Sierra Club of Georgia calls for statewide moratorium on data centers

The Sierra Club of Georgia is calling on Georgia lawmakers to pass a statewide moratorium on data centers as more projects get announced across the state.

Georgia has more than 200 data center facilities across the state, making it the fastest-growing market for development in the country.

Sierra Club organizers have raised concerns about the impact the facilities have on daily costs, raising utility bills by more than $500 annually for the average Georgia household.

Adrien Webber is the director of the Georgia chapter of the Sierra Club. He said transparency has been an issue with past development deals.

“By the time it gets in front of a council or a county commission, the cake is kind of already baked. We have a real concern with that from a local democracy perspective, obviously from environmental perspective,” Webber said.

Critics of a moratorium argue that data centers provide an economic boon for many communities and want limitations on development to be made at the local level.

A recent poll from Science for Georgia found that 75% of people in the state are at least somewhat concerned about data center development regardless of their political leanings.

“We need to take a pause. The people of Georgia are extremely upset about these. We have people from all political sizes, stripes, backgrounds coming to our local events about data centers, and nobody wants these things,” Webber said.

Local governments in Georgia have passed more than 60 data center moratoriums that range from months to yearlong pauses.