As rural America grapples with the rapid expansion of data centers, USDA's Rural Utilities Service has made its largest loan in history — a $3.3 billion commitment to Georgia's Oglethorpe Power.
The funding will finance a roughly 1.4-gigawatt natural gas power plant in Monroe County, Georgia, with power production slated to begin in 2029. The plant, owned by 38 co-ops serving nearly 5 million Georgians, sits about half a mile from a new Google data center site.
This record-setting loan follows a July 2025 executive order from President Trump directing federal agencies to identify financing options that could support data center construction nationwide. USDA Undersecretary for Rural Development Glenn Smith told Reuters the Georgia plant could help support growing industry in the state, including potential data centers, and that rural areas stand to benefit once infrastructure is established.
But many farmers remain skeptical. Pew Research found that 60% of rural Americans feel uncomfortable with new data centers in their area, and the share of rural residents calling data centers "mostly bad" for home energy costs jumped from 32% in January to 46% in August.
The stakes are significant for co-ops and their customers alike. According to National Rural Electric Cooperative Association CEO Jim Matheson, "A single 800 megawatt data center can use roughly triple the electricity of all of the co-op's other customers combined."
While big customers can help spread fixed costs and lower rates for others, the sheer scale of these facilities introduces real risk for rural power systems and the communities they serve.
This synopsis was created with the use of AI.