Georgia’s coal plants were set to retire. Then came the data center boom.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency has rolled back rules restricting climate warming emissions at electrical power plants, including those in Georgia. The rules the EPA ended this week date from the Biden administration and would have required coal and natural gas-fired power plants to restrict carbon emissions starting in 2030. That was about the same time Georgia Power had planned to shutter its two largest coal plants — Plant Bowen, which is north of Atlanta, and Plant Scherer, just north of Macon. But now with the data center boom, Georgia Power is keeping the plants running. With the help of a third coal plant over the border in Alabama, Georgia Power hopes to meet fully 70% of the data center demand. Plant Scherer is on the Ocmulgee River, in the Altamaha River watershed. Altamaha Riverkeeper Fletcher Sams said the decision is a greenlight for unchecked pollution. "This rollback is going to allow Georgia Power to run these aging antique coal plants indefinitely," he said. Plant Bowen’s units all came online in the 1970s. Plant Scherer’s went online in the '80s. The Trump administration is fighting to keep even older coal plants up and running. Last year, the two Georgia plants produced about 22 million tons of carbon dioxide, putting them near the top for greenhouse gas pollution among over 1,000 U.S. power plants and accounting for just under half of the carbon emissions of Georgia Power’s entire generation fleet. Read more: https://www.gpb.org/news/2026/09/16/how-the-epa-rollback-of-carbon-emission-rules-could-play-out-in-georgias-coal-fired