Georgia lawmakers weigh limits on data centers amid growing local backlash

Georgia lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have turned their attention to data centers as the state becomes one of the country’s top markets for the industry.

However, residents have turned a sharp eye towards data centers citing pollution and utility usage as a main deterrent.

“That could easily be a decade worth of construction and noise and dust coming, you know, right through those windows into my home,” said Margo Kenirey, who successfully fought a 900-acre data center proposal in Bolingbroke last year, to 13 WMAZ.

While lawmakers, like state Sen. Matt Brass, R-Newnan, are interested in limiting tax incentives, others, like state Sen. Chuck Hufstetler, R-Rome, want to focus on protecting consumers on utility costs. Still legislators across the aisle, like state Rep. Ruwa Romman, D-Duluth, want to put a pause on data centers altogether. 

Here are some of the bills going through the General Assembly:

• Senate Bill 410 would repeal future tax incentives while still honoring any exemptions before the law took effect.
• Senate Bill 34 would allow Georgia Power to charge data centers for any costs that relate to serving the facility.
• House Bill 1012 would place a statewide moratorium on data center development until March 1, 2027.
• House Bill 528 would require public disclosure of utility use by data centers.

“In reality, data centers are a new thing, and people are having to learn them,” said Eric Dial, a Monroe County resident who lives near a proposed Forsyth project, to 13 WMAZ. “So the moratorium may be a good thing for people to learn about them, learn what they are, what they do, and what they’re able to bring in.”

A December audit found that Georgia has lost at least $1.5 billion in tax revenue since the state’s sales and use tax exemption began.

Kenirey told 13 WMAZ that these corporations can take advantage of counties and towns that do not have written procedures to handle data centers.

“But when it actually spills over outside of your industrial park and then is disturbing established houses, neighborhoods, I don’t really understand how that’s right,” she said.