Why Did Google Fund an Anti-Data Center, Anti-Nuclear Campaign

In the most recent election, Georgians voted to replace two Republican members of the state public service commission, which regulates state utilities, with Democrats.

Sometimes an ignominious role, the commission has been at the center of a heated debate over recent increases in electric bills following higher natural gas prices. Much of the blame for increasing rates is targeted at data centers for their high electricity consumption and the funding of new nuclear reactors at the Vogtle plant in Waynesboro, Georgia, which was partially paid for by ratepayers.

Independent groups like Georgians for Affordable Future—an advocacy group created by Washington, DC campaign firm Katz Compliance—helped support the anti-data center and anti-nuclear Democratic candidates. They are one of a number of environmental and consumer groups advocating against the Vogtle project—like Georgians for Affordable Energy, Georgia Watch, and Southern Alliance For Clean Energy, a number of which are funded through the Energy Foundation—through reports and testimony to the public services commission.

While the Vogtle project is now notorious for how far it ran over budget, it was inundated with testimony from environmental and consumer advocacy groups that additional nuclear power was not needed and the entire endeavor was a waste of money long before it had budget problems.

But strangely one of the major funders of the Affordable Future campaign is Google who is one of the largest investors in data centers in the country and is currently preparing to fund nuclear powered data centers of its own in other parts of the country like Tennessee.

As of May, Google entered into an agreement to fund three separate nuclear power sites totaling 600 megawatts of small modular reactor (SMR) capacity through the nascent nuclear startup Elementl and another 500 megawatts with Kairos Power set to be online by 2030; all of it to run their data centers.

Yet the tech giant also spent at least $73,400 on the two candidates fighting against costs to ratepayers from data centers and new nuclear power through the Georgians for Affordable Future group.

Another nonprofit group active on affordable energy in Georgia, the Energy and Policy Institute, was funded by The Schmidt Family Foundation—the private charitable foundation created by Eric Schmidt, former chief executive officer of Google—through a $4.3 million grant to the Sustainable Markets Foundation. How much of that grant was stipulated for the Energy and Policy Institute is not specified.

Then there’s a few direct individual contributions, only a couple hundred worth, from Google employees directly to the candidates. Not significant amounts, but odd considering that they are all residents of San Francisco, California and might have little personal connection to public utility policy in Georgia.

Besides Google, there are also other odd campaign funders that have taken a keen interest in the local fight, including a variety of environmental groups that usually advocate against climate change like the Green Advocacy Project and Climate Cabinet, or Democratic federal campaign funders like American Bridge.

Correction: A prior version of this story incorrectly described Eric Schmidt as a founder of Google when he was instead a former CEO of the company beginning in 2001.