Debate over data center growth in Georgia heats up race for governor

As Georgia becomes a national leader in new data center construction, debate over how to regulate the booming industry has become a hot issue in the race for governor.

The two candidates have proposed contrasting visions for how to deal with the massive, power-hungry facilities that help power and advance artificial intelligence, but voters don’t seem entirely sold on either’s plan. Democratic nominee Keisha Lance Bottoms, the former mayor of Atlanta, is pitching a statewide temporary “pause” on new data center construction to study the strain these facilities place on local communities, the environment and electricity bills, as well as potential benefits they may provide to some communities.

“Let us take a pause, assess fully, assess comprehensively, assess the impact that these data centers are having on our environment, on our utility bills, what it means to have them in communities,” Bottoms said in a recent press conference in Cobb County, where local opposition to data centers has grown.

Her Republican opponent, healthcare executive Rick Jackson, a billionaire who has invested in a data center in Texas that has faced local opposition, has argued that local elected officials should have the authority to welcome or reject these projects. Jackson pitched his plan as an opportunity for local governments to bolster the tax base and decrease – or even eliminate – residential property taxes.

“Every community should decide,” Jackson said at a September press conference in Cobb County. “And every community should get a financial benefit to lower their property taxes or anything else, with the right guardrails on these data centers and making sure that they do everything right, this could be one of the biggest economic benefits to a community if they want one.” 

But some advocates and residents living near proposed data centers across the state worry that  local communities lack the leverage to negotiate with data center developers, wonder whether the promise of lower property taxes will ever come true and question whether a temporary pause might lead to policy that effectively regulates these mammoth facilities.

Bottoms’ push for a pause

In Cobb County, where county commissioners extended its local data center moratorium until early 2027, Bottoms said temporarily pausing construction on data centers would be one of the first things she would pursue as governor, though she was unsure whether it could be accomplished  through an executive order or if it had to be done legislatively.

“We’re going to use every tool in the toolbox to make sure that that pause takes place statewide,” she said.

Peter Hubbard, a Democrat who was elected to the Georgia Public Service Commission in 2025, joined Bottoms in Cobb County where he outlined four policy proposals aimed at regulating data centers. Hubbard said that data centers should be powered with clean energy sources and pay for that infrastructure, operate with full transparency without the use of nondisclosure agreements, enact safeguards that protect the local community and natural resources and mandate the use of union labor “wherever possible.”

“I think if we take these actions, if we raise the barrier for data centers to do business in the state, and we make them pay their fair share, then we will be better for it,” Hubbard said.

Bottoms kept her speech focused on a data center pause, but when asked if she supports Hubbard’s proposal, she said that she was “in complete alignment with what Commissioner Hubbard has proposed.”

“You will hear me talk more about it as I look to his leadership to help guide how we need to move forward as a state,” she said.

Other states, including ones led by governors from both major parties, have temporarily halted data center development. New York’s governor, a Democrat, became the first to order a statewide moratorium on large-scale data centers in July. Texas’ governor, a Republican, ordered his own ban in August and broadened that order this month. 

Jackson punts to local control and touts lower taxes

Jackson disagrees with Bottoms’ approach and has said on the campaign trail that he believes communities should be able to decide whether data centers are built. Currently, local governments make decisions on data center projects and propose regulations, and Jackson said it should stay that way.

“The county commissioners are voted by the people, so they need to decide,” Jackson said at the Cobb County press conference.

But Jackson also said that local governments can make those decisions with “guardrails” in place. In an Atlanta Journal-Constitution op-ed Jackson balanced his support of data centers with five conditions for their development. He said he would sign an executive order establishing stricter environmental standards for approving data center proposals and requiring the state to be transparent about tax incentives, utility costs and projected benefits.

At the recent press conference, Jackson added that he wanted “to educate people on the benefit if they want (a data center),” saying that some counties are expecting they “will have zero property taxes after the data center goes in.” Some counties, like Effingham County where OpenAI plans to build a $20 billion data center, pledged to lower property taxes with revenue they bring in.

Jackson’s stance aligns with Georgia’s business community, with Chris Clark, president and CEO of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, agreeing with the local control approach. Clark said Jackson’s proposal allows communities to continue negotiating with developers while giving them the opportunity to diversify their tax base. The Georgia Chamber of Commerce has endorsed Jackson.

“I think what Rick Jackson has said has been clear. It’s the community’s decision,” Clark said. “If this fits with what you want in your community, then you need to be able to do that project, move forward, just like if it’s a manufacturing, a distribution, or a Buc-ee’s.”

Industry backs local control, but residents push back

In suburban and rural Georgia communities, residents and advocates interviewed for this story say Jackson’s stance maintains the status quo. 

Bill Wright, who spent four years organizing against data center projects in Northern Virginia before relocating to Chatham County near Savannah, dismissed Jackson’s proposal and said that developers and tech companies hold much of the leverage during negotiations.

“They’re completely outgunned by these developers. They don’t have the wherewithal to push back. They’re susceptible to financial incentives, and they’re wooed by campaign donations,” Wright said. “So, when you say ‘leave it up to the local community,’ of course you have to do that to some extent, but you have to give the community help.”

Wright, who’s been advocating against the OpenAI development in Effingham County, which neighbors Chatham, said leaving regulatory decisions to individual counties ignores the footprint  data centers have beyond the county’s border and argued that statewide regulations are “absolutely essential.”

“Let’s say Effingham County approves Project Camellia. Well, that has an effect on the surrounding counties as well that have absolutely nothing to say about what’s going on there,” Wright said.

Data centers in Georgia are largely unregulated statewide. Developers usually submit a “development of regional impact” review in the initial stages that outlines basic information, such as project size, revenue and estimated water usage. That review, however, is designed to be a communication mechanism for local officials – and not a state regulatory tool. The Public Service Commission also passed a rule that was intended to ensure data centers, which consume large amounts of electricity, pay for some of the energy infrastructure Georgia Power builds to accommodate them, but critics don’t believe that rule fully protects residential ratepayers.

Outrage over surge of data centers in Georgia inspires wave of bipartisan bills

Lawmakers from both parties during the 2026 legislative session introduced about 20 bills aimed at regulating the massive facilities, but those bills never made it to the governor’s desk for a signature.

South of Atlanta in Fayette County, retired resident Diana Dietz has watched the QTS data center campus expand beyond its original plan. She was also skeptical that local governments had the ability to shield residents from data centers when there is local pushback.

“The elected officials do what they want, which is they approve these things for the most part,” Dietz said. “They approve them. You might get one or two who vote no, but they’re not the majority.”

But Clark with the Georgia Chamber of Commerce pushed back on the notion that communities aren’t well equipped to negotiate with developers or that companies want to force projects onto communities that do not want them.

“They want to go in and be a good partner, and if a community doesn’t want them, there’s plenty of communities that do, and so I think I kind of push back a little bit on that assumption that they’re rolling over local elected officials. I think that’s an easy narrative, but kind of hard to roll over when they control zoning, water and are either recruiting them or not recruiting them to town,” Clark said.

Pro-data center group launches in Georgia to try to win over critics

The Georgia Chamber of Commerce launched the Georgia Digital Infrastructure Alliance over the summer aimed at swaying critics. Clark said that part of that initiative was creating a “data center-ready community designation” checklist that helps communities advance data center proposals “responsibly and transparently,” but Dietz had little confidence in the idea of relying on voluntary standards proposed by the industry.

“[They’re] going to serve the same Kool-Aid as the industry does,” Dietz said.

Moratorium against concrete policy

While community members and advocates largely welcomed Bottoms’ call to pause new data center developments, they were also concerned that a moratorium won’t be enough if it’s used as just a period to study the issue that won’t lead to state regulations.

Maurice Carter, president and co-founder of the local nonprofit Sustainable Newton in Newton County, has been active in community discussions regarding data centers that have plans or have started development in the county, including one from Amazon and another from Google. The county eventually passed a moratorium in January, adopted new regulations in August and lifted the pause in September.

“I’m not a believer in a moratorium just for the sake of a moratorium. In other words, you better use that year or those six months we did here in Covington, right?” Carter said, referring to a city in Newton County. “You better use that time to get the right things in place.” 

Wright was more blunt about having a pause to study the issue and pointed to his home state of Virginia where state studies did not produce effective regulations.

“This business of studying something, it’s usually a delaying tactic,” Wright said. “Anytime you can’t make a decision, you sanction some blue-ribbon panel to come up and kick the can down the road a little farther.”

“I would like to hear (Bottoms) say no tax incentives for data centers. These are the wealthiest corporations in the world … You can get these guys without giving away the store. They want your land. They need it to operate, and so there’s no need to make so many concessions to these folks,” Wright added.

But TaNisha Cameron, a spokesperson for the Bottoms campaign, said that the pause would be used to “work with the General Assembly to develop clear statewide standards and rules for communities, utilities, developers, and residents.”

Bottoms’ call for a temporary moratorium was met with less enthusiasm from the business community. Clark with the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, warned that a statewide pause, as proposed by Bottoms, would disrupt economic development and hurt communities that are in discussions with potential data centers developers.

“We’ve become a digital economy. Every single business in Georgia – everything you do, I do, this conversation we’re having right now – all flows through one to two to three, maybe even five data centers every day,” Chark said in an interview. “If we’re going to build them, the communities that want them should get that economic benefit. So that’s where we are as a business community.”

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