Former Georgia State Senator and gubernatorial candidate Jason Esteves hosted a town hall on Monday evening for Decatur-area residents to ask questions about the state’s growing data centers.
A data center is a physical location that houses computing machines and related hardware. While they provide critical infrastructure for powering the internet and artificial intelligence, these centers can also impact the environment through massive energy consumption and local pollution from diesel generators, contributing to climate change and straining local resources.
Over 50 community members, organizers, and local and congressional candidates gathered in the pews of Rainbow Baptist Church to express concerns over the impact of data centers on their neighborhoods and the resulting pollution.
“When you think about data centers, it ultimately comes down to our environment and affordability. Because people are struggling in Trump’s economy. They are struggling to get by with the rising cost of living, with the rising cost of utilities, and they see these massive buildings being built in our communities. They see at the same time that our water bills are going up and our power bills are going up, and they want to make sure that these data centers won’t continue to have an impact on the world. At the same time, our environment has been impacted, especially in communities across the country where we see examples of these data centers coming in and having a direct impact on communities.”
In his agenda for smart data center growth, Esteves plans to end tax handouts for new data center construction, make sure the cost of new data center developments isn’t placed on Georgia families and small businesses, ensure local communities determine whether data centers will be built in their neighborhoods, and ensure data centers will be required to use the latest efficiency standards.
Esteves shared that he and his wife are personally affected by data centers, with their house sitting within a mile of a coal ash pond and a plant, the latter of which he said the Environmental Protection Division doesn’t test enough to ensure it’s not emitting ethylene oxide.
“Data centers should be built with community, not to communities. And for too long, across this country, data centers are being built without neighbors even being aware that they are being constructed, and I want to make sure that you have a voice. So, I want to strengthen local control to make sure that you have a voice with your county commission, with your city council, to ensure that they are listening to the people who are most impacted by these developments that are being built.”
Esteves brought in Edward Gresham, an energy consultant from Savannah, Ga., and Paul Glaze, a member of Georgia Conservation Voters, to speak alongside him. Examples such as the Hyundai plant in Bryan County were used, and the audience expressed concerns about the risk of closed-loop cooling in data centers (when water circulates in sealed pipes or coils that cool the servers without directly exposing water to air), sprawling data campuses, putting the proper leaders in place to address these issues and pass the necessary bills, and how to stay informed.
“As governor, I’m going to make sure that we appoint the heads of DNR and EPD who are putting your interests ahead of the interests of industries, making sure that we’re protecting our communities and holding companies accountable. That has not been happening, and it’s not necessarily because of the people that are in these departments, because we have folks in the crowd who work for state agencies who want to do more. They have just not been empowered by those who are in leadership. And when you think about what’s been happening in our state when it comes to our environment, whether it’s the foreign chemicals in North Georgia that have been poured into our streams and our rivers, whether it’s the fact that the Okefenokee permit to drill adjacent to the swamp was pending, instead of being denied for years, whether it’s the fact that there are folks who are concerned about contamination to our food supply all across the state. EPD can be doing a lot more to test for these concerns, to make sure that the water that’s being put back into our community, our streams, and our rivers is actually OK.
This is an issue that is not only of interest to people across the state, it’s also personal for my family, and I make sure that we are protecting Georgians across the state.”
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