DTE Energy filed a $474.3M rate-increase request, with a conditional commitment to pause subsequent rate-increase requests for two years if the 1.4 GW Oracle/OpenAI 'The Barn' Saline Township campus energizes by 2027 and DTE wins other unspecified data center approvals. Michigan AG Dana Nessel: 'This isn't a commitment, it's a ransom note.' MPSC conditionally approved the underlying DTE/Oracle contracts in December via ex parte process, drawing NRDC + Sierra Club intervention.
Primary source · Bridge Detroit ↗
Why it matters
Negative-result data point for the cost-allocation template wave: DTE is structurally tying a hyperscaler campus to ratepayer relief in the *opposite* direction from VA / OK / IN — instead of making the hyperscaler pay its own share, DTE is asking ratepayers to subsidize via rate increases now in exchange for *future* relief contingent on the data center actually energizing on time. This is the structure NRDC/Sierra Club already flagged in the November 2025 Michigan PSC contested case (referenced in ai-paperwork-automation-loop-log.md). Worth a new entry on byog-byong-state-patchwork.md showing the MI structure as a counter-example. Also relevant for hyperscaler-lease-vs-build.md — the contractual ability to *delay* energization in a take-or-pay world is itself a financial structuring question.
Related filings
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