ATLANTA — A Georgia lawmaker is pushing for a statewide pause on the construction of new data centers as the state grapples with energy and water use.
The bill’s Democratic sponsor told Channel 2’s Richard Elliot that she has some Republicans signing on as well.
Duluth Democrat Ruwa Romman wouldn’t say yet who those Republicans are, but the bill would require a one-year pause in new data center construction so Georgia can get a better handle on the long-term costs of building the data centers.
Some have called Georgia the “wild, wild west” of data centers with somewhere between 100 and 200 of them dotted across the state.
Many metro communities are pushing back hard against them.
“I’m introducing a data center moratorium bill to give our state an opportunity to pause for a moment and wrap our arms around all of these data centers that have come to multiple parts of our state,” Romman said.
New data centers will require more and more energy and more and more water for cooling.
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The Public Service Commission last month approved adding five new natural gas-burning plants to help supply 10 gigawatts of new energy, mostly for the centers.
Romman, who’s also running for governor, believes it’s time to take a pause.
“The goal is for us to take a breather before we permanently alter the landscape of our entire state because the reality is these data centers completely alter the landscape,” Romman said.
Dallas Republican State Sen. Jason Anavitarte does think lawmakers need to take a deeper dive into these data centers, but doesn’t think that needs to include a year-long pause in new center construction.
“I think there are aspects of the financial arrangement for some of these data centers that I think, honestly, should be debated,” Anavitarte said. “I think we need to talk about what the average citizen wants the find again, what is the balance. Because the energy challenges, whether it is around data centers or other things, are only going to exponentially increase as we see the population increase in Georgia.”
That bill is temporarily held up in the legislative council, but could be presented any day now.
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