Data centers are a hot mess!  Whether you're a big supporter or the most ardent opponent, you don't need me to tell you that.  There's every reason to want to slow things down, so it makes sense for the City of Covington and Newton County to put moratoriums in place, as they did recently.  But it's critical we use these timeouts to better understand the issues and the not-so-obvious solutions to some of the most vexing problems these massive facilities pose.

Concerns over soil and water impacts, noise and light pollution, heavy water use, electricity consumption, and air pollution, have communities across Georgia and the Southeast pushing back on data centers in their area.  Meanwhile, in the Georgia General Assembly, lawmakers are proposing a variety of bills meant to put guardrails around data center projects to protect Georgia taxpayers and ratepayers.

The concerns are many, but I am going to delve specifically here into issues around electricity demand:  including risk to ratepayers, grid reliability, and air quality concerns.  There are some emerging ideas we should be following.

Surprisingly, the federal website for the United States Environmental Protection Agency still says "The mission of EPA is to protect human health and the environment."  (My apologies if reading that caused you to spew coffee, a soft drink, or something stronger through your nose.  If we couldn't laugh, we would cry.)  But, after over a year of bad news, things got much worse last week for anyone not spending their days in the boardroom of a major oil company.

On February 12, President Trump and US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin announced the Trump administration was officially rescinding the 2009 "Endangerment Finding," which had given US  agencies authority for over 16 years to regulate six greenhouse gases (including CO2) as harmful pollutants that endanger American health and wellbeing.  This action removes the legal basis by which the EPA has regulated fuel efficiency and tailpipe emissions standards.  It also paves the way for repealing rules that restrict pollution from power plants and oil and gas operations.

In announcing the change, President Trump claimed "this has nothing to do with public health," adding "This was all a scam, a giant scam."  Neither of those statements could be farther from the truth.