It’s hard to miss the dramatic transformation happening in Georgia right now. The state has quietly become one of the fastest-growing data-center markets in the entire country, and Atlanta has risen to the number two spot, second only to Northern Virginia. That’s a huge deal, and it’s not just because data centers are impressive to look at. Developers are planning several massive new projects across Georgia, including a $20 billion OpenAI campus in Effingham County, a $13 billion facility in Clayton County, a $1 billion expansion in LaGrange, and a staggering $17 billion Google investment in Columbia County. All of that sounds like a lot, and in many ways it is. But the public reaction has been a mix of excitement, anxiety, and a whole lot of misinformation. Walk into any community meeting where a new data center is proposed, and you’ll hear plenty of passionate objections. People worry about water usage, electricity rates, and whether these enormous buildings give anything back to the communities that host them. Some concerns are legitimate and worth discussing, but many are blown out of proportion, and a few are just flat-out absurd. For example, there are people who claim data centers cause diabetes. They absolutely do not. The anxiety is understandable though—these buildings appear almost overnight, they hum with activity, and they seem to consume resources without offering much in return. But the truth is more complicated, and a closer look reveals that data centers might actually be one of the best things to happen to Georgia in a long time.
Let’s start with the benefits, because they’re often overlooked in the shouting matches over new construction. Data centers are enormous financial engines, and their presence can transform local economies in ways that directly help ordinary families. Take Effingham County, for example. Thanks to the OpenAI agreement, the company is projected to become the county’s largest taxpayer. That means millions of dollars flowing into public coffers every year, money that can be used to pay teachers, fix roads, support first responders, and fund all the everyday services people rely on. The Columbia County deal is even more striking. Local officials approved a memorandum of understanding for the Google project, and they say it could eventually help eliminate the county portion of homeowners’ property tax bills entirely. Imagine opening your property tax statement and seeing a number that’s dramatically lower, or even zero for the county slice. For many homeowners, that would be life-changing. It could mean extra money for groceries, savings, or a family vacation. It could also help keep seniors in their homes who might otherwise be priced out by rising taxes. Opponents tend to downplay these benefits, and it’s easy to see why: tax relief isn’t as dramatic a headline as “tech giant guzzles water.” But for the people who actually live in these communities, the financial impact is real, tangible, and hard to ignore. Data centers don’t just create a few construction jobs during the building phase; they generate long-term revenue that can lower the burden on residents and support public schools. In a time when many rural and suburban counties are struggling to balance budgets without raising taxes, data centers can act like life rafts rather than millstones. They bring in serious money without demanding a huge amount of local services in return, which is a trade many communities would gladly make.
Now, the elephant in the room: electricity. Critics love to warn that data centers will send residential power bills through the roof. The logic seems straightforward—data centers use a lot of electricity, so someone has to pay for all those new power plants, and that someone is probably you. But the actual math tells a very different story. Georgia Power has projected that adding large energy users like data centers to the grid could actually result in residential ratepayers saving up to $180 per year by 2029. How is that possible? It comes down to the way electricity costs are spread. When you build a power plant, there are enormous fixed costs involved—the construction, the maintenance, the transmission lines. Those costs have to be paid for somehow, and they’re spread across all the customers connected to the grid. When data centers come along, they consume a huge amount of electricity, which means they pick up a much bigger share of those fixed costs. That leaves less for everyone else to pay. It’s like splitting a dinner bill with someone who orders the steak and the lobster while you have a salad—you end up paying less because they’re covering more of the table. This isn’t just a Georgia phenomenon either. National data supports the same conclusion. My R Street colleague Josiah Neeley pointed out that increasing electricity demand has historically gone hand in hand with lower prices, and a doubling of data center capacity has been estimated to reduce residential electric rates by about 4 percent. That’s not a huge windfall, but it’s not nothing, and it’s certainly the opposite of the doom-and-gloom predictions. On top of that, data centers are increasingly choosing to build their own power plants, including one planned in Newton County. That means they’re taking themselves off the public grid entirely, which removes the strain on residential infrastructure and gives them more control over their own energy supply. So the next time someone tells you data centers are going to make your electricity bill explode, ask them to show you the numbers. The evidence points in the opposite direction.
Water is another major talking point for data-center opponents, and it’s probably the one that stirs the most emotion. People picture these massive facilities drinking up millions of gallons of precious water while lakes shrink and wells run dry. It’s a powerful image, but it’s not entirely accurate. Yes, some data centers use water for cooling, and yes, the amount can be significant. But compared to other industries, it’s honestly a drop in the bucket. To put it in perspective, California’s almond farms consume about 4.2 billion gallons of water per day. Golf courses in the United States use around 1.4 billion gallons per day. Data centers, by contrast, consume just 46 million gallons per day nationwide. That’s a tiny fraction of what agriculture and recreation use, yet nobody is calling for a moratorium on almonds or golf courses—and they shouldn’t. Water usage is a matter of priorities, and it’s worth asking why data centers get singled out for criticism when they use so much less than other everyday activities. Plus, the industry is actively working to reduce its water footprint. There are closed-loop cooling systems that recycle the same water over and over again, dramatically reducing the amount of fresh water needed. There are gel-cooled systems that require almost no water at all, relying on a special cooling gel instead. And dozens of data centers are already using reclaimed wastewater for coolant, which means they’re not touching the clean drinking water supply at all. These technologies are becoming more common and more efficient every year. It’s entirely possible that in the near future, water usage will be a non-issue for most data centers. But even today, the panic doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. If you’re genuinely worried about water conservation, there are much bigger targets to focus on than data centers.
So if data centers are so great, why all the controversy? The biggest problem isn’t the industry itself; it’s the rampant misinformation and the misguided government regulation that often follows it. People hear scary stories and share them without checking the facts, and before long, everyone believes data centers are dangerous, wasteful, and exploitative. That’s not to say there aren’t legitimate policy questions worth asking. How do we ensure data centers are paying their fair share? How do we balance the need for economic development with environmental concerns? How do we make sure the benefits are shared broadly rather than captured by a few? These are all important conversations, and they deserve thoughtful answers. But too often, the discussion is hijacked by exaggerated claims and knee-jerk opposition. Government, for its part, loves to meddle in private enterprise, and it isn’t always very good at it. Regulations that are meant to protect consumers can end up slowing down investment and driving up costs for everyone. Lawmakers have debated measures to impose ratepayer protections, and some of those ideas have merit. But there’s also a risk that overregulation will chase away the very projects that could be providing tax relief and lower utility bills. The key is to find a balance—policies that hold data centers accountable without strangling the industry in red tape. This isn’t unique to data centers, of course. It’s the same story with factories, warehouses, and even grocery stores. But data centers are uniquely visible, uniquely mysterious, and uniquely easy to demonize because most people don’t fully understand what they do. They sit in enormous buildings with humming servers and blinking lights, and it’s natural to wonder what’s really going on inside. The answer is that they’re doing something essential: powering the digital world we all depend on.
At the end of the day, data centers are indispensable to virtually every single person reading this. If you have a bank account, you rely on data centers. If you use social media, you rely on data centers. If you use Google Maps to navigate, Apple Pay to buy coffee, Yahoo! or Gmail to send an email, or any number of other everyday tools, you are using a data center. The same people who protest these facilities are using them dozens of times a day without even realizing it. That’s not hypocrisy; it’s just the reality of modern life. Data centers are the backbone of the internet, the cloud, and the digital economy. They store your photos, process your payments, stream your movies, and connect you with friends and family across the globe. They are, in a very real sense, the libraries and post offices of the twenty-first century. And the research suggests they might also lower your property taxes and your utility bills. That’s a pretty good deal. No, they don’t cause diabetes. They don’t create waterless wastelands. They don’t destroy communities. Instead, they bring jobs, investment, and revenue. They help fund schools and infrastructure. They spread the cost of energy across more users, which can reduce the burden on families. They’re not perfect, and there’s always room for improvement. But the next time you stream a movie, send a text, or check the weather, take a moment to thank a data center. It’s working hard for you, and it might just be working hard for your town too.