lDatacenters in several states are considering passing laws that would impose statewide bans on the construction of new datacenters as the issue of power-hungry facilities moves to the center of economic and environmental concerns in the US.
A state lawmaker in Georgia has introduced a bill proposing what could be the first statewide ban on new datacenters in the US. The bill is one of at least three statewide moratoriums on datacenters introduced in state legislatures last week maryland And oklahoma Lawmakers are also considering similar measures.
But it is Georgia that is fast becoming ground zero in the fight against the uncontrolled growth of datacenters – which are notorious for using huge amounts of energy and water – as they power the emerging industry of artificial intelligence.
The Georgia bill seeks to halt all such projects until March next year “to give officials at the state, county and municipal level time to set the policies necessary to regulate datacenters that … permanently alter the landscape of our state,” said state Democratic Assemblyman Ruva Romain, the bill sponsor.
This comes as the Public Service Commission of Georgia – the agency that oversees utility company Georgia Power – just last month A plan to provide an additional 10 gigawatts of energy in the coming years was approved. This was the largest amount of electricity sought for the multi-year plan in the Commission’s history, which was powered by datacentres and will be supplied mostly by fossil fuels.
The 10-gigawatt plan – enough to power about 8.3 million homes – in turn comes as the Atlanta metro area led the nation Datacenter under construction in 2024.
This accelerated growth has already prompted at least 10 Georgia municipalities to pass their own moratoriums on datacenter construction, with the Atlanta suburb of Roswell becoming the most recent. earlier this month. Municipalities in at least 14 states have done the same, according to Tech Policy Press.
Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent democratic socialist from Vermont, proposed a national moratorium. Last month.
“What we’re seeing is that communities are learning more about the presence of this invasive industry… (they) want time to fully investigate all the potential harms,” said Seth Gladstone, a spokesman for the Food and water monitoring.
The massive development of datacenters to power AI raises many concerns for residents and workers alike. Firstly, they have an impact on the price of electricity. “In the public’s mind, datacenters and utility bills are inextricably linked,” said Charles Hua, founder and executive director of Datacenter. power lines, An organization that works on reducing utility bills and involving communities in decisions about energy.
Hua said the relationship between the two varies, depending on each state’s market and regulatory system. In Georgia, he said, the Georgia Power utility company makes a profit on new capital investments – so it has an incentive to continue building new power plants. This approach has caused Georgia’s rates to increase by one-third in just the last several years. Meanwhile, he said, the power company doesn’t have an incentive to make the electrical grid more efficient — which “could actually drive down prices,” Hua said.
But datacenter concerns in Georgia also include water use and lost tax revenue. Republicans in the state legislature have introduced legislation this year protect consumers From increases in their utility bills eliminate tax exemptions For centres. A Democrat has proposed capping how much datacenters would be made public. energy and water They use every year.
Romain is also running for governor. If elected, she would become the first Palestinian American elected to statewide office in Georgia and break the Republican hold on the office for nearly a quarter century.
his bill, HB 1012There is a Republican co-sponsor in state Representative Jordan Ridley, who said he signed the measure because he wanted to give local governments time to develop zoning rules on datacenters, because “it seems like they’re being created all over the state”.
“Every local government has zoning codes and…they require public input. That takes time,” Ridley said. Also, Ridley said, “Datacenters… provide tax revenue and high-paying jobs. I’m not against datacenters.”
Romain’s bill is not just a policy proposal; It is also a political one. In a statement, he wrote that the postponement would “provide time for Georgians to vote on the majority of seats on the Public Service Commission that make final decisions on energy-related projects”.
Georgia is one of 10 states that elect their own utility regulators. State voters in November elected progressive Democrats Alicia Johnson and Peter Hubbard to the five-member commission, causing the agency to lose its all-Republican makeup for the first time in nearly two decades. Voting on one more seat is to be held this November.
The calculation: If the commission becomes majority-Democratic, it won’t rubber stamp Georgia Power’s electricity demands driven by tech companies wanting to build datacenters.
Hubbard, now in his new position, recently wrote an editorial Claiming that Georgia voters “see data centers receiving tax breaks as their electric bills rise. They see local communities struggling with competition for water supplies and high voltage transmission lines that drive down property values. And they see how the PSC has approved every request put before it by a monopoly electric utility.
“That’s why opposition to data centers is growing in Georgia; because Georgians oppose being treated as collateral damage from the unregulated growth of data centers that will drive up their electricity bills even higher.”
Romain’s bill has another political implication. Paul Glaze, Spokesperson georgia conservation voterSaid that if the bill passes from the House to the Senate, “it could be a preview of a possible general election later this year”.
“The question is, in the communities where datacenters are coming, who will voters trust to get their support?” Glaze said. “Anyone serious about running for statewide office should have a clear position on this.”
