Fact-Checking the Mayor's Deep Green Letter

LANSING, Mich. — On April 1, Mayor Andy Schor published a letter to Lansing residents asking them to support the Deep Green data center "based on true information rather than misinformation." The letter makes specific, checkable claims, and the public record has something to say about each one.

"Sustainability groups are saying that the conditions that Lansing insisted on should be replicated." Undisclosed conflict

The group Schor cites is Accelerator for America. Andy Schor has been a member of AFA's Advisory Council since August 2019, which means he is citing an organization he belongs to rather than an independent endorsement.

AFA was founded in 2017 by then-Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti while he was exploring a presidential bid. The organization's first meeting was in South Bend, Indiana and its second in Columbia, South Carolina, both early primary states. It was seeded with $500,000 from the national carpenters union, which had given over $1 million to Garcetti-aligned campaigns. AFA's co-founder and first CEO, Rick Jacobs, was later forced out after multiple sexual harassment allegations from LAPD officers and city employees who said the conduct occurred in Garcetti's presence. Jacobs received $215,000 in consulting payments from the carpenters union after the harassment lawsuit was filed. AFA transitioned leadership in 2022 and currently has a four-star Charity Navigator rating.

AFA's infrastructure program is funded by Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners, which is backed by Alphabet, Google's parent company. SIP launched a data center subsidiary called Verrus in 2024 that is building a 1.8 million square foot data center complex in Oakland County, Michigan. AFA's lobbying arm is funded by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Business Roundtable, and the Global Infrastructure Investor Association, and none of this is disclosed in Schor's letter or in the AFA article.

The AFA article describes Deep Green as building "data centers for AI and high-performance computing." Schor's letter says the facility is "for cloud storage only, not AI." The organization he is citing describes the project differently than he does.

"Fuel cells also do not contain, require the storage of, or generate any toxic chemicals." False

This is a word-for-word repetition of a false claim made by Bloom Energy VP Marisa Blackshire in her March 22 letter to Council. Bloom Energy is designated by the EPA as a Large Quantity Generator of hazardous waste, including benzene, chromium, lead, and ignitable waste. The EPA fined Bloom $1.16 million in December 2020 for 258 hazardous waste manifest violations at its Newark, Delaware facility, including 225 shipments to a non-permitted receiving facility. In a separate federal case, Bloom told a waste contractor its canister contents were nonhazardous; independent testing revealed benzene.

The mayor characterizes his letter as "facts" versus "misinformation" and includes a claim that the EPA's own enforcement record contradicts.

"Water usage will be equivalent to many businesses, or 5-10 homes." Misleading

Deep Green's own website lists both "less than 5,000 gallons per year" and "500,000" gallons on the same page (archived April 1, 2026). Deep Green CTO Matt Craggs told the March 23 Council meeting the figure was "less than 500,000 gallons." The water claim accounts only for cooling system makeup water, not total facility consumption including the desulfurization process that generates the hazardous waste Bloom's VP said doesn't exist. The figure has not been independently verified and is not a binding limit in the buy-sell agreement.

"Electric rates will not go up as a result of this data center." Unverifiable

The BWL-Deep Green power purchase agreement and the Bloom service contract are both under NDA. No council member or member of the public has reviewed the terms that would determine whether this claim is true. BWL GM Dick Peffley signed the NDA without documented board authorization. If fuel cells degrade faster than projected (Hindenburg Research documented a 34-month median lifespan for post-2017 Bloom stacks, against a 20-year contract), replacement costs fall on BWL as the fuel cell owner. Whether those costs are passed to ratepayers depends on contract terms no one outside BWL and Deep Green has seen.

"We are estimated to receive $1 million per year... for our fire service, for housing rehabilitation... facade repairs, and neighborhood grants." Misleading

At the February 4 Eastside Neighborhood Organization meeting, Deep Green CTO Matt Craggs said the $1 million figure is "not based on 100% utilisation of that 24 megawatts" and could be as low as $300,000 at reduced capacity. Council Member Ryan Kost called the budget inclusion a "pressure tactic" and said the actual revenue timeline is five to eight years, not the 18 months presented at the budget meeting.

The spending categories in this letter do not match prior versions: on March 23, Schor proposed fire, housing, facades, and neighborhoods; on March 30, his budget director added homeless shelter operations; and in this letter, Schor adds "parking system" and "downtown development." On the same day, a robotext sent to Lansing residents through the same advocacy platform the Lansing Chamber links to claimed the money would fund "police, fire, streets, and sidewalks." The list of services this $1 million is supposed to fund has changed every time someone has stated it.

"We will receive $200,000 in taxes per year which will go towards paying off the Lansing Center quicker... as well as another $600,000 per year which go to other taxing jurisdictions." Misleading

This is the first time the mayor has given specific numbers for the TIFA capture. At the March 23 meeting, when Council Member Ryan Kost asked how much property tax goes to the TIFA, Schor said "about $200,000." A millage-rate calculation using the LEAP assessed value shows the actual city capture is closer to $274,000, with total TIFA capture of approximately $453,000.

Throughout December, January, February, and March, the administration and Deep Green presented this revenue as "$900,000 in annual property tax revenue for city services like roads, public safety, schools, libraries and more." Now Schor concedes that $200,000 goes to the TIFA for Lansing Center debt, and $600,000 goes to taxing jurisdictions that are not the city. The headline property tax figure that anchored four months of public presentations does not fund city services.

"This is for a data center for cloud storage only, not AI." Unverifiable

Nothing in the buy-sell agreement restricts the facility's use to non-AI workloads. Cloud computing and AI computing use the same physical infrastructure. If the tenant mix changes or the building is sold, there is no enforceable mechanism preventing AI workloads. And the AFA article Schor cites in the same letter describes Deep Green as building "data centers for AI and high-performance computing."

"The noise will be no louder than the water plant or highway." Unverifiable

No noise study has been conducted for the proposed site. No acoustic modeling, baseline measurement, or mitigation specification appears in any public document or in the buy-sell agreement. The site is adjacent to 132 residential units, a mixed-use development under construction, and a 2,000-seat concert venue opening in 2027. Deep Green CTO Matt Craggs described enclosures and attenuation verbally at the March 23 hearing, but those specifications are not binding.

"Those truly concerned should throw out their smart phones and computers." Logical fallacy

This is a tu quoque fallacy: "you use technology, therefore you cannot criticize this technology project." It is deployed against data center opposition nationwide, not just in Lansing. It appears in social media comment sections, at public hearings, and in industry talking points wherever communities push back on data center proposals. The mayor of Lansing is now making it in an official letter on the city's website.

The argument works by collapsing a specific objection into a general hypocrisy so the specific objection never has to be answered. Opposing a natural gas power plant on public downtown land next to residential housing is not the same as opposing electricity. Forty-three Lansing residents spoke against this project at the March 23 public hearing, asking for environmental impact assessments, noise studies, contract transparency, and binding community commitments. Telling residents they should abandon modern technology to earn the right to question a $120 million project in their neighborhood is a way of avoiding those concerns rather than addressing them.

"If we don't pass... the BWL converting from steam to hot water... will be bonded and the ratepayers will have to pay... Wentworth Park downtown would need to house a new hot water plant." Misleading

The BWL steam-to-hot-water conversion was presented to the BWL Board of Commissioners on September 9, 2025 by Ever-Green Energy as a completely standalone project, with zero mention of Deep Green, waste heat, data centers, or fuel cells in the presentation. The conversion plan predates the Deep Green announcement (November 5, 2025) and is already under construction per Schor's own letter ("recently broke ground for the project earlier this month").

Schor is telling residents that a pre-existing BWL infrastructure project that was planned and started without Deep Green will somehow burden ratepayers and consume a public park if the data center vote fails. The conversion is happening regardless, and whether Deep Green's waste heat eventually supplements it is a separate question from whether ratepayers will be bonded for the infrastructure.

"The agreement between the BWL and Deep Green guarantees these revenues to Lansing for the duration of the contract." Unverifiable

The agreement is under NDA. Schor is asking residents to trust his characterization of a document the public has not been allowed to read.

The letter's closing

Schor ends with a list of what Lansing "won't have" if the project fails: fire department funding, housing money, Pennies for Power, tax revenues. He then warns that the data center will be built elsewhere "without many of the benefits" and that BWL ratepayers will bear infrastructure costs.

Lansing funds police, fire, roads, housing, and neighborhoods through property tax, income tax, and state revenue sharing, the same way every city in Michigan does and has done for decades. Why is the mayor telling residents these services depend on approving a data center?

Sources

Mayor Schor letter, lansingmi.gov, April 1, 2026. Accelerator for America article, Caitlin Shearer, January 7, 2026. AFA Advisory Council: acceleratorforamerica.org/who-we-are/. Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners: sidewalkinfra.com. Verrus data center: Crain's Detroit. AFA Action funders: acceleratorforamerica.org/afa-action. AFA IRS 990 (EIN 82-1702618): ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer. EPA enforcement (Bloom $1.16M fine): Delaware Business Now. Blackshire letter: CivicClerk Event 7881, civic_item_29568. Deep Green website water discrepancy: deepgreen.energy/lansing-public-info (archived April 1, 2026). ENO meeting recording: Bellwether PR / Box.com. BWL steam conversion: BWL COW packet, September 9, 2025. Kost statement: Facebook, March 31, 2026. Hindenburg Research: "Bloom Energy: A Broken Bloom," September 2019. March 23 City Council meeting: CivicClerk Event 7881. TIFA capture: calculated from Ingham County millage rates per MCL 125.4301.