Neat piles of shredded legislation sit ready to be thrown when the Georgia House of Representatives adjourns on April 2, 2026, in the state Capitol. Alander Rocha/Georgia Recorder
The 2026 legislative session in Georgia started with a wide range of proposals aimed at curbing the recent surge in data center proposals and responding to other environmental or energy concerns.
And while most of those bills failed to overcome the last-minute frenzy of negotiations on the last day of session, a couple of proposals lived on and are awaiting Gov. Brian Kemp’s pen. The governor has a month to decide whether to sign bills passed this session into law.
A boost for conservation efforts
In a win for conservationists in Georgia, lawmakers extended the Georgia Outdoor Stewardship Program for another 10 years and increased the amount of funding dedicated to it by 50%. Since its inception in 2019, the program has allocated over $142 million to 74 conservation and outdoor recreation projects in Georgia, including the recent acquisition of nearly 4,000 acres along Trail Ridge near the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge for conservation and activities such as hunting and fishing.
“I like to say that when we passed this initially, it was done with a 10-year sunset so that we could prove this was a good, beneficial project,” said Mike Worley, the head of the Georgia Wildlife Federation. “I think we have clearly proved that through the years, and also proved that there’s a significant need out there beyond what we’ve been able to fund.”
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The current program allocates 40% of tax revenue from sporting goods purchases to fund conservation projects around the state. Senate Bill 478, currently awaiting the governor’s signature, would increase the allocation to 60% of tax revenue to the Outdoor Stewardship program, which could increase the program’s funding by about $15 million annually. The Legislature could come back later and potentially increase it further to 80% under a constitutional amendment voters overwhelmingly approved in 2018.
“I don’t know if we’ll do it next year or the year after, but you will see us looking to increase that percentage up to 80%,” Worley said.
No action on data centers, PFAS
A wide range of proposals, from clawing back tax credits for or regulating data centers to addressing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, concerns, will have to wait until the next session.
While it seemed like there was a strong appetite among some lawmakers to phase out the tax credits data centers receive, there was mostly silence on the issue on the last day of the lawmaking session. Lawmakers had advanced several proposals, including one that would codify existing Public Service Commission regulations on data centers into law, but they failed to finalize any of the data center-related bills before time ran out.
“This session provoked a lot of meaningful discourse around protecting Georgians from the explosive growth of data centers and addressing PFAS pollution in our drinking water and surface waters. But despite the fact that legislators from both sides of the aisle clearly recognize the need to shed more light on these issues, the session closed with the legislature doing absolutely nothing to take on two of the most pressing environmental issues facing Georgians today,” said April Lipscomb, senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center, in a statement
PFAS are man-made chemicals sometimes referred to as “forever chemicals” because of how long they can linger in the environment. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, PFAS exposure may lead to health effects including cancer, decreased fertility and developmental delays in children.
Mark Woodall, a lobbyist for the Sierra Club of Georgia, called it an “extremely disappointing session” for those who “care about the world.” He said lawmakers had over a dozen proposals just on “the invasion of data centers” but failed to address concerns that span political ideologies. He said lawmakers had a clear choice between the people of Georgia and big business, and “they chose big business.”
“It’s Democrats, Republicans, independents, whatever you are, they’re upset about these data centers coming in, sucking up all the water in the state. Then we got this massive Georgia Power, 14,000 megawatt expansion for data centers, and the Legislature failed to do anything about that. So yeah, I think there ought to be consequences,” Woodall said.
A consumer advocacy organization, the Georgia Public Interest Research Group, also described the lack of action to protect residential Georgia Power customers from rate increases related to data center growth as a legislative fail, saying that Georgians should not pay for “the exorbitant, risky, gas-fired energy that Georgia Power is planning for data centers that may or may not show up.”
“We are deeply disappointed by the Legislature’s failure to pass meaningful protections for Georgia Power customers. Georgia residents deserve better,” said Aidyn Levin with the Georgia PIRG.
A timber tax perk aimed at rural communities
A bill designed to stimulate rural communities struggling with recent mill closures and the aftermath of Hurricane Helene did survive the legislative process. House Bill 134 aimed to make Georgia more competitive for timber investments, but it does not create new tax breaks. Supporters of the bill say it would add five years of flexibility to existing incentives, allowing forestry-based companies to sell or transfer their tax credits to other taxpayers and provide them with fast cash for the early stages of building new facilities and hiring staff.
“That means that when a company is investing tens or hundreds or millions of dollars to build a new facility or upgrade an existing facility, they can put those credits to work upfront when the capital was actually needed. Not years down the road,” said Tim Lowrimore, president and CEO of the Georgia Forestry Association, in a social media post supporting the bill.
Another proposal creating a new tax credit for woody biomass power generators was pitched as a way to help power data centers, but it did not pass.
‘Muddy water’ bill diluted
Another bill that landed on the governor’s desk became known to environmentalists as the “Muddy Water” bill. Senate Bill 447, sponsored by Gwinnett Republican state Sen. Clint Dixon, is aimed at expediting the permitting process for developers by creating time limits for local authorities to approve or deny a land disturbance permit application, which is the first step to developing a site for construction.
Critics had warned in committee hearings that the bill as originally written would have created an automatic approval process if the local authority does not consider the application within a time period, as well as effectively removed local authorities’ ability to deny an application. Those opponents of the bill were mostly satisfied with the changes, which removed the automatic approval provision and excludes large projects that have to go through the state’s development of regional impact process after concerns were raised that the bill would allow data centers to slip through the approval process by not giving local authorities time to fully consider the application.
“The changes to the bill removed the most significant rollbacks to the Erosion and Sedimentation Control Act, while adding important provisions that give local governments more time if needed to ensure they are protecting rivers and streams from sediment pollution from large development projects, like data centers,” Lipscomb said.
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