OpenAI wants to build a $20 billion, 1,400-acre data center in Effingham County — bigger than any data center operating anywhere in the world. The incentives were approved the night before the public ever heard the name. This site puts their claims next to the record, with sources you can check yourself.
These five pledges appear on Project Camellia’s website. Not one of them is in a binding, enforceable document. The only thing signed so far is their 15-year, 50% property tax abatement.
“Pays its own way on energy.”
The promise that families won’t subsidize this project is a prediction, not a fact. The Southern Environmental Law Center says regulators approved Georgia Power’s data center plan “without sufficient customer protections.” State rules required OpenAI’s power contract to be filed with the Public Service Commission for review before signing — meaning regulators saw it at least a month before the public heard the name. That filing has never been made public. Georgia Power customers have absorbed six rate increases in three years; the company just locked in an 11.9% return on equity, above industry norms, with much of its data center spending shielded as “trade secret” until 2028.
And the power itself? Roughly 6 gigawatts of new methane gas generation was approved to serve data centers — including expansion at Plant McIntosh, right here in Effingham County — while coal plant retirements were delayed. The PSC commissioners who approved it received the majority of their campaign money from donors tied to the utilities they regulate.
Sources: SELC; Georgia Recorder; CBS Mornings; Energy & Policy Institute; U.S. DOE (Plant McIntosh). See Sources.
“Uses minimal water.”
OpenAI’s own admission: “exact water usage is unknown as the project has not yet fully been designed.” No gallon figure appears in writing anywhere — yet the incentives are already approved. “Closed-loop” cooling still requires an initial fill of millions of gallons, and because it uses 10–40% more electricity, it shifts water consumption upstream to the power plants that serve it.
Georgia has seen how this goes: a Fayette County data center drew nearly 30 million gallons — initially without paying — and residents found out when their water pressure dropped.
Sources: Effingham Herald; ProjectCamellia.com FAQ; Politico; ScienceShot/KETOS. See Sources.
“Creates good-paying jobs.”
$20 billion buys 400 permanent jobs at opening. That is $50 million per job — among the least job-dense development in America per dollar. Independent research from Brookings finds data centers deliver far fewer lasting local jobs than announcements promise. By OpenAI’s own account, this site was otherwise slated for warehouses — which employ more people per acre.
Sources: Effingham Herald; Brookings Institution. See Sources.
“Delivers real community benefit.”
The accountability document — the “Georgia Community Compact” — does not exist. Their website says future input “will help shape” it. The promised annual audit will be run by an accounting firm OpenAI selects and pays. The $80 million community fund, spread over the life of the project, is dimes on the dollar against the taxes being abated.
The $71 million “gift” to Georgia students isn’t a check to schools — it’s $100 in credits for OpenAI’s own product, redeemable only by opening a ChatGPT account: up to 710,000 new student accounts, at almost no real cost to OpenAI. MIT researchers report that students leaning on ChatGPT showed weaker brain engagement, weaker memory, and less ownership of their own work. Our schools should build young minds, not deliver them to a corporation as customers.
Sources: ProjectCamellia.com; Effingham Herald; MIT Media Lab (preliminary study). See Sources.
“Generates long-term tax revenue.”
County leaders promise “Project Zero” — eliminating county homestead property taxes — on the strength of one company: a company valued near a trillion dollars that has never turned a profit, in a market trading at valuations last seen in 1999. The county has published no downside scenario. Ask to see the stress test. And remember: state sales-tax exemptions mean the company will pay less into public coffers than the headlines suggest.
One more question no one has answered: when one company pays most of the county’s bills, who do you think county government will answer to?
Sources: Statesboro Herald; NCSL; market data via IntuitionLabs/Barchart. See Sources.
Every date below is documented in public records or published reporting.
This is not “a data center.” The largest data center operating anywhere in the world today draws just under 1 gigawatt. Project Camellia is contracted for 3.2.
Every assurance about water, noise, traffic, and the grid is an estimate for a facility no community anywhere has ever hosted. Effingham County isn’t getting a data center. It’s volunteering to be the experiment.
We are not anti-growth. We are anti–blank check. Before another approval moves forward:
Attend every ECIDA board meeting, County Commission meeting, and school board meeting. Ask the five questions above. Bring neighbors.
Effingham County Board of Commissioners: (912) 754-2123. Ask where they stand on pausing incentives until commitments are enforceable — and whether they’ll get a vote on the PILOT agreement.
The abatement’s bonds must be validated in Effingham County Superior Court — a public proceeding where citizens can appear. Once a judge signs off, it’s final forever. We’re watching the legal notices; sign up and we’ll tell you when it’s filed.
Email stopprojectcamellia@gmail.com with “UPDATES” to join the list. Public records requests are already filed — we’ll publish what comes back, right here.
Every claim on this site is drawn from public records, government filings, or published reporting. Read them yourself.