Georgia has emerged as one of the top data center markets in the country. Communities across our state are struggling to push back against Big Tech’s attempt to build massive, resource-intensive data centers. Over the last several years, more than 50 local governments have passed local moratoria on data center construction due to overwhelming opposition from community members. Recent polling data shows that Georgia communities are deeply concerned about the environmental and health impacts data centers will create in their communities.
Data centers require massive amounts of energy, contribute to sediment pollution in our local waterways, cause air pollution from on-site diesel generators, increase noise and light pollution which have been shown to have negative health impacts on both people and wildlife, and there are many unknowns about how our local water systems are being impacted from data centers.
While Big Tech and Georgia Power are raking in record profits, Georgians are footing the bill to pay for the costs of data centers and subsidizing the wealthiest companies in the world through the data center state and local sales and use tax breaks granted by the state legislature in 2018. Tax incentives watchdog Good Jobs First estimated the cost of the tax incentives in FY 2027 to be $3 billion.
Despite overwhelming pushback from Georgians, elected officials at the Georgia Legislature and on Georgia’s Public Service Commission have failed to pass any meaningful regulations on data centers. In 2026, 20 data center bills failed to pass at the Georgia Legislature. In 2024, Governor Kemp vetoed a two-year pause in data center tax incentives. At the local level, unelected officials at development authorities are working alongside Georgia Power and the Georgia Chamber of Commerce to give property tax breaks to Big Tech and recruit Big Tech and developers to build massive data centers in local communities.
The Sierra Club Georgia Chapter is calling for a statewide moratorium on new data center construction in Georgia until the following guardrails are established in our state:
- Transparency
- The process for proposing and building a data center is transparent with no non-disclosure agreements or secret contracts.
- Data centers are required to disclose energy usage, water usage, and air emissions. Reporting to the state must be made available to the public.
- Enforceability
- All agreements must be enforceable through actionable penalties.
- Consumer Protections
- Data centers must pay for their full cost of service — costs cannot be passed onto ratepayers at any point in time.
- Georgia should implement a "large load tariff," a special rate structure or set of requirements for very large electric customers, like data centers, that seek to reduce the risks to other electric customers.
- Large load electricity customers, like data centers, should be put into a special customer rate class. This would make it easier to see what these large customers cost versus what they pay, protecting other customers from footing the bill for their power needs. Additional provisions can require that regulators implement measures that prevent cost shifting or require cost allocation measures to ensure data centers pay their full cost of service.
- Maximize Clean Energy
- Georgia Power and other utilities are using data centers as justification for building massive, carbon-emitting methane gas power plants and keeping expensive coal plants online. All data center load growth should be met by clean energy, energy efficiency, demand-side management (DSM), and demand flexibility, not fossil fuels.
- Utilities should implement a tariff on large-load customers like data centers to fund the grid’s incremental clean energy additions.
- Data centers should be required to have some level of flexibility in their power requirements, particularly during times of peak demand. This would help lower overall system needs and costs.
- Air Protection
- On-site backup generation should be supplied by clean energy and batteries.
- If diesel generators must be used, they should have Tier 4 emission controls and only for emergency use.
- For existing diesel generators, a cumulative impact study should be conducted to assess the potential impact of massive amounts of emissions coming out of permitted data centers.
- On-site backup generation should be supplied by clean energy and batteries.
- End Tax Breaks For Big Tech
- To protect state and local taxpayers, the sales and use tax exemption for data centers — costing an estimated $3 billion in FY 2027 — must be eliminated.
- Georgians Are Put First
- Any Georgia community that accepts a data center must receive community investment of at least $1 million per megawatt of capacity.
- Data centers must create the local jobs they promise, or face penalties, and must be built by Georgian contractors.