Though I am a far cry from being an early adopter or technology influencer, I am also not a Luddite or someone who generally fears or holds the latest and greatest technological innovations in contempt.
I am fond, though, of a favorite Mark Twain quote: “I’m all for progress. It’s the damn change that I am against.”
Data centers, fast on their way to becoming the latest societal scourge, are not new. Their purpose and proliferation are rapidly evolving, but Cisco, Amazon, Meta, Google and others have been leasing and selling computing storage and data capacity for nearly two decades.
Those centers are where the “cloud” is located.
Demand for more computing capacity and storage is being driven by the development of artificial intelligence (AI), increasing 5G adoption and visual content streaming of nearly every kind — all of which consume significant storage space and bandwidth.
On the plus side of the ledger, though that list may be short, data centers do generate massive property tax payments and revenue for the host local government or school system.
Though only an occasional AI user, I have witnessed some of its marvels and benefits beyond providing college and even high school students whole new ways to cheat on their term papers.
But when I recently read in several credible publications that U.S. tech giants are investing approximately $7 trillion in data center expansion and development between now and 2030, I seriously began to question their math, much less their expectation of an eventual return on investment.
The entire U.S. federal budget for fiscal year 2026 totals roughly $6.9 trillion. With an active war underway with Iran and mission support in multiple places around the globe, the U.S. defense budget stands at approximately $1.5 trillion.
As a capitalist, I believe private-sector enterprises and their shareholders can place bad bets with their capital and let the marketplace shake things out. The problem is, they are not doing that alone.
Georgia Power, a well-managed utility, is investing billions in new power generation and its transmission network while also assisting in the build-out of data centers, which are poised to become some of its largest customers.
Again, making that choice is within Georgia Power’s authority. But using eminent domain to locate or expand transmission-line properties should not be.
A data center is not a “public benefit or amenity.” It is a data-and-profit center for a for-profit enterprise.
I was shocked to recently learn about a new 35-mile transmission-line project running almost alongside other existing utility rights-of-way that cross through four counties in West Georgia to a data center site in Coweta County.
The project directly impacts more than 330 property owners and requires the relocation — and, in some cases, demolition — of dozens of homes and farms, many of which are multigenerational properties.
I support and tip my hat to the ongoing efforts of Ansley Brown, a young mother, wife and Grantville resident who has been loudly and directly pushing back against the Georgia Power transmission project. She has garnered a following of more than 1 million on social media, collected thousands of petition signatures from area residents and organized numerous community events across the region in an effort to slow or pause the project.
Brown’s initial involvement was spurred by the proposed loss of her childhood home, which remains her mother’s home. While that residence and many others on the quiet street have now reached agreements to sell to Georgia Power, hundreds of properties are still potentially subject to acquisition and demolition.
Thousands more property owners will become front-row-seat neighbors to this massive new transmission-line system and, eventually, likely, a new data center.
I am not a tech giant or a futurist who sees only a dystopian future ahead of us. But I can see about a dozen different ways these investments could go south, or how forever chemicals and other waste could permanently damage finite water tables.
Slowing down this literal artificial-brain train seems like nothing more than common sense.
Let’s hit the pause button and perhaps reboot.