Newly elected PSC member supports data center moratorium

Some voters went to the polls looking to elect people to help in their fight to keep data centers out of their communities. One newly elected commissioner on a public utilities board is already calling for a moratorium on new data centers.

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People who live along Cole Lake Road in Dallas are happy they have someone on the Georgia Public Service Commission who wants to stop data centers from being built for now.

“What is true is they don’t belong in the residential areas,” Todd Pownall told Channel 2’s Tom Jones.

He is emphatic data centers don’t belong in residential areas.

“If they were put somewhere where they wouldn’t bother the neighborhood,” then, he said, they wouldn’t concern him as much.

But he says a large proposed data center has been approved to be built on property that butts up to his.

“It’s right behind my house,” Pownall said.

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Communities all over are fighting to keep data centers from being built in their communities. The midterm election could bring more elected officials who will fight with them.

Governor-elect Keisha Lance Bottoms has called for a moratorium on data centers.

“I think it should be longer than a year,” Public Service Commissioner-elect Shelia Edwards said.

“We have to make sure that they have a guardrail. That they’re doing things within that guardrail. That’s not encroaching on people,” she said.

Edwards is concerned about data centers using excessive amounts of water and electricity. She’s also concerned about the centers making billions but getting tax breaks.

“Pay your fair share,” Edwards said.

“We don’t want them here,” Pownall reiterated.

He wants more research before the centers are built.

“You need to have buffers in place. You need to have guardrails in place,” Pownall said.

Edwards says everyone throughout the state should have a voice in where data centers can be built and how they should operate.

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