Data Center Fight in Georgia

In secretive meetings with local officials in rural Georgia, a saga has been unfolding that’s emblematic of the data center fight across America. Partnerships are springing up with obscure advisory firms that are paving the way to build massive data centers. The latest frontline? Coweta County, Georgia, where major tech and real estate companies and investment funds are poised to invest billions of dollars. 

While some oppose a proposed 800-acre data center mega project there known as Project Sail for its impacts to the climate, others like the 78-year-old Jackie Lassetter worry most about the threats to the land they love. “I won’t live to see it done probably at my age,” says Lassetter of Project Sail, “but this does not need to be [built] in a rural area.” 

DeSmog’s Edward Donnelly lays out how data center developers pushed local Georgia officials to approve a data center project the size of 600 football fields among quiet homes and farms. Dive into the investigation.

Democracy faces erosion the world over, with serious consequences for energy and climate policy. Ahead of Hungary’s April 12 election and the UK’s May 7 elections, DeSmog has mapped the links between authoritarian leader Viktor Orbán’s influence network in British politics, which is concentrated around Reform UK leader Nigel Farage.

With the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran spiking oil and gas prices, Reform is calling for new North Sea drilling. And as Adam Barnett has documented, senior Reform officials have repeatedly praised the Hungarian leader’s autocratic rule. See Adam’s interactive map and get the full story.

For decades, the oil and gas industry has been ignoring a trillion-gallon ticking time bomb. This toxic oilfield wastewater is a product of oil and gas production that drillers inject underground. But a series of investigations by DeSmog and others are showing that increasingly, the waste is not staying where it should — polluting drinking water or erupting to the surface. And a growing body of evidence shows that regulators knew all along that injection wells were always a temporary solution.

Join DeSmog, ProPublica, Inside Climate News, and The Frontier on Tuesday, April 28 from 4:00 p.m.–5:00 p.m. EDT for a virtual discussion with DeSmog’s Justin Nobel and the other investigative journalists pushing for accountability among industry and regulators and justice for the people and environments affected. Register and submit your questions here.

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Thanks as always,

Geoff DembickiGlobal Managing Editor

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