells run on natural gas and produce CO2 continuously. No independent emissions analysis has been presented.
Water usage comparable to a Wendy's restaurant	Craggs, Jan 15 virtual session and Feb 4 ENO meeting	Accounts only for cooling makeup water, not total facility consumption. Deep Green's own website lists both 5,000 and 500,000 gallons on the same page. Not independently verified. Not a binding limit in the buy-sell agreement.
Noise compliance with downtown core limits	Craggs, March 23	No noise study has been conducted. No acoustic modeling, baseline measurement, or mitigation specification appears in any public document. The site is adjacent to 132 residential units (Stadium North Lofts), a mixed-use development under construction, and a 2,000-seat concert venue opening 2027.
Independent environmental impact assessment	Not promised by anyone	None conducted. No air quality modeling, community health assessment, or third-party analysis in the public record for a 16 MW natural gas power facility in a residential urban core.
Design and community commitments
Windows, murals, landscaping, walkable street presence	Craggs, multiple presentations	Not in the buy-sell agreement. Council Member Adam Hussain asked directly; Craggs could not confirm. Legal counsel redirected to site plan review, which is a separate process with no guaranteed outcomes.
Public park on site	Deep Green presentations	Not in the buy-sell agreement.
Union construction labor	Craggs, March 23; UA Local 333 officers testified in support	No Project Labor Agreement has been signed. Craggs said Deep Green is "working towards an agreement" and "committed to signing that before beginning construction." That commitment is not in the buy-sell agreement.
Contract transparency
BWL-Bloom 20-year service contract	Referenced by Craggs, March 23	Under NDA. Council has not seen the performance guarantees, failure remedies, replacement triggers, cost allocation, or hazardous waste provisions. BWL GM Dick Peffley signed the NDA without documented board authorization.
Fuel cell lifespan consistent with 20-year contract	Implied by Deep Green and Bloom presentations	Contradicted by public record. Hindenburg Research documented a 34-month median lifespan for post-2017 Bloom fuel cell stacks. Bloom's 18 MW Delaware installation was decommissioned after approximately 7 years. At $7,000-$8,000/kW, 16 MW represents $112-128 million. Under BWL ownership, replacement costs over 20 years fall on Lansing ratepayers.
Heat reuse for BWL hot water system	Craggs, March 23	Referenced in the BWL agreement, which is under NDA. The heat recovery design, capacity, and delivery mechanism have not been specified as binding requirements in the buy-sell agreement. The steam-to-hot-water conversion that would receive the heat is a separate BWL infrastructure project.

The arguments for approval

Supporters of the project have made several arguments for why council should vote yes. Each is drawn from public testimony at the March 23 hearing, Chamber of Commerce communications, and Deep Green presentations.

Argument	What the record shows
"It's just unused parking lots." The site has sat underutilized for decades. Two prior proposals failed.	The land is city-owned. Its value is the city's to realize on any terms. Approving this project is a permanent transfer for $1.4 million based on a 2023 appraisal. Once sold, the city cannot recover the parcel. No alternative-use study has been conducted, despite $660 million in active investment within blocks of the site. Once sold, the land cannot be recovered.
"$120 million in investment." This is a major private investment in downtown Lansing.	At the Feb 4 ENO meeting, a resident asked whether it was fair to call this a $120 million investment in Lansing "when most of it... the robots are coming from other places." The fuel cells are manufactured by Bloom Energy in California and Delaware. The servers come from global suppliers. Most of the $120 million leaves Lansing. The local spend is construction labor and site work.
"Lansing will be left behind." Other cities are attracting data centers and tech investment. Lansing needs to compete.	Since late 2025, at least 25 Michigan communities have enacted data center moratoria to study impacts before approving projects. Bipartisan state legislation would halt all new permits until April 2027. Washtenaw County adopted a resolution requiring environmental impact assessments and 100% renewable energy before approval. Lansing has not enacted a moratorium or adopted data center-specific zoning standards.
"50+ jobs and union labor." The project creates construction and permanent employment.	Deep Green CTO Matt Craggs told the ENO meeting the facility would create "15 or so" permanent jobs. Construction jobs are temporary. The union labor commitment is verbal; no Project Labor Agreement has been signed. UA Local 333 Business Manager Dustin Howard and Inside Guard Derek Wright, both officers of the union that would benefit from construction, testified in favor. Of six public supporters at the March 23 hearing, five had direct financial or organizational ties to the building trades.
"You can't oppose data centers while using the internet." Opposition is hypocritical because residents benefit from data infrastructure.	Forty-three residents spoke against the project at the March 23 hearing. Their testimony focused on the absence of environmental studies, noise assessments, contract transparency, and binding commitments for this specific project at this specific site.
"Lansing already has the strongest protections of any community." The buy-sell agreement contains binding commitments other cities don't have.	The buy-sell agreement requires DT-3 zoning compliance and groundbreaking within 24 months. It does not require windows, murals, landscaping, a public park, noise mitigation, union labor, heat reuse, specific water limits, or any of the aesthetic and community commitments made in public presentations. The 20-year BWL contract that defines the project's actual operational terms is under NDA. Council has not read it. Communities that enacted moratoria required environmental studies, noise assessments, and binding community benefit agreements before voting.
"The revenue will fund firefighters and housing." The $1 million in BWL return on equity will support essential services.	The mayor introduced this allocation at the same meeting as the public hearing, saying "I apologize, I forgot something." It does not appear in the budget resolution. Council Member Ryan Kost called it a pressure tactic. Council Member Nevarez Martinez caught the administration contradicting itself on whether the hazmat funding was because of the data center. The revenue is 5-8 years away by Kost's estimate. And on April 1, a robotext told residents the money would fund police, streets, and sidewalks, three services that receive $0 under any proposal.

Forty-three Lansing residents spoke against this project at the March 23 public hearing. Six spoke in favor, and five of those six had direct ties to the building trades unions that would benefit from construction. The contract that defines the project's 20-year operational terms has not been shown to the council that is being asked to approve it. No environmental impact assessment, noise study, or independent economic analysis has been conducted. The commitments that were made publicly are not in the buy-sell agreement. The commitments that are in the buy-sell agreement are limited to zoning compliance and a groundbreaking deadline.

If you had this information and this vote, what would you do with it?

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Sources

Every claim in this post links to its primary source. Meeting transcripts: CivicClerk Event 7881 (March 23, 2026 City Council meeting). March 30, 2026 Committee of the Whole (YouTube). January 15 virtual session (YouTube). February 4 ENO meeting (Bellwether PR / Box.com). Ryan Kost, public Facebook statement, March 31, 2026. EPA enforcement: Delaware Business Now (Bloom $1.16M fine). Fuel cell lifespan: Hindenburg Research (September 2019). BWL Amendment No. 8: BWL Committee of the Whole packet, May 13, 2025. Moratoria: WKAR, Planet Detroit, GovTech. Deep Green website water discrepancy: deepgreen.energy/lansing-public-info (archived April 1, 2026). UA Local 333: DOL OLMS, File 541-123.