Georgia lawmakers must put residents’ needs above data center and AI profits

Across Georgia, from metro Atlanta to Valdosta to Albany, residents are facing rising power bills linked to these massive utility developments.

Projects are moving forward with limited clarity about what they will ultimately mean for our communities and our monthly expenses. It is encouraging to see lawmakers beginning to respond. Several ratepayer protection bills have been proposed, including House Bill 1063, which would ensure that the costs of new infrastructure to serve data centers are borne by the data centers themselves, not shifted onto households.

That acknowledgment matters because it shows growing agreement that rising power bills are a real concern for Georgians, sparking a flood of legislation this legislative session. But transparency and cost-shifting protections, while vital, do not address the full picture of what our communities are risking. I know this because I’ve seen what happens when industry is prioritized over people.

Ratepayers could be left holding the bag without protections

Credit: Handout

Credit: Handout

My family’s history is tied to the Long Island plume — a 4.3-mile-long, 2.1-mile-wide, 900-foot-deep toxic legacy that has poisoned groundwater for decades.

I’ve witnessed the generational consequences of environmental decisions made in a boardroom, far from the communities forced to live with them. And more recently, I watched the coal ash response in Juliette, Georgia — a crisis documented by PBS — unfold as a property taxpayer and voter who understood that someone was going to be left holding the bag. It was never the corporation.

Now, we are told that new infrastructure is being built based on projections of future data center demand. The core concern from lawmakers is that Georgia Power’s demand projections will prove inaccurate, leading the company to build excess capacity and then pass on the costs to customers like us.

If that demand does not materialize, we could be left subsidizing projects that were built anyway. Either way, without stronger protections, everyday Georgians — seniors on fixed incomes, young families, people with disabilities — are left carrying the burden.

I see data centers proposed without rigorous oversight — without guarantees that communities won’t be left with the environmental or financial cleanup.

We are so focused on the return on investment for corporations that we have forgotten to calculate the return on investment in human capital.

State can modernize its grid and protect residents, too

I see this dynamic playing out not just in my personal history, but in the community around me today. As a nontraditional student at Gordon State College, I’m working to build a future in a region that just lost 235 manufacturing jobs with the Continental Tire plant closure in nearby Barnesville.

While we ask everyday people to shoulder the risk and rising energy costs for speculative data centers, communities like ours are losing the solid, working-class jobs we’ve relied on for generations. We cannot forget the families who are being laid off today while we plan for the industries of tomorrow.

The frustration is so deep that some South Georgia counties are now moving to dissolve their industrial authorities altogether, questioning the very model of recruiting large projects like data centers.

The goal is not to halt growth or investment in Georgia. I want good jobs and economic opportunity here as much as anyone. The state can modernize its grid and attract new industries while still protecting the communities that have lived here for generations. But that growth must be done responsibly and paired with policies that put affordability, accountability, and public health first.

What Georgians need now is real bill relief and a real economic vision. That means making sure the largest energy users pay for the costs they create, instead of shifting those costs onto households, seniors, people with disabilities and families on fixed incomes. It means passing legislation like the bills proposed this session that would write ratepayer protections into law. And it means remembering that every zoning decision, every infrastructure project, every tax break for industry has a human cost that doesn’t show up on a balance sheet.

The 235 families facing layoffs in Barnesville deserve a vision for Georgia’s economy that invests in them — not just in infrastructure for distant corporate giants. I’ve seen what happens when we get that balance wrong — on Long Island, in Juliette, and now in communities across Georgia.

Let’s not make our children and our working families pay the price while we wait to find out whether the projections were right.

Deanna White is a Leesburg, Georgia, resident and a Gordon State College student.