Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jason Esteves, a former Georgia State Senator, hosted a town hall Monday evening at Rainbow Baptist Church in DeKalb County for Decatur-area residents to ask questions about the state's growing data center footprint.
Over 50 community members, organizers, and local and congressional candidates gathered in the pews to raise concerns about the impact of data centers on their neighborhoods. Data centers are physical locations that house computing machines powering the internet and AI workloads, but they can draw massive amounts of electricity and run diesel backup generators that affect local air quality.
"When you think about data centers, it ultimately comes down to our environment and affordability," Esteves told the crowd. "People are struggling in Trump's economy. They are struggling to get by with the rising cost of living, with the rising cost of utilities, and they see these massive buildings being built in our communities. They see at the same time that our water bills are going up and our power bills are going up."
The town hall adds to a growing chorus in Georgia politics, with Senator Jon Ossoff's recent FERC inquiry and local races turning on how much control residents have over the siting of the massive electricity consumers. Esteves signaled that if elected, he'd support giving communities more say in whether and where data centers get built.
