Savannah Morning News
May 21, 2026
OPINION
Georgia’s energy expansion raises climate change concerns
by David Kyler, Center for a Sustainable Coast
Surveys reveal that 62% of Georgians are worried about global warming, yet state officials continue approving the causes of it – release of heat-trapping gases emitted in combusting and leaking fossil-fuels. A disturbing indication of political negligence toward both public concerns and scientific evidence is the state Public Service Commission's 2025 approval of 10 gigawatts in Georgia Power’s expansion of production capacity – the greatest growth of electricity-generation in state history, mostly to be produced by burning fossil fuels.
Individuals often despair that they feel powerless to change destructive status quo policies threatening the interests of their families, communities and future generations. These threats, including climate change, concentration of wealth and power, as well as disinformation – worsened by artificial intelligence – proliferate amid a daily news cycle that fuels chaos by normalizing it. To overcome that chaos, citizens must elevate their perspectives and clarify choices.
Interlocked challenges presented by issues surrounding energy production, environmental quality, public health, economic justice, and technological change can only be understood and effectively confronted through a comprehensive viewpoint - a systemic approach. Dealing with each of these perplexing problems individually is inherently self-defeating and diversionary.
Reducing the destructive impacts of datacenters requires using clean energy, meaning that energy policy must no longer favor using fossil fuels. Likewise, disinformation spread by social networking and AI algorithms must be curtailed by strictly regulating high-tech applications, which – in turn – depend upon datacenters.
To serve our common interests, citizens must advance a unified campaign addresing an array of interlinked social, scientific, political, environmental, and technological factors. Fragmented approaches to these complex problems must be replaced by well-integrated systemic policies.