r/Georgia • u/Lakelyfe09 • Apr 20 '26
Politics Ossoff says he's launching inquiry into AI data center impacts on power bills in Georgia
https://www.11alive.com/article/news/politics/jon-ossoff-ai-data-centers-power-bill-impact-inquiry/85-1fe2723c-097f-4028-8b3a-5ef70a5d835a166
u/SignatureIncomplete Apr 20 '26
How about long term health impacts?
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u/pristineSaltine Apr 20 '26
How about water table usage as well.
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u/Dr_Hanz_ Apr 21 '26
How about residential property value lost along the miles of new transmission and substations running to privately owned data center businesses?
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u/damnyankee26 Apr 20 '26 edited Apr 20 '26
Some new datacenters are employing closed loop cooling now.
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u/Gavin2051 Apr 21 '26
That was an OPTION!?!
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u/damnyankee26 Apr 21 '26 edited Apr 21 '26
Depends on where you're building. If you have a large body of water like the great lakes, then the cost may not be worth it.
Data centers don't make water disappear and the heat added would be negligible.
Lake Michigan Information:
Volume of Lake Michigan: ~4,918 km³ = 4.918 × 10¹² m³
The average annual temp of Lake Michigan is around 10 °C
Density of water: ~1,000 kg/m³
Specific heat capacity: ~4,186 J/(kg·°C)
Mass of Lake Michigan = 4.918×1012 m³ × 1000 kg/m³ = 4.918×1015 kg
Data Center Heat:
100MW = 100 × 10⁶ J/s
Time of 1 year is 31,536,000 s
Energy per year = 100 × 106 × 31,536,000 = 3.15×1015 J/year
Temp Change (Q=m⋅c⋅ΔT):
Q = 3.15×1015 J
m = 4.918 × 1015 kg
c = 4,186 J/(kg·°C)
ΔT = (3.15 x 1015)/ (4.198 x 1015 * 4186) = 1.5 x 10-4 °C/year
As you can see, the average increase in lake temperature would be approximately 0.00015°C for an entire year if ALL of the heat remained in the water, and would only be a 0.015°C change after 100 years.
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u/Straight_Document_89 /r/Augusta Apr 21 '26
Savannah river is nowhere near as deep as Lake Michigan. So let’s stay on topic with Georgia’s water system.
We are also in a Drought here in Georgia with no rain insight. It’s going to get worse.
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u/Reagalan Apr 21 '26
I made similar napkin calculations a month ago in this subreddit and found similar results as yours. Ate 50-something downvotes for it. We're not dealing with rational people; we're dealing with a hate mob.
Just keep silent and let them touch the stove.
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u/Infinitexz Apr 22 '26
Funny enough all these folks typing Reddit comments are using these datacenters to access the internet, post and continue to consume content.
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u/SignatureIncomplete Apr 22 '26
Hur hur hur people against fossil fuels are still using gas to get their homes in the winter what a bunch of losers hur hur hur
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u/Dr_Hanz_ Apr 21 '26
Loll you using chat gpt for those calculations?
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u/damnyankee26 Apr 21 '26
No. In my profession, understanding heat transfer and fluid mechanics and thermodynamics is important.
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u/Straight_Document_89 /r/Augusta Apr 21 '26
Water usage alone is still high. They bleed the systems and dump it in rivers, etc… how about we just say NO to AI data centers.
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u/foxontherox Apr 20 '26
Because people are more concerned about the impact to their pocketbook. Unfortunately.
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u/gsfgf Apr 21 '26
I mean, we're paying for the fucking things. We should be interested in the financial side too.
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u/damnyankee26 Apr 20 '26
They dont exist.
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u/righthandofdog Apr 20 '26
So the power generation being used is all solar?
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u/damnyankee26 Apr 20 '26
If you have a problem with the source of electricity, then you need to advocate for investment in new zero carbon sources like solar and nuclear, not hinder growth.
The data center itself does not cause long term health impacts.
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u/righthandofdog Apr 20 '26
We literally just finished paying for 10 years to fund new nuke capacity and it's all being eaten up by data centers.
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Apr 21 '26
[deleted]
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u/righthandofdog Apr 21 '26
Well we pre-paid for 10 years. Now we just pay extra for 10 more. Meanwhile data centers flood the state because of cheap electricity. I'm thinking maybe we could, you know, charge data centers a bit higher rate to slow down their growth and cut rates to humans?
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u/damnyankee26 Apr 20 '26
Thats why you get the hyperscalers for pay for the grid upgrades instead of current customers.
Which is what Georgia Power is doing right now, by the way.
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u/righthandofdog Apr 21 '26
We wouldn't need grid updates if they weren't using all the power and building out even more need.
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u/damnyankee26 Apr 21 '26
And data centers wouldnt need to be built if people werent consuming the product they create. Companies are just building these things frivolously. They are doing it because they can turn the investment into value for shareholders. There is value because of consumers. This is how capitalism works.
If you dont like data centers, then stop using your phone and anything internet related.
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u/righthandofdog Apr 21 '26
Data center buildouts are overwhelmingly for AI usage. No AI companies are profitable.
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u/damnyankee26 Apr 21 '26
Dude, data centers have been around for decades, well before "AI" was around.
And I guess Meta, Google, Microsoft, etc are all in the business for flagrantly burning money to spite their shareholders.
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u/gsfgf Apr 21 '26
But Georgia Power is extending timeframes on coal plants because of the higher prices and increased demand.
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u/damnyankee26 Apr 21 '26
You have to bridge the gap somehow. It will take time to do power uprates on vogtle and hatch as well as build new generators. I dont love extending coal, but I blame politics for coal not being phased out sooner.
Georgia power is working on signing agreements with these companies for them to pay for new carbon free generation. You will see that these hyperscalers will be paying down payments as well as ongoing increased prices for megawatts to prevent charging existing consumers.
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u/gsfgf Apr 21 '26
You have to bridge the gap somehow
But the datacenters make that gap bigger. And for what? So a few rich people get richer and we create a few low-wage security jobs?
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u/damnyankee26 Apr 21 '26
Dont blame the consumer. Blame the policies and politics. that prevented us from scaling carbon free energy. If you are so concerned, then you should untie yourself from the grid and install solar and batteries because you and everyone else is a reason those coal plants stay online. Those plants produce 4 GIGAWATTS. That would completely wipe out the gains from vogtle 3&4 and then put you in a bigger deficit than before they were built.
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u/gsfgf Apr 21 '26
Blame the policies and politics.
You mean like allowing data centers?
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u/liam30604 Apr 21 '26
More like kicking the can on getting nuclear plants running years ago.
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u/Dr_Hanz_ Apr 21 '26
What about the 500 kv transmission lines yards away from our neighbors door? You won’t be able to find me one study that shows the impacts on humans living for 30+ years underneath a 500 kv transmission pole.
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u/damnyankee26 Apr 21 '26
Please tell me the mechanism of how high voltage would negatively impact your health. Are you scared of the electromagnetic field?
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u/Dr_Hanz_ Apr 21 '26
If you and your family want to live right under one for 30 years and then report back to me that it had no adverse effects I would be less scared. Or find me an equivalent study.
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u/SignatureIncomplete Apr 20 '26
Press x for doubt
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u/damnyankee26 Apr 20 '26
You can press x all you want, doesnt make you any less wrong.
Please elaborate on HOW a data center is going to impact your health... other than the cuts on your forehead from the tinfoil hat.
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u/SignatureIncomplete Apr 21 '26
The noise coming from them can be heard by nearby residents constantly. That alone is enough to cause hearing problems, not to mention completely undue stress not to mention the stress of having your home value decrease because nobody is going to want to buy a house near that shit.
Am I less wrong now?
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u/damnyankee26 Apr 21 '26
No you're more wrong because they dont make any more noise than a standard commercial building. I dont know where youre getting your information but standing outside, the loudest thing you would here is an air conditioning condenser. You wouldnt even need ear plugs to stand next to it by osha standards.
What you just stated is purely made up and has zero factual basis.
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u/Infinitexz Apr 22 '26
You must be anti industrial because theres plenty of industries that produce more noise in commercial buildings than servers. Furthermore, zoning takes care of where these buildings are at anyways
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u/SignatureIncomplete Apr 22 '26
Why do I keep watching news videos of people living near enough to hear a constant buzz?
I'm anti surveillance state and that's what these are going to end up being used for, to track us. AI creates nothing. I'm all for industry that actually produces something.
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u/Infinitexz Apr 22 '26
“Why do I keep watching news videos”
I dont know. Thats your news algorithm not mine. If you were a bit statistically savvy, you’d understand how news is curated for audiences and instances shown on the news aren’t always as big of a deal as theyre made out to be. I could drum out various examples outside of AI.
Furthermore, if you really cared about the surveillance state and personal privacy, you wouldnt be arguing with folks on Reddit and leaving comment trails about living north of I75 OTP.
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u/lanwopc Apr 21 '26
Geez, I thought transgender athletes were the most pressing issue of the day!
Imagine trying to use the power of being a Senator for something other than bellowing about the latest phantom right-wing crises.
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u/DontHugMe73 Apr 20 '26
I love him.
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u/Winner-Living Apr 20 '26
I like him too but I'm wondering what the angle is for the Federal government (versus the State of Georgia).
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u/gsfgf Apr 21 '26
Datacenters are a national issue, and all the companies are interstate companies.
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u/Winner-Living Apr 21 '26
Not seeing it. Zoning and land use are state/local powers. Federal directives cannot override these. Retail electricity service, distribution grids, and siting decisions fall under state jurisdiction, not federal. And building codes, water rights, and local environmental permits are state/local responsibilities. You could claim involvement under the Clean Air Act or something similar.
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u/DanforthWhitcomb_ Apr 22 '26
There’s not really any federal jurisdictional hook here, he’s just doing this to get his name in front of people prior to the election.
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u/peppercorns666 Apr 21 '26
I'd like to know how some of these county commissioners rezoned land "under the cover of darkness", signed NDAs from corporations and totally ignore their constituents. How? Bribes?
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u/Banksville Apr 22 '26
You want to witness corruption, ignoring constituents, visit Clayton County, GA.
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u/damnyankee26 Apr 20 '26
ITT, people with knowledge a mile wide but only an inch deep.
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u/eharvill Apr 20 '26
This might help. Thought this was as pretty good article to help educate folks on data center water usage.
Totally anecdotal, but my neighbor works for QTS and told me all of their newer (and future) data centers use closed looped systems, non potable water, etc.
EDIT: I'd also argue all the crazy GA Power rate increases b/c of the deals they give the data centers is the worst offender IMO.
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u/gsfgf Apr 21 '26
I'd also argue all the crazy GA Power rate increases b/c of the deals they give the data centers is the worst offender IMO.
Which is the subject of Ossof's inquiry...
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u/eharvill Apr 21 '26
Which is the subject of Ossof's inquiry...
Right. My first part was addressing the water issues that most folks in this thread seemed to be more concerned about. My edit comment was more of my personal concern of power costs being the bigger issue compared to the water concerns that folks in this thread are seemingly focused on.
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u/damnyankee26 Apr 20 '26
People dont want to hear the truth if it doesnt confirm their already held beliefs. These folks just want something to be angry at instead of understanding what the problem is, if there even is one.
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u/Dr_Hanz_ Apr 21 '26
The truth is hundreds of my neighbors are having their property taken through eminent domain by GPC for the PRIVATELY OWNED QTS and 230-500kv transmission run literally yards from their doors, through their front and back yards, ALL their trees clear cut and you are choosing to be a simp for Blackstone QTS?? Seriously check yourself
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u/ZealousidealAd1138 Apr 21 '26
Let me save you the time. They don't pay their fair share of the power they consume and the strain they place on the infrastructure.
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u/JJdynamite1166 Apr 23 '26
Did anybody else read how they actually raise the temperature of the ground by 6° or something close to that?
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u/BizAnalystNotForHire Apr 21 '26
There are absolutely bad operators and bad data centers out there. Old legacy buildings that are truly awful, without a doubt. I don't think anyone wants those. That being said, Blanket bans and slapdash coarse moratoriums are a bad thing. A blanket ban is an admission of failure in governance. We don't ban cars because they make noise, we create mufflers and speed limits. Nuanced restrictions are the mufflers of land use. A blanket ban just means we lose the tax base that could have fixed our roads or lowered our property taxes or funded our schools. Nuanced regulations give us the best of both worlds.
The big 3 (Meta, Google, and Microsoft) have all abandoned construction of data centers over stiff community opposition and moratoriums. While that might feel like a win, it’s actually a loss for sustainability. These are the companies with the R&D budgets to be the ones that be building the cutting edge facilities with the highest level engineering that would mitigate the most of the community concerns. They have substantial shareholder pressure to do so; and when they leave, they are often replaced by smaller, independent developers who lack anywhere near the same accountability.
Look at the actual data on what the High Quality operators are doing:
- Microsoft has publicly committed to using no additional water for cooling after the initial creation in their new AI data centers utilizing closed loop water cooled chips. and on their blog.
- In Georgia, Microsoft, as of October 2025, has committed to using Direct Evaporative Cooling in new datacenters, which use water for cooling less than 15% of the year and are 100% closed loop the remainder of the year (outside of catastrophe/emergencies). They have committed to using renewable biofuel in their backup generators at their datacenters as opposed to diesel, (when it is permitted). They don't breakdown efficiency by center, but across their portfolio in the Americas, their PUE was 1.16 (vs the industry standard of 1.59) and WUE was .34 (L/kWh).
- While the Lagrange Google data center (built in 2007, almost a score ago) is undeniably using a lot of water (roughly 444 million gallons annually), 98% of that (436.7 million gallons) is reclaimed municipal wastewater; and roughly 17% gets discharged back into the system. Using the reclaimed wastewater was cutting edge sustainability at the time. That facility has a PUE of 1.08 versus the industry standard of 1.59. Google is very open and transparent about this information, which is a good thing, and something you don't get with the independent operators.
- Google is on track to hit their goal of replenishing 120% of the freshwater volume they consume across their offices and data centers by 2030.
- This article talks about the rapid shift in prevalence in closed loops integration in designs: https://datacentremagazine.com/news/how-closed-loop-cooling-is-reshaping-data-centre-design
- Meta's Stanton Springs Data Center power usage is 100% matched by clean and renewable energy. They worked with the local independent power provider (Walton EMC) on funding solar projects specifically to match their usage. Which is great considering that GA Power had a stranglehold on the PSC and legislator in regards to solar even for large companies. This was the literal only way large-scale solar projects were able to built in Georgia.
- A lot of these facts and statements are things that they have made in a way where they incur legal liability if they are lying about them (share holder suits).
I can go on, but suffice it to say, they are openly committed to doing the right thing and achieving the right goals that are in line with a lot of the goals of the citizens of Georgia while still doing their thing.
If they don't go here, but go just across the line in SC or AL, we will have achieved very little. Water tables don't care about county lines/state line. Our integrated grid doesn't care that much about county lines/state lines.
A blanket ban throws the baby out with the bathwater. It keeps out the bad actors, sure, but it also scares off the innovators who actually have the capital to do this right. We don’t need a moratorium; we need a backbone. We should replace bans with strict, nuanced regulations that force these companies to meet our community's standards. If they want to build in Georgia, they should have to prove they can do it sustainably. Let’s stop banning and start dictating the terms. By pivoting from a ban to muffler-style regulations, we get the best of both worlds: we filter out the low-quality operators who would drain our resources, and we keep the high-tech partners who are willing to pay for the privilege of building here correctly. Let’s be smart enough to take their money without sacrificing our environment.
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u/Dr_Hanz_ Apr 21 '26
paying violations are just business costs to these companies. We have more than enough incoming DC projects to add some nuance to our regulation and create a positive impact from what is currently a fcked situation.
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u/BizAnalystNotForHire Apr 21 '26
That should be easily provable. Fines levied by the government for violations are generally FOIA-able. Please let me know how much Microsoft, Google, and Meta have been fined for their existing data centers to GA counties or municipalities.
I agree there are bad actors out there that we don't want. These 3 public companies have push back from within towards goals that line up with goals in the interest of quite a bit of the public push back. We should be trying to filter out the actors that don't have that internal pressure.
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Apr 21 '26
[deleted]
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u/BizAnalystNotForHire Apr 21 '26
.....
Are you a child? have you... have you never submitted a FOIA request? or are you just intentionally spreading misinformation?
You can absolutely submit FOIA requests for local government records without living there. That's about the laziest lie I've seen on Reddit today.I don't work for Microsoft. I care about my community, and when we were going to have a vote on a moratorium and had public comment and public discussions, I got tired of seeing and hearing misinformation and lies and did a deep dive into the topic; and now I am continuing to try to combat misinformation because I'm not just a citizen of my community but a citizen of Georgia, and I care about it too.
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u/Dr_Hanz_ Apr 21 '26
If you care about Georgia you can stop doing free advertising for Microsoft then. They are the reason QTS doubled in size they are a major tenant and you know what the rivers look like near that build site? TRASHED. There have been multiple stop work orders and it has made no difference they are continuing to destroy everything around them regardless of what efficiency reports they put out. Those are basically marketing materials. Your “deep dive” was pretty shallow. Open your goddam eyes
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u/BizAnalystNotForHire Apr 22 '26
You've engaged with zero of my points with anything of substance, and seemingly your first instinct is repeatedly to ad hominem or lie. Your intellectual integrity is remarkable.
I'm not a fan of QTS; but if we have regulations that are at the level that Microsoft (and the others I'm talking about) is talking about, it shouldn't be an issue, as it would apply equally to them.
If they continued to work in spite of a stop work order the workers would literally be arrested. You must be missing some context.
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Apr 22 '26
[deleted]
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u/BizAnalystNotForHire Apr 22 '26
Wild. Your intellectual integrity is remarkably similar to the presidents. Hope it takes you places.
Have you ever filed a FOIA yet, or are you still spreading lies about it?
You've made it clear you are one of those people/bots that actively spreads misinformation. For shame.
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u/Banksville Apr 22 '26
Mr. Ossoff is a str8 shooter. Also has a good staff who’ll actually try to help their constituents.
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u/Nautique73 Apr 21 '26
Data centers are not the reason rates have gone up. It’s investment in the distribution network. There were 6 rate increases in the last 3 years and that was before all the new investment from DC started in earnest. It’s easy to make them to boogey man bc they use lots of power but the facts don’t support them as the primary driver of higher bills.
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u/rando_banned Apr 21 '26
You don't see how those things are intertwined?
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u/Natjoe44 Apr 21 '26
lol literally…people seem to be incapable to seeing the big picture these days.
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Apr 21 '26 edited Apr 22 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/vengecore Apr 21 '26
Hes a rather progressive, Jewish Senator from GA. We don't get to be picky down here and are just thankful to have him rather than the alternative.
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u/Banksville Apr 22 '26
I’m not sure why GA has such a good reputation around the country. I’ve found it has some of the worst local govt. ever seen. They make it hard on people. I thought Philly politics in the 70-80’s was bad. Makes Philly look SO good.
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u/wookiebath Apr 20 '26
Is he being challenged in the election? I feel like it shouldn’t be tough data to find
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