Data Centers

Georgia is in the middle of the largest data center boom in the country. Peter's position is simple: growth is welcome on your terms, not theirs.

To make sure we don’t rush to make a deal with the devil, Peter supports Senator Raphael Warnock and Keisha Lance Bottom’s call for a 12-18 month pause on new approvals for data centers until the state legislature can complete a comprehensive study on the state’s long term resource needs. If projects can meet certain demands, and if the local community supports them, he would support receiving faster approvals. Those demands include:

Pay their own way.

Data centers are driving billions of dollars in new power plants and transmission lines. The corporate majority on the Commission can claim that we’re protected, but the truth is that the rules they’ve put in place are all voluntary for Georgia Power. Corporations ignore criminal laws that they’re required to comply with all the time, so why should voters trust that they’ll comply with voluntary ones?

This applies to sweetheart tax giveaways as well. The richest companies on earth don’t need our help.

Count and Pay for ALL the resources they need - including the ones used to power them.

Data Centers often use millions of gallons of water, but that figure is nothing compared to the billions of gallons it takes to power them over the year. With the American West quickly running out of water and the State of Georgia famously at odds with our neighbors over the resource, we have to recognize that facilities the size of the Effingham OpenAI project impact more than just that one county. We need to plan for the future, and large load customers are part of that. Some things are more important than money,

Protect our People and our Natural Resources

No one should be suffering from contaminated well water, methane-caused asthma, noise pollution, or any other negative effect of pollution to power generative AI. Our people deserve the highest protection money can buy, because these companies have all the money in the world.

Use Union Labor

High quality work is better for everyone, and Georgia’s unions should be a part of every major project in the state - not just at Georgia Power, but across the Building and Trades.

No NDAs - Sunshine is the best disinfectant. 

NDAs, or Non-Disclosure Agreements, concerning data centers do not serve the interests of Georgians. There is no evidence to support the claim that a company could lose a competitive edge by the details of their contract with public bodies like County Governments becoming public. They want them to remain secret because this is part of what’s called “a race to the bottom.” If your county doesn’t know what the next one offered, it might try and give away the farm to get one of these projects when it didn’t have to.