Senate · Introduced · 2025-2026 Regular Session

SB421: SB421 "The Data Center Transparency Act"; enact

Last action January 27, 2026 · Senate Read and Referred

A Georgia Senate bill called the Data Center Transparency Act would bar counties, cities, authorities, and other local government bodies from signing nondisclosure agreements that hide a business's electricity or water usage.

In plain language

Local governments sometimes sign nondisclosure agreements with companies, including data centers, as part of deals over utility hookups or economic incentives. Those agreements can prevent the public from learning how much electricity or water a specific business actually uses. This bill adds a new section to Georgia law (O.C.G.A. Chapter 80 of Title 36) that stops counties, municipal corporations, authorities, and other political subdivisions from entering into any nondisclosure agreement or similar contract that would block them from disclosing a company's electricity or water usage, whether that usage is consumptive or nonconsumptive. The bill gives itself the short title 'The Data Center Transparency Act' and repeals any conflicting laws. It does not set penalties or an enforcement mechanism beyond the prohibition itself.

What the bill does

Bans counties, cities, authorities, and other local government bodies in Georgia from signing nondisclosure agreements that hide a business's electricity or water usage.
Applies the ban to both consumptive water use (water that is used up) and nonconsumptive water use (water that is returned after use).
Creates a new section of Georgia law, O.C.G.A. § 36-80-32, to carry out this rule.
Gives the bill the short title 'The Data Center Transparency Act' for public reference.
Repeals any existing state or local laws that conflict with this new prohibition.

Who it affects

County governments, city governments, authorities, and other local political subdivisions in Georgia that negotiate utility or development deals; and businesses, including data centers and other large electricity or water users, whose usage information could no longer be shielded by a confidentiality agreement with a local government.

Why it matters

If a local government wants to keep a company's water or power use secret through a confidentiality deal, this bill would take that option away, meaning residents and reporters could more easily find out how much electricity or water large facilities like data centers draw from local systems.

Key provisions

Section 1 names the bill 'The Data Center Transparency Act' as its official short title.
Section 2 adds new Code section O.C.G.A. § 36-80-32, prohibiting counties, municipal corporations, authorities, or other political subdivisions from entering nondisclosure agreements covering electricity or water usage of any entity.
The prohibition covers both consumptive and nonconsumptive water usage, closing off ways such usage could otherwise be described as exempt.
Section 3 repeals any conflicting laws but does not specify additional penalties or enforcement procedures.

Status timeline

2026-01-27Senate Read and Referred (Senate)
2026-01-22Senate Hopper (Senate)

Topics

data centers
government transparency
water usage
electricity usage
local government contracts