U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock had sharp words for Effingham County officials and OpenAI, which recently announced a $20 billion data center there, calling for a moratorium on similar projects in Georgia unless big tech companies and developers can promise specific economic and environmental protections for residents.
Warnock, who grew up in coastal Georgia, spent part of Friday morning in Guyton, roughly 30 miles northwest of Savannah, slamming county officials and the company behind ChatGPT for a deal that he said was “worked out in the dark, under the cover of night.”
Going forward, he said, no data centers should be built unless developers and others can promise no increase in water and electricity bills for residents, reject the use of non-disclosure agreements and prevent pollution, including noise and light.
“Only when a data center developer can make guarantees on utility rates, on pollution and transparency, should they be allowed to build,” he said. “This is not theoretical stuff for me; I am home.”
Credit: Adam Van Brimmer
Credit: Adam Van Brimmer
Georgia has emerged as a top destination for data centers, and the backlash against them has risen just as quickly. Residents, elected officials in some communities and others have raised concerns about the environmental impacts, which include noise and light pollution and the amount of power and water it takes to operate the facilities.
Gov. Brian Kemp has largely embraced the computing campuses for their economic benefits. Those seeking to succeed Kemp in the governor’s race have differing opinions. Democratic nominee Keisha Lance Bottoms also favors a moratorium, while Republican nominee Rick Jackson has pushed for guardrails to the projects. He wrote in a recent opinion piece in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that local communities should make their own decisions and not be forced to accept data centers if they don’t want them.
OpenAI’s announcement has drawn increased scrutiny because of its sheer size. The 4.4-million-square-foot campus is one of the largest economic development deals in state history. It also will be the state’s single-largest user of electricity, consuming the equivalent of three nuclear reactors at Georgia Power’s Plant Vogtle.
But it was the secretiveness of the deal that has drawn the most ire of residents and others.
“Open AI’s approach to this whole project has been anything but open. It’s been closed,” said Warnock, a Democrat. “How do you bring a multi-billion dollar site to a community and not have a single community hearing?”
For their part, county officials have said OpenAI will bring lower taxes, less traffic and economic diversification to the coastal county near Savannah.
Effingham County Industrial Development Authority CEO Brandt Herndon defended its approach to the deal, known as Project Camellia. He said the authority has a responsibility to balance transparency with the confidentiality that is needed to compete for such economic development projects and protect the public interests.
Credit: Adam Van Brimmer
Credit: Adam Van Brimmer
“Project Camellia was the result of an economic development process involving privately controlled property, negotiations and multiple parties,” Herndon said in a statement emailed to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Since announcing the project, OpenAI has been meeting with residents, local organizations, elected officials and other stakeholders to share information and hear their perspectives, a company spokesperson said.
“We support Senator Warnock’s focus on protecting Georgia families and local communities,” the statement said.
The spokesperson also said OpenAI would pay the “full cost of the electric infrastructure and service required for Project Camellia,” use closed-loop cooling designed to keep ongoing water use low and provide $80 million in community benefits shaped by local input.
Data centers have become a flashpoint in the midterm elections across Georgia and nationwide. Kemp, who is term-limited, has become one of the most vocal defenders of the state’s rapid data center growth, arguing that it is critical to the state’s economic future, as his time in office winds to a close.
Jackson, the Republican nominee and healthcare executive who has invested in a data center in Texas, generally views the large, computer-filled warehouses as an economic opportunity that can lower property taxes and bring other economic advantages for Georgians.
“Data centers must have local support, provide a clear local benefit, pay their own way and meet strong environmental standards,” he said in the AJC op-ed.
Bottoms, his Democratic opponent and a former Atlanta mayor, wants a temporary moratorium on future builds until the full economic and environmental impacts are understood.
In April, U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff told federal energy regulators that his office was investigating the impact of data centers on electricity bills in Georgia and across the country. Rising utility bills in Georgia helped drive voters to flip two seats on the state’s utility regulator last year, placing two Democrats on the five-member panel for the first time in decades.
The Public Service Commission staff on Wednesday approved Georgia Power’s contract to serve OpenAI but not without securing protections from the state’s largest electric company that its non-data center customers won’t be footing the bill for any revenue shortfalls if it — or any other data center — leaves early.
That Georgia Power agreed that it or data center operators will eat the cost of an unfulfilled contract is unprecedented and likely staved off the PSC staff from objecting to the deal.
Executives from Georgia Power and its parent, Southern Co., see data centers as a significant source of revenue, and a dead contract likely would send a negative ripple effect throughout the company’s pipeline of future projects it is aggressively recruiting.
A note of disclosure
This coverage is supported by a partnership with Green South Foundation and Journalism Funding Partners. You can learn more and support our climate reporting by donating at AJC.com/donate/climate.
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