This op-ed originally ran in Crain’s Detroit Business on June 18, 2026.
The AI Boom Doesn’t Have to Resurrect Fossil Fuels. The Midwest Can Show the Way
By Gary W. Dorris, PhD, Kerry C. Duggan, Jigar Shah, and James L. Connaughton.
Hope for a better future is deeply American and led us to the forefront of modernization. Each step forward exemplifies the dare to dream for a better tomorrow, paving a path for innovations from internet to smart phones to artificial intelligence. This arc of information technology has brought us to a familiar crossroads, where data centers emerge as the next critical infrastructure of thriving communities, alongside the water, energy, transportation and communications infrastructure that makes modern society viable.
The artificial intelligence transformation parallels the industrial revolution by requiring abundant, readily available and affordable new energy supply. A recent report in The Wall Street Journal highlighted a troubling development: the necessary energy demands of the tech sector are keeping aging, dirty fossil fuel plants online longer, because we are not yet able to develop new supply at the pace of demand. While critics argue that the transition to a clean energy future is being stalled by this promising innovation, the reality is that we need the innovation of AI to drive innovation in energy and other critical infrastructure. The AI revolution will not come at the expense of our objectives for community health and environmental protection. It will help deliver it.
The prospect of data center development in the Midwest presents a vital and imminent choice. Either we push back against the inevitable and accept stagnation. Or we enable, accelerate and reap the compounding benefits of data center development in accordance with high standards of community health and environmental protections that catalyze local revitalization.
The American dream is based on growth, change, and adaptation to innovation. So what is holding us back? Fear. Opponents decry the danger of data centers the same as those who came before to oppose the arrival of computers, automobiles, airplanes and factory automation. Rumors of grid instability, excessive water consumption and job losses are abundant. While understandable, none of this is a concern when we do this right. We can get this right, but need to stop assuming we will do it wrong.
We are working on a national model of regenerative data center development that will enhance and accelerate the transition to energy that is affordable, reliable and clean. Regenerative data centers will take full advantage of the multi-trillion dollar AI demand signal to replace and build new digital and clean energy infrastructure in ways that zero out emissions, water consumption, waste water, refrigerant use, and even noise.
The regenerative data center model will employ self and shared generation options to realize the need for speed to power without adding congestion to grid. Additional approaches such as Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) will add value to other users of the grid, by shifting demand from peak hours to off peak hours, increasing grid utilization by 5% to 10%, thereby lowering the shared costs of the grid for everyone. BESS also eliminates the noise and emissions associated with back-up diesel generation.
Public water supply and wastewater management resources will be fully protected simply by using the kind of closed loop water cooling systems that the Mid-West already has more than a century of experience using and are operate akin to a car radiator. Such systems have the added benefit of greater energy efficiency, silent operation, and elimination of the need for water treatment.. Because such systems are located wholly inside the data center, they also give architects much greater flexibility for visually appealing designs that are landscape friendly for both brownfield and greenfield locations. Any residual visual impairment or noise readily addressed through large property offsets and green barriers.
Most importantly, communities supporting regenerative data centers will receive tens or even hundred of millions of dollars in property and energy taxes, hundreds of family wage construction and operations jobs, and an accelerator to new investment and job growth that the cleanest, most modern, and most powerful digital infrastructure can support.
The regenerative data center model gives far more than it takes. That’s the point. With thoughtful design and community consideration, data centers become the engines of the local economy just as our automobile factories and highway infrastructure unleashed local, regional, and national growth.
In the Midwest, Michigan is currently locked in a fierce competitive landscape, often losing ground to neighboring states like Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois despite having compelling advantages. We can stay stagnant in the dark, resist the inevitable, and deny ourselves the possibility of a better tomorrow. Or we can go back to the future, and invest once again invest in the dream of a better future.
Gary W. Dorris, PhD, is the Co-Founder & CEO of Lighthouse Sustainability and brings decades of experience in grid operations, resource planning, and clean power generation.
Kerry C. Duggan is a former climate advisor in the Obama-Biden White House and is currently an appointee to the Michigan Council on Climate Solutions.
Jigar Shah is a Co-Managing Partner of Multiplier and a prominent expert in clean energy scaling and sustainable infrastructure, recently participating in a live roundtable on AI infrastructure sustainability.
James L. Connaughton is the CEO of JLC Strategies LLC and former Chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality under President George W. Bush. He is a globally recognized expert in the intersection of technology, energy, and policy, specializing in sustainable data center infrastructure.