In-Depth with Atlanta's Morning News 07-28-26

WSB in depth is next and we're talking live this morning with Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff of Georgia. Senator, thank you for your time this morning. Good morning. Chris, good morning. Thank you. Let me start with this. There's a story that is just out tallying up data center. Total investments here in not just Georgia, but in the Metro Atlanta area. And it comes out to some $50 billion. We'd all heard about the open eye, open AI, the big one. But you add another couple ones to those, and it's huge. These are not without controversy, though. Do you have kind of a general position on the expansion of those here, even with a lot of people complaining about them? And here's my number one concern is making sure that small businesses and families aren't paying higher utility rates as a result of all this additional load that's coming on the grid from these projects. I've opened an inquiry with the federal energy regulator asking the administration to explain how they're going to hold these big tech companies accountable to the public commitments that they've made, that it won't be ratepayers, meaning it won't be ordinary folks, households, and small businesses. who are facing sky-high utility bills as a result of the huge energy demand from these massive projects. I mean, the cost of living crisis right now is only worsening in part as a result of the war in the Middle East, in part as a result of tariffs, in part as a result of bad health care policy. We've seen in just the last few months, Chris. all-time record high prices for groceries, for housing, for health care, for a meal out at a restaurant, and for utilities nationwide. And so again, I think that the key policy question we've got to grapple with right now is, how can all this new load be brought on the grid without small businesses and families paying the price when we've already seen their utility bills go up so much in Georgia in the last six years? Senator Graham's funeral service in Washington is today, are you attending a senator? And, you know, if they gave you a couple minutes to speak there, what would you say? I'm not going to be able to attend the service. Today I've got a couple of conflicts. I've got to attend on behalf of my constituents. But I reiterate my condolences to the senator's family and to his staff and the people of South Carolina. You know, the senator and I, of course, had some. disagreements on policy. But I deeply respect his long record of service to the country in the U.S. Air Force and in the Congress on behalf of the people of South Carolina. You got a couple things brewing. No Lead in Toys Act is one of them that would seem sort of common sense, right? But you're unsatisfied with the way this is tested. Yeah, I've just introduced this bipartisan legislation with my colleague, John Cornyn of Texas. It's called the No Lead in Toys Act. And I introduced it because I probed the way the country prevents lead and toxic chemicals.