In the summer of 2026, 650 Georgia Residents were surveyed for their stance on the interrelationship between their utilities, their communities, and the influx of proposed data centers.  

Overall, the survey found that Georgians are following national trends in that – across the board, regardless of political party, or demographic – people are concerned about data center development, they believe it is negatively impacting their energy bills, and they have little trust in the process and protection. They want the state to take action.

83% of respondents support the state taking collective action via a statewide moratorium.

1. 75% (3 out of every 4) Georgians are concerned about data center development.  
2. 13% think that data centers are not the cause of their rising bills 
3. Only 30% think that protections are in place which will keep data center growth from causing their bills to rise more in the future.  
4. Across party lines, Georgians want statewide protections. At least 3 out of every 4 Georgians support 
   1. Transparency laws (95%) 
   2. Legal protections from data center infrastructure and power costs (80%) 
   3. Requiring upfront payment of those  costs (74%) 
   4. Requiring economic and environmental impact assessments ahead of construction (83%) 
   5. Community benefit agreements (80%) 
   6. Statewide moratorium (83%) 

Not data centers! Only approximately one in four respondents supported the construction of a data center within three miles of their home.

To better understand these levels of concern and preferences on how their neighborhoods might be managed, residents were also asked about their support for other commonly discussed infrastructure projects.

The charts below show what people would rather have in their backyard (hospitals, roads, malls, warehouses, low-income housing, utility-scale solar, airport), what they feel the same about (battery storage), and what they would rather not have (gas power plant, landfill, nuclear power plant).

The survey asked about perceptions regarding common impacts of data center developments. This enables us to identify primary reasons for opposition.

A common topic mentioned in town halls and community discussions is the effect on utility bills from data centers using large amounts of power and water.

From the survey results, we find that only 13 out of every 100 residents confidently think that data centers are not the cause of their rising bills. On top of this, only 30 out of every 100 Georgians believe that protections are in place which will keep data center growth from causing their bills to rise more in the future.

Specifically, 73 out of 100 Georgians over the age of 60 report “major concern” about the impact on their electricity bills as well as on the supply of electricity and water. And only 12 out of 100 in this same group believe that there are protections in place.

These numbers paint a compelling picture of a feeling of vulnerability and helplessness in the face of personal economic burdens due to rising utility bills. The survey also explored the concern level for other potential impacts from data center growth. Those topics are shown below.

Across all these potential impacts, concerns generally outweigh any potential perceived benefits that data centers might bring. This even extends to taxes, which are often cited as potential benefits from municipal authorities and tech companies when advocating for the approval of a new data center construction project. Only one in three respondents thought that there would be a positive benefit on taxes, with slightly more Republicans than Democrats agreeing (35% vs. 26%).

Another commonly cited potential benefit, jobs, is the only category where concerns did not outweigh benefits. 46% felt there would be a benefit, vs 45% who expressed concern. Again, more Republicans felt positively about the impacts on jobs than Democrats (54% vs. 40%).

Despite promises from industry and their representatives of benefits and concerns from leaders that action will stifle growth – Georgian’s want state-wide laws to ensure that data center companies back up their promises with real data, real money, and legally enforceable results.

Residents were also asked about their support for a variety of potential strategies to protect us from potential impacts associated with data centers. Georgians are overwhelmingly in support of a variety of policy approaches to protection. It is important to note that this support extends beyond partisan divisions, showing very similar numbers across party affiliations.

Interestingly enough, while most of the protections mentioned would require enactment of statewide law or rules; 66% of Georgians expressed a desire for local decision-making autonomy. However, at least 75% of Georgians expressed support for each proposed state-wide solution.

When asked “do you think you and other electricity customers should pay for the costs of building new power plants, power lines, fuel costs and other infrastructure to serve data centers?” Two out of every three Georgians said “no – data center companies should pay for all of the infrastructure they require.”

When asked about laws that address energy and energy use: across the board, 80% of respondents believe that no power costs should be passed onto consumers, expenses should be paid upfront, and that they should utilize clean energy. This indicates an overwhelming majority of Georgians do not want to be left holding the bag for the proposed grid expansion – and that protections must be put in place before grid expansion occurs.

Importantly, 80% of Georgians supporting enshrining these protections into law, which is larger than the percentage (66%) who believed that data centers should bear all costs.

Data centers are more than just utility costs, and they are often touted as having a potential to provide positive community impacts.

In line with the overall lack of trust and transparency – over 80% of respondents wanted laws and requirements to demonstrate and guarantee positive community impacts.

83% of respondents supported a law requiring data centers to provide an economic and environmental impact assessment before construction begins.

80% of respondents were keen to require data centers to sign Community Benefits Agreements. Popular benefits included: direct electric bill credits for nearby residents or low income/elderly residents, investment in local grid performance / storm protection, and funding for schools.

Overall, these survey results confirm the findings from nationwide studies showing that residents do not want data centers to be constructed in their communities.  However, there are also important new findings including:

1. Georgians are aware of and concerned about the impact of data centers on the cost of their utilities.
2. Georgians do not trust the current protections in place surrounding data centers, their impacts, and their costs.
3. Georgia residents overwhelmingly support statewide legal interventions to protect them from the data center influx including a moratorium, transparency laws, and guarantees that utility infrastructure and other costs associated with power generation will not be passed onto them.

Further questions about the details of this study and access to the data should be directed to Sachs Media.

Participants were sampled using quota-based recruitment to approximate the demographic composition of the U.S. adult population with respect to age, gender, race/ethnicity, education, and geographic region. Recruitment was conducted via Cint, a global digital insights platform that aggregates opt-in respondents from a network of vetted panel partners, with built-in quality controls including digital fingerprinting, duplicate detection, and attention screening.