Georgia is a model for data centers done wrong
Although artificial intelligence’s full impact on society is yet to be known, let’s assume that AI is a critical technology and that our “information sovereignty” requires that we have AI data centers in the U.S. Nevertheless, there is a right way and a wrong way forward.
The right way would involve careful planning and siting, based on available grid and water capacity, and causing the least cost and disruption to communities. Instead, data centers are flocking to Georgia thanks to ratepayer-subsidized power rates far below the national average and major tax giveaways.
The right way would engage communities early in planning, allow public input and earn community acceptance. Instead, Georgia is cutting backroom deals, requiring nondisclosure agreements to keep costs hidden, then springing massive projects on communities after plans are drawn.
The right — and least costly — way would be to meet data centers’ power needs with renewables, increased grid flexibility and utilization, and improved system efficiency. Instead, Georgia Power pushes a massive new expansion of costly, polluting gas power plants because they’re more profitable for them than the clean energy portfolio.
The right way would be to site projects in industrial parks or redevelop old industrial sites. Instead, Georgia is adding data centers near neighborhoods, schools, and population centers, and cutting down critical forests.
The right way would be to enact laws and regulations to protect consumers. Instead, we get corporate pledges and our monopoly utility lobbying to block such legislation.
Georgia’s current elected leadership chose this path. Remember in November.
DAVID SILLMAN, ROSWELL
GEORGIANS FOR AFFORDABLE ENERGY, BOARD MEMBER
We need our leaders to govern with competence
It is safe to say that before the current political era, very few of us knew how much of the world’s oil passes through the Strait of Hormuz. Likewise, just two years ago, cyclospora was virtually unheard of, and probably not that many people ever thought about how great it is that schoolchildren don’t have to worry about contracting the measles virus.
19th century American author and philosopher Henry David Thoreau once stated, “The government that governs best governs the least.” It seems that, in our present times, the statement could be updated to: “The government that governs best is the one whose presence and significance are indispensable but noticed the least.”
I can think of no better standard by which to judge the competency of our leaders right now.
SANJAY LAL, STOCKBRIDGE
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