Datacenters Done Right – The Story of the Benton Charter Township Datacenter Ordinance
Robert Hipple, CAFE Board of Directors & Regina Hipple
Benton Charter Township is well known as a peaceful, rural community in the southwest corner of Eaton County, Michigan. Home to 5,400 residents, it contains the quaint sleeper community of the City of Potterville, the beautiful Fox Park pond and trails, countless acres of rolling farmland and is next-door neighbors with the City of Charlotte. Up the road a ways lies the bustling Megalopolis of Lansing, Okemos and East Lansing. Our township is quiet and serene, and that is precisely its charm - that is why we choose to live here.
June 2026: Dates & Links
Dates to keep in mind:
-
May 9: World Migratory Bird Day (Lansing): https://tinyurl.com/22rcydt7
-
May 13: Sierra Club Michigan Lobby Day 2026 (Lansing): https://tinyurl.com/33y8ht2n
-
May 14: Michigan Energy Summit 2026 (Lansing): https://michiganbattleofthebuildings.org/mes/
-
May 15-18: Great Lakes Small Modular Nuclear Reactor Summit (SW Michigan): https://www.dontwastemichigan.org/SMNR/SMNR-Summit-Flier-April-22.pdf
-
June 2: Health Professional Advocacy Day on Clean Energy Solutions (Lansing): https://tinyurl.com/39sjzp2d
-
June 12: Michigan Climate Summit (East Lansing): https://tinyurl.com/5843xysn
-
June 28: 2026 Conservation Carnival (Lansing): https://tinyurl.com/58h5yjhe
Links to organizations and information resources:
-
Data Centers Are Hogging This Town’s Water: https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/data-centers-are-hogging-town-s-water?id=701Po00001k7v3TIAQ
-
Citizens Climate Lobby: https://citizensclimatelobby.org/chapters/MI_Lansing/
-
No data center in Lansing after Deep Green withdraws plans: https://tinyurl.com/4982kkpw
-
AI bubble: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_bubble
-
Distributed Energy Can Unleash the Resilient, Affordable Grid of the Future: https://tinyurl.com/mrzsx64b
-
Trump’s attempt to crush clean energy progress not going to plan, experts say: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/28/trump-clean-energy-progress
-
State of the Climate: https://tinyurl.com/3ptah8c5
-
Last year was hot. Next year will be even hotter: https://tinyurl.com/mr3wr8n3
-
Santa Marta: Ministers grapple with practicalities of fossil fuel phase-out: https://tinyurl.com/34jye6p6
-
Santa Marta: Key outcomes from first summit on ‘transitioning away’ from fossil fuels https://tinyurl.com/3e5f69db
