On the cusp of a December 16 county hearing in Georgia on a proposed law to regulate the booming data center industry, documents uncovered by DeSmog reveal that lobbyists continued to influence county leaders to revise planning regulations in favor of developers.
Over the past year, Coweta County, about 40 miles southwest of Atlanta, has become a national hot spot for proposed artificial intelligence (AI) data center projects and a growing national public backlash against plans to build the enormous computing factories in rural areas and small towns.
“Project Sail,” a $17 billion data center to be built on about 831 acres of the county’s rural conservation land — the equivalent of 600 football fields — has ignited opposition from residents concerned about its impacts particularly about sound and light pollution and the destruction of woodlands.
Residents are also worried about potentially skyrocketing utility bills from the data center’s 900-megawatt power capacity, and that fact that it will consume up to nine million gallons of water a day, as stated in Atlas Development, LLC’s rezoning application for the project.
Yet, they have not had the access to county decision makers like data center lobbyists have, new documents show.
