The Data Center Resistance Has Arrived

On Election Day, Peter Hubbard was one of two Democratic candidates who took a decisive—and surprising—victory in Georgia. Hubbard was elected to the Georgia Public Service Commission, the body that regulates the state’s electric utility. It’s the first time Democrats have taken statewide seats in Georgia in nearly two decades.

Residents have complained for years about a series of rate hikes from the PSC. But during Hubbard’s campaigning, he noticed another topic coming up again and again with his future constituents.

“The number one issue was affordability,” he says. “But a very close second was data centers and the concern around them just sucking up the water, the electricity, the land—and not really paying any taxes.”

Georgia has become a hot spot for data center development ov