AIBRIEF
Sen. Raphael Warnock toured OpenAI's 1,400 acre Project Camellia site in coastal Georgia and called for a moratorium unless developers meet guarantees on rates, pollution, and transparency.
U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock walked the 1,400-acre coastal-Georgia site where OpenAI wants to build a $20 billion, 3.2-gigawatt data center, then told residents the project can be slowed unless the developer meets a named list of preconditions.
Project Camellia, as the proposed campus in the Savannah Gateway Industrial Hub is known, would draw enough electricity to power roughly three Atlanta-sized cities. Effingham County sits about 30 miles from Savannah, where Warnock grew up. The project remains proposed, not approved.
At Zion Lutheran Church in Guyton, Protect Effingham Alliance volunteer Carrie Webber said the senator asked residents how they first learned of the project. The answer, residents said, was not through direct outreach from OpenAI or county commissioners. Warnock then toured Belmont Glen with alliance chair John Smith, whose home sits roughly 1,000 yards from the proposed campus.
Warnock said he is not opposed to AI or data centers, but to multibillion-dollar developments that move forward without resident input. He listed four preconditions: no utility-rate increases, no air or water pollution, no unresolved noise or light issues, and no closed-door dealmaking. "This is not OpenAI County. This is Effingham County," he said. Asked whether the project could be stopped, Warnock replied: "It's not impossible."
The next test is whether OpenAI, Effingham County's commissioners, or the Georgia Public Service Commission respond to the senator's preconditions on the record.