As Georgia becomes one of the fastest-growing markets for data centers, voters are approaching their ballots wondering where candidates stand on their development – especially southeast Georgians who soon will see a hyperscale OpenAI data center built in their “backyard.”
One of the most significant races for data center development is the state Public Service Commission, which has five seats, and is the regulatory body for Georgia Power and other state utilities. While the PSC doesn’t decide where data centers are built, it does make decisions on how much energy power companies serve these facilities and for how much. In August, PSC members reviewed and approved the large load contract for Georgia Power to serve electricity to the future OpenAI data center in Effingham County.
Two seats are up for election this November. Republican Joshua Tolbert and Democrat Shelia Edwards are competing for the District 5 seat, while Democratic incumbent Peter Hubbard and Republican former PSC member Fitz Johnson are facing off – again – for District 3.
District 5: Tolbert vs. Edwards
Joshua Tolbert, who has an engineering background in building power plants, said he believes Georgia should welcome businesses that want to invest in the state from factories to data centers.
However, he said local communities should be able to decide whether they want data centers and where they should be located. He criticized the lack of transparency with Effingham County’s OpenAI announcement.
“Number two, if they do decide they want a data center, that should not come on the financial backs of the local members of the community,” Tolbert said. “That is where the PSC comes in.”
The PSC should be ensuring that data center development does not shift costs onto residential customers or other communities, he said.
Tolbert also said there is a difference between the direct cost of electricity and less obvious costs associated with serving massive new loads.
“It’s very easy to make sure the data centers pay for the electricity they use,” he said. “The part that's more challenging is adding infrastructure, whether it's transmission lines or pipelines or purchasing fuel reservations. How are those costs being allocated? How are they being paid for?”
Tolbert was also critical of the PSC’s 2025 decision to approve roughly 10 gigawatts of new generation. He said he objected because much of the projected demand was speculative at the time.
“If the forecast is wrong, who’s paying for that,” he said
When approaching large load contracts as a PSC commissioner, Tolbert said he would scrutinize the contract’s collateral, termination provisions and payments to determine whether the data center is paying more than the incremental cost of serving it.
He also supports considering solar and other generation technologies as part of Georgia’s energy mix, but said power companies must evaluate resources according to the particular needs of the grid rather than selecting technologies in advance.
Sheila Edwards has a background in Cobb County politics and working in the Kennedy Space Center’s Space Shuttle Program. She ran for the Georgia PSC in 2022, but her race was taken off the ballot because of a voting rights lawsuit that was ongoing at the time.
Edwards is back and when it comes to data centers, she said both the state and local governments have offered too many incentives to data center companies, causing development to move too quickly.
“They should have to pay their own way,” she said. “You kick women and children off of welfare, but you allow these companies to come into our state and get corporate welfare.”
Edwards also criticized the state for a lack of regulations for things such as data center’s water usage, noise pollution and ensuring ratepayers are protected from paying for increased energy demand.
She also called for greater transparency around large-load contracts. When it comes to approaching these contracts, Edwards said she would push for fewer redactions and an end to nondisclosure agreements. She said Georgia residents should be able to see what they are paying for and how major projects, like OpenAI’s, affect utility costs.
She said she also wants contracts to include clearer plans for water use and community benefits as well as protections for ratepayers, ensuring data center companies are paying for needed infrastructure and not receiving abatements or incentives.
Edwards said she would like to push for utility companies powering data centers to look into more renewable energy resources, including solar. She said she also worries about strains on power grids, particularly in severe storm-prone south Georgia.
Edwards said she also questions the long-term risk of building large amounts of infrastructure around an industry that is expanding rapidly but remains relatively new.
“If that bubble bursts,” she asked, “who’s left holding the bill?”
District 3: Hubbard vs. Johnson
Peter Hubbard is a former renewable-energy developer and energy analyst and has been vocal about his belief that Georgia needs a more comprehensive state policy for data centers.
Hubbard said Georgia has provided substantial incentives to data centers while also allowing them to access electricity under favorable large-load arrangements, thus “rolling out the red carpet,” for them.
When approaching large load contracts, Hubbard said he would push for additional safeguards, including financial protections if projects terminate early. He also supports provisions allowing data centers to reduce electricity consumption during periods of grid stress.
Hubbard was one of the commissioners to review the OpenAI contract and got the review period extended because he believed such a significant contract deserved more scrutiny.
The commissioner said another major concern is how the electricity needed to power new data centers is generated. He said he opposes building additional fossil-fuel resources to meet data center demand and said data center companies should be required, rather than simply encouraged, to invest in clean energy and contracts should require carbon free energy service.
“What would help me and assuage my concerns is for them to be investing even more in local communities, actually paying their taxes instead of getting all these benefits, and procuring clean energy for their operations,” he said.
Hubbard has also raised concerns about the financial risks associated with large, long-term power contracts and what happens if the data center boom falls through.
“If we build it and they don't show up in the numbers advertised or they do show up but don't stick around, that's a risk,” he said.
Regulators should examine collateral requirements, minimum payments and protections against customers terminating contracts after utilities have built infrastructure to serve them, Hubbard said.
Gov. Brian Kemp appointed Johnson to the commission in 2021 to fill a vacancy. In November 2025, Johnson lost his seat to Hubbard in a contentious race fueled by backlash against rising utility costs.
Fitz Johnson’s communications team declined an interview but shared this statement from the candidate:
“The actual development of data centers are matters of local control. As I'm running for the Public Service Commission, which regulates utilities, my focus is on ratepayers getting a strong deal and not bearing one cent of cost for this. I urge Georgia Power and OpenAI to disclose the details of the infrastructure required to support the largest energy user the state has ever seen. As a Commissioner, I would not support any plan to service this facility that did not meet or exceed the standards I helped establish to protect residential ratepayers."
Upcoming election
As data center development continues to grow in the state, more residents are calling on their local governments to develop ordinances that regulate effects such as noise, water and light. Residents also are fighting against data centers being built close to neighborhoods, schools and churches.
While the PSC can’t regulate these decisions, it will continue to have a say in how much of the state’s electricity capacity will go toward data centers. While the PSC voted to approve 10,000 additional megawatts of capacity for Georgia Power, Hubbard said the power company likely will seek up to an additional 6,000 megawatts.
“Georgia Power's peak is around 17,000 megawatts,” he said. “So we're talking about an enormous amount of new supply that they're looking to procure and the implementation of that procurement is important. I would like to take the commission in a different direction, so we're more proactive, we're developing our own power plans and then measuring them up against what the power company puts in front of us.”
Early voting for the upcoming election begins Oct. 17. Election day is Nov. 3.
