There is no shortage of CRE pundits who have proclaimed that investment in data centers is the wave of the future. However, a debate over how massive data centers impact state revenues, the electric grid, and communities has broken into the open in the Georgia legislature. It illustrates the challenges states may face in balancing new economic development opportunities data centers can create with their costs.

In Georgia, which has recently seen a flood of announcements of new data centers to be built, House Speaker Jon Burns has announced the creation of a special committee to develop a state resource plan that will include managing the impact of the data centers flooding into the state.

The Speaker’s decision is remarkable because it follows a veto last year by Georgia Governor Brian Kemp of a bill passed by both the Georgia House and Senate to suspend previously authorized new sales and use tax exemptions for data centers and to establish a special commission on data center energy planning.