Datacenter Opposition Growing In Georgia; Land Impacts, Water Pollution, Electricity Costs Primary Resident Worries
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This land—roughly 900 acres of forest and creek—has been slated for a proposed development known as Project Ruby, a hyperscale data center campus tied to the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence and cloud computing. Early plans outline four buildings, with an initial buildout expected to cover about 15 percent of the site, along with the infrastructure needed to power and cool them. The site would include a new substation and on-site transformers, with equipment replaced on a rolling basis every five years.
Much about the project remains unclear. The end user has not been publicly named, and information has been difficult to access, deepening unease among residents. Project Ruby would rank among the largest facilities now taking shape across the state. About two hours away, In Newton County, Georgia, residents living near a Meta data center reported wells running dry and water contamination following construction, according to a New York Times investigation. Elsewhere in the state, Fayetteville officials enacted a temporary moratorium on new data center proposals, pausing development to study potential impacts on water, energy and land use as residents’ concerns grew. Proposals like Project SAIL in Coweta County have drawn similar scrutiny.
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In December, state regulators approved a major expansion of natural gas infrastructure tied to rising electricity demand, including from data centers. The plan includes additions across multiple facilities and could roughly add 10 gigawatts of capacity to the grid. Fossil fuel plants that had once been expected to close are now being extended—kept online longer to help meet growing electricity needs. Each extension stretches the timeline of the state’s energy transition, pushing back when those systems might otherwise be replaced with cleaner resources. Data centers rely on a network of energy and infrastructure that spreads far beyond the site itself, spreading their environmental and economic impacts outward. As that system expands to meet new demand, another question begins to surface: who ultimately pays for the infrastructure required to sustain it?
Efforts to address those concerns stalled at the state level this year. Lawmakers adjourned the 2026 legislative session without passing any measures aimed at regulating data center expansion, scaling back tax incentives or protecting ratepayers from rising energy costs. Several proposals—including bills that would have reduced tax breaks, increased transparency around water and energy use, or required large electricity users to cover more of their infrastructure costs—failed to reach a final vote, leaving existing policies largely unchanged. The Trump administration has also announced a “ratepayer protection pledge,” a voluntary, nonbinding commitment intended to limit cost shifting onto consumers. Critics note that the pledge carries no enforceable requirements and is effectively toothless.
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https://insideclimatenews.org/news/13042026/georgia-data-center-boom/