...requirements for data centers to generate their own renewable energy...
By definition, a data center runs 24/7, 365.24 days per year.
So called "renewable energy" um, doesn't. It's widely reported that the sun goes down every night, and near the solstice, which we happen to be experiencing right now, sunrise in Lansing Michigan is at 8:05 in the morning, sunset 5:08 pm, minutes over 9 hiours, with much of that time indirect light, assuming there's no snow covering the solar cells.
The reason that we can't live without turning out the lights and cutting all other demands without fossil fuels is because we lie to ourselves by saying unreliable energy is the only acceptable form of energy.
This makes us look like fools. Would Governor Whitmer be popular and electable if she announced that "by 2040" if the State is not powered by 100% "renewable energy," no one will have power until the sun shines and the wind blows?
There is reliable carbon free energy available. Governor Whitman supports it. It's nuclear energy.
She initiated the reopening of the Palisades Nuclear Plant.
Thus she is doing more to address climate than the fucking Sierra Club, the Club that thinks every fucking wilderness on the planet should be torn to pieces for wind and solar crap. (John Muir would vomit to see this modern pro-development "club." )
In fact, she's doing more than the "journalists" at "Inside Climate News" a "news" organization that thinks so called "renewable energy" can be chanted into viability.
It can't. It won't be.
She, Governor Whitman, and I are both Democrats who embrace a sense of reality. She is doing her part to de-demonize the only realistic solution to address the climate. That is nuclear energy. Decade after decade after decade of chanting "Renewable energy!!! Renewable Energy!!! Renewable Energy" has left the fossil fuel industry in command of the world energy supply and as a result, the planet in flames. And let's be clear, so called "renewable energy" was never about attacking fossil fuels. It was, is, and always will be about attacking nuclear energy, it's only success. It is therefore unsurprising to see the "renewable energy" chanting squad attacking the Governor as if she doesn't give a shit.
On the contrary, she not only cares, she's doing something about it.
In fact, if there are any people driving the climate crisis now expressed by extremely unstable weather, I think the "renewable energy will save us" crowd ought to invest in mirrors if they want to understand the cause of this disaster: The demonization of nuclear energy.