OpenAI’s charm offensive to win favor among those who live near its proposed $20 billion Georgia data center campus is proving a challenge.
A pledged $85 million in community investment and the promise of a significant reduction in property taxes has not quelled the public outcry against the 4 million-square-foot facility, the state’s largest data center project to date.
Residents have packed town halls and county and state meetings to voice their opposition while U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) and state elected officials have traveled to mostly rural Effingham County, about a 30-minute drive from Savannah’s downtown, to rally on their behalf.
On Monday came the loudest denouncement yet — a lawsuit from the Southern Environmental Law Center, the large Virginia-based environment watchdog known for litigating against developers, utilities and government.
The suit was filed on behalf of five Effingham residents as well as coastal Georgia environmentalist group One Hundred Miles and focuses on the lack of transparency around the OpenAI deal and alleged violations of Georgia sunshine laws meant to guarantee public access to government meetings and records.
The suit seeks to void a memorandum of understanding between OpenAI and the Effingham County Industrial Development Authority and invalidate a property transfer for the future home of the data center. A ruling by an Effingham County Superior Court judge to nullify those agreements could delay and possibly end OpenAI’s bid to construct the facility.
“More broadly, we want to send a message that the Georgia Open Meeting Act and the Georgia Open Records Act are not meaningless process or technicalities but embody the public’s right to know and their right to self-determination and should be followed,” said Zachary Hennessee, a SELC attorney. “We’re seeing data centers pop up that have been negotiated around the state and the public is being shut out.”
Credit: Adam Van Brimmer
Credit: Adam Van Brimmer
The Effingham County Industrial Development Authority and an OpenAI affiliate are the defendants in the lawsuit. Neither has been formally served with the complaint and Brandt Herndon, CEO of the development authority, declined to comment on specifics until given an opportunity to review the filing.
An emailed statement from the development authority said it “remains committed to conducting its business in accordance with applicable laws and to supporting the economic development interests of Effingham County.”
An OpenAI spokesperson declined to comment Monday.
The suit is the second filed against the data center this month. The other named Effingham County commissioners as defendants and alleges the elected officials improperly changed zoning laws to allow data centers. A Savannah-based law firm filed the complaint on behalf of three Effingham residents.
Credit: Adam Van Brimmer
Credit: Adam Van Brimmer
The scope of OpenAI’s data center plan has made it the epicenter of Georgia’s data center debate. The Atlanta area is the national leader in data center development with facilities expected to use 2.88 gigawatts of electricity to power their operations under construction. By contrast, the OpenAI campus is projected to use more energy, 3.2 gigawatts, than all those under-construction facilities combined.
That’s enough electricity to power 2 million homes or all of the New York City borough of Manhattan. The next-largest Georgia data center is a planned 1.8 gigawatt campus in Bartow County.
But the public backlash has centered on the secret dealings that led to OpenAI selecting Georgia and Effingham County for its data center. The recruitment was done without public knowledge with local officials legally prohibited from disclosing information because of nondisclosure agreements.
Warnock cited concerns about the deal being done “in the dark” during a late August visit to Effingham County and transparency issues were mentioned by many of the 18 citizens to challenge the data center plans at a Georgia Public Service Commission meeting last week in Savannah.
A frank comment by a high-profile Effingham development authority board member stoked the firestorm. Eric Johnson, once the highest-ranking member of the Georgia Senate and a 2010 gubernatorial candidate, told a Georgia Public Broadcasting reporter, “If we’d have put it out in front of the public, they’d have said, ‘No data center’ based on misinformation …”
Johnson’s statement was cited in the second paragraph of the SELC lawsuit and suggests a “particularly galling lack of respect for Georgia’s transparency laws,” said the SELC’s Hennessee. Contacted Monday about the quote, Johnson declined further comment.
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