From Georgia to Essex, AI datacenters are testing public goodwill
(2025/12/16)
- Reference: 1765894875
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/12/16/datacenter_development_controversy/
- Source link:
Frenzied demand for AI development is driving a wave of datacenter construction, but new projects are facing growing public opposition over concerns about their impact on local communities and the environment.
Controversy has erupted in Coweta County, Georgia, after climate advocacy group DeSmog alleged that county officials held private meetings with lobbyists representing the developer of a proposed datacenter project.
In August, The Register [1]reported that the county, located near Atlanta, had imposed a moratorium on datacenter approvals while it gathered input from stakeholders on proposed planning regulations.
[2]
Residents expressed opposition to "Project Sail," a $17 billion facility that would occupy approximately 831 acres of rural land, while lobbyists supporting the project were accused of attempting to weaken regulatory provisions, including those related to environmental impact assessments.
[3]
[4]
[5]DeSmog now says that both real estate biz Prologis, the developer behind Project Sail, and the owner of the land, Atlas Development, are seeking to influence Coweta County officials via in-person meetings and email correspondence.
It claims community representatives were not afforded the same level of access, and were told they could not speak to county officials by phone, but must instead communicate via group email.
[6]
Hundreds of residents mobilized to oppose the project in a bid to conserve the area's rural character, while more than 3,900 people are registered on a "STOP Project Sail" Facebook page.
Coweta County is understood to be considering its draft datacenter ordinance on December 16, with a final vote possible.
Elsewhere in America, [7]Data Center Watch , which tracks grassroots opposition to server farms, claims that $64 billion worth of projects have already been blocked or delayed by a growing wave of local community actions.
[8]
In Pennsylvania, those opposed to new datacenters outnumber supporters, according to a report in [9]The Philadelphia Inquirer . It said several projects were recently proposed in the region, and many faced neighborhood pushback.
Environmental organization [10]The Sierra Club took out a full-page ad in the Indianapolis Star in Indiana, calling on the leaders of the largest technology companies to ensure their datacenters are powered by clean energy.
The letter says Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft have collectively built facilities capable of consuming more electricity than four million American homes, driving a rash of new fossil fuel power plants and keeping dirty coal-fired plants online.
[11]Ford shifts gears to build batteries for datacenters
[12]AI datacenter boom could end badly, Goldman Sachs warns
[13]Delays? What delays? Oracle insists its $300B cloud contract with OpenAI is on track
[14]Hyperscalers fuel $112B server spending spree in Q3
It accuses them of standing by while President Trump [15]slashed the renewable energy projects they previously said they wanted, and calls on them to follow their stated climate goals and push for an affordable and reliable decarbonized grid that benefits all.
And it isn't just the US where people are starting to question the wave of datacenter builds. In Essex, England, Epping Forest District Council has just approved Google's outline plans for a facility on part of North Weald Airfield, a former RAF base, despite opposition from residents.
According to [16]local media , concerns were raised about the project's impact on airfield operations and its potential to reduce space for stalls at the market held on-site every Saturday.
There is also skepticism that the 100-200 jobs promised at the facility would go to local people, rather than IT professionals moving in from elsewhere.
Growing public antipathy toward the wave of new datacenter projects and how to address it was [17]discussed earlier this year at the Datacloud Global Congress in Cannes, France.
"We have communities that don't want us there," complained Val Walsh, Microsoft's VP for Cloud Operations & Innovation.
The panel of industry representatives felt there is a need for education, so the public is better informed about what datacenters actually do and the applications and industries that depend upon them. ®
Get our [18]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/22/georgia_datacenter_pushback/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_specialfeatures/futureofthedatacenter&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aUGQK6jWe42KKeGUy_9TOwAAAZg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_specialfeatures/futureofthedatacenter&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aUGQK6jWe42KKeGUy_9TOwAAAZg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_specialfeatures/futureofthedatacenter&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aUGQK6jWe42KKeGUy_9TOwAAAZg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.desmog.com/2025/12/15/behind-closed-doors-georgia-county-rewrote-data-center-rules/
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_specialfeatures/futureofthedatacenter&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aUGQK6jWe42KKeGUy_9TOwAAAZg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.datacenterwatch.org/report
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_specialfeatures/futureofthedatacenter&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aUGQK6jWe42KKeGUy_9TOwAAAZg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://www.inquirer.com/business/data-centers-philadelphia-pros-cons-opposition-survey-20251215.html
[10] https://www.sierraclub.org/press-releases/2025/12/full-page-open-letter-calls-amazon-google-meta-and-microsoft-stop-fueling
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2025/12/16/ford_datacenter_batteries/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2025/12/12/ai_datacenter_investments_goldman/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2025/12/15/oracle_denies_openai_delays/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2025/12/15/idc_server_storage_q3/
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/07/ags_sue_trump_wind_energy_freeze/
[16] https://www.yourharlow.com/2025/12/13/north-weald-google-data-centre-plan-approved/
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/05/datacenters_have_a_public_image/
[18] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Controversy has erupted in Coweta County, Georgia, after climate advocacy group DeSmog alleged that county officials held private meetings with lobbyists representing the developer of a proposed datacenter project.
In August, The Register [1]reported that the county, located near Atlanta, had imposed a moratorium on datacenter approvals while it gathered input from stakeholders on proposed planning regulations.
[2]
Residents expressed opposition to "Project Sail," a $17 billion facility that would occupy approximately 831 acres of rural land, while lobbyists supporting the project were accused of attempting to weaken regulatory provisions, including those related to environmental impact assessments.
[3]
[4]
[5]DeSmog now says that both real estate biz Prologis, the developer behind Project Sail, and the owner of the land, Atlas Development, are seeking to influence Coweta County officials via in-person meetings and email correspondence.
It claims community representatives were not afforded the same level of access, and were told they could not speak to county officials by phone, but must instead communicate via group email.
[6]
Hundreds of residents mobilized to oppose the project in a bid to conserve the area's rural character, while more than 3,900 people are registered on a "STOP Project Sail" Facebook page.
Coweta County is understood to be considering its draft datacenter ordinance on December 16, with a final vote possible.
Elsewhere in America, [7]Data Center Watch , which tracks grassroots opposition to server farms, claims that $64 billion worth of projects have already been blocked or delayed by a growing wave of local community actions.
[8]
In Pennsylvania, those opposed to new datacenters outnumber supporters, according to a report in [9]The Philadelphia Inquirer . It said several projects were recently proposed in the region, and many faced neighborhood pushback.
Environmental organization [10]The Sierra Club took out a full-page ad in the Indianapolis Star in Indiana, calling on the leaders of the largest technology companies to ensure their datacenters are powered by clean energy.
The letter says Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft have collectively built facilities capable of consuming more electricity than four million American homes, driving a rash of new fossil fuel power plants and keeping dirty coal-fired plants online.
[11]Ford shifts gears to build batteries for datacenters
[12]AI datacenter boom could end badly, Goldman Sachs warns
[13]Delays? What delays? Oracle insists its $300B cloud contract with OpenAI is on track
[14]Hyperscalers fuel $112B server spending spree in Q3
It accuses them of standing by while President Trump [15]slashed the renewable energy projects they previously said they wanted, and calls on them to follow their stated climate goals and push for an affordable and reliable decarbonized grid that benefits all.
And it isn't just the US where people are starting to question the wave of datacenter builds. In Essex, England, Epping Forest District Council has just approved Google's outline plans for a facility on part of North Weald Airfield, a former RAF base, despite opposition from residents.
According to [16]local media , concerns were raised about the project's impact on airfield operations and its potential to reduce space for stalls at the market held on-site every Saturday.
There is also skepticism that the 100-200 jobs promised at the facility would go to local people, rather than IT professionals moving in from elsewhere.
Growing public antipathy toward the wave of new datacenter projects and how to address it was [17]discussed earlier this year at the Datacloud Global Congress in Cannes, France.
"We have communities that don't want us there," complained Val Walsh, Microsoft's VP for Cloud Operations & Innovation.
The panel of industry representatives felt there is a need for education, so the public is better informed about what datacenters actually do and the applications and industries that depend upon them. ®
Get our [18]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/22/georgia_datacenter_pushback/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_specialfeatures/futureofthedatacenter&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aUGQK6jWe42KKeGUy_9TOwAAAZg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_specialfeatures/futureofthedatacenter&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aUGQK6jWe42KKeGUy_9TOwAAAZg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_specialfeatures/futureofthedatacenter&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aUGQK6jWe42KKeGUy_9TOwAAAZg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.desmog.com/2025/12/15/behind-closed-doors-georgia-county-rewrote-data-center-rules/
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_specialfeatures/futureofthedatacenter&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aUGQK6jWe42KKeGUy_9TOwAAAZg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.datacenterwatch.org/report
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_specialfeatures/futureofthedatacenter&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aUGQK6jWe42KKeGUy_9TOwAAAZg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://www.inquirer.com/business/data-centers-philadelphia-pros-cons-opposition-survey-20251215.html
[10] https://www.sierraclub.org/press-releases/2025/12/full-page-open-letter-calls-amazon-google-meta-and-microsoft-stop-fueling
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2025/12/16/ford_datacenter_batteries/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2025/12/12/ai_datacenter_investments_goldman/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2025/12/15/oracle_denies_openai_delays/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2025/12/15/idc_server_storage_q3/
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/07/ags_sue_trump_wind_energy_freeze/
[16] https://www.yourharlow.com/2025/12/13/north-weald-google-data-centre-plan-approved/
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/05/datacenters_have_a_public_image/
[18] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
keeping dirty coal-fired plants online.
Yet Another Anonymous coward
Isn't that what they voted for ?
Re: keeping dirty coal-fired plants online.
Jimmy2Cows
Well... it's what 49.8% of 64.1% of eligible voters voted for... i.e. only around 1/3rd of the voters.
NIMBYs are a funny lot
Johnb89
The broader concerns about energy useage aside because its not a local question, a datacentre is about the most benign industrial neighbour one could have. No fumes, little traffic, little noise and so on. Would they rather have an incinerator? Steel plant? Nuclear power plant? Recycling plant?
Re: NIMBYs are a funny lot
codejunky
@Johnb89
"Would they rather have an incinerator? Steel plant? Nuclear power plant? Recycling plant?"
I am guessing they would like a grassy field to have a commune then wonder why they live in the dark ages. I think they should make claims like in the other reg article where the datacentre will be powered by wind and solar until you get half way down the article to see its really gas.
Re: NIMBYs are a funny lot
Doctor Syntax
Real plants.
Re: NIMBYs are a funny lot
Vometia has insomnia. Again.
I wouldn't mind living next to a nuclear power plant. I mean I almost do what with Harwell and Culham being nearby, or at least their ghosts; and I still have a pair of AERE tweezers: God knows what they were previously used for, but I still use them to pluck my eyebrows because decent tweezers are impossible to find.
Education needed
"The panel of industry representatives felt there is a need for education..."
Along the lines of "either let us tap into your already overextended grid and jack up prices for everyone or we'll build fossil fuel plants ourselves and destroy the environment."
That kind of education?