Former Georgia regulator who helped set policy for data centers now works for company building them. September 17, 2026 12:02 PM Tricia Pridemore resigned from the Public Service Commission and is now the executive vice president of energy, regulatory and policy for DC BLOX. Credit: Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder Tricia Pridemore, who until recently served as an elected utility regulator in Georgia, is now working for a corporation that builds data centers primarily in the Southeast. Pridemore, who is a Republican, will serve as the executive vice president of energy, regulatory and policy for DC BLOX, where she will represent the company in policy discussions with lawmakers, regulatory bodies and utility providers. Pridemore resigned from the state Public Service Commission on Sept. 4, leaving her post a few months early. Pridemore said in an interview Wednesday that she'll be "leveraging [her] experienced understanding of the energy space, as well as Georgia policy and law, and being able to do that to support one of the largest customers in the state." "The world of energy and utilities is very detailed. It is likely one of the most... detailed policy and regulatory spaces that exist in states, and so I am intimately familiar with rate structures, tariffs, the Georgia Territorial Act, the entire section of the OCGA that regulates energy and energy deployment across the state," Pridemore said. Pridemore was appointed to the commission in 2018 by former Gov. Nathan Deal despite not having previous energy or regulatory experience. She ran for the seat that November and won with just over 50% of the vote. She has not faced an election since then because the 2024 commission elections were postponed. While the commission does not directly control the growth of data centers in Georgia, it regulates electric utilities and contracts they sign with data centers, as well as the energy infrastructure that power these facilities. During her tenure, the commission passed a rule aimed at helping ensure data centers pay for the energy infrastructure they need, but critics raised concerns that the rule did not do enough to protect residential ratepayers from paying for some of those costs. Lawmakers attempted to pass legislation that would have codified the rule into law, as well as numerous other bills dealing with data center regulations, but all failed to become law. Instead of running for the seat she held on the commission, she opted to run for Georgia's 11th Congressional District seat, but she ended up coming in third in the Republican primary earlier this year. When asked why step down from the position before her term concluded, Pridemore said that there are federal projects that are moving quickly and "DC BLOX needed [her] to be involved in those in the beginning stages of those projects." She mentioned particularly that the U.S. Department of Energy tapped DC BLOX to help build a data center at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. "This is a project that really gained my interest because it is new not only to what the feds are doing, but it's great to have it right here in the Southeast with such close South Carolina and Georgia ties," she said. But her appointment has raised questions about whether it could give DC BLOX an unfair advantage in navigating the regulatory environment in Georgia. DC BLOX already has one data center in Rockdale County, and another in Douglas County, and the company has plans for another one near where Sara Kennedy, a Rockdale resident of 20 years, lives. Kennedy, who has been pushing back against the DC BLOX's second data center in Rockdale since she found out about the plans in May, called it a "system failure" that the law allows a formerly elected official to go to work for an industry they were charged with regulating. "When you have someone in place like this person who knows the ins and outs, the way the system is supposed to work, the way that it's actually working, and they're moving on to the side of corporate profit over tax-paying residents, it's terrifying," Kennedy said. Brionté McCorkle, the executive director of Georgia Conservation Voters, a political advocacy organization focused on the environment, raised concerns regarding Georgia's revolving-door policy. Georgia law prohibits public officials from registering as a lobbyist or engaging in lobbying for one year after leaving such office. "That matters because DC BLOX is actively expanding data centers in Georgia, including a Conyers campus with 216 megawatts of power committed by Georgia Power. During Pridemore's time on the commission, she voted on major expansions of Georgia Power's system driven substantially by data-center demand," McCorkle said. But Pridemore said her duties at DC BLOX during the first year will be outside of Georgia in neighboring states and at the federal level. While she will continue to live in Georgia, she said her "roles and responsibilities for the first year will be centered around other projects." "You won't see me appearing before the commission, or doing commission-type business, but the years of experience that I've gained - they're all in my head, and it's the same work that I've taken and represented Georgia and the great things that we've done in energy and utility regulation and management all across the country," Pridemore said. Even so, Edward Queen, the director of Emory University's Center for Ethics, said in an interview that when a public official moves to the private sector, they run the risk of undermining people's trust in the system. Even if the rules are followed, he said that there can still be the public perception that corporations have unfair access to insider information. "Public policies or the acceptance of public policy fundamentally rests on people's trust in the system, and when there are activities that at least on a kind of facial appearance would lead a reasonable person to lose that trust, there's a fundamental problem," Queen said. Queen said perhaps having a longer waiting period before a public official joins the private sector could help address those concerns, but even that may not be enough to tamp down concerns. "People that are going to kind of willfully suspect what's going on are going to do it no matter what happens," Queen said. This story comes to GPB through a reporting partnership with Georgia Recorder. Reporter, Georgia Recorder Alander Rocha is a journalist based in Atlanta. He previously worked for KFF Health News and the Red & Black, Georgia's student newspaper. He is a Tulane and Georgia alumnus with a two-year stint in the U.S. Peace Corps. The Georgia Recorder is an independent, nonprofit news organization focused on connecting public policies to the stories of the people and communities affected by them. Georgia Public Broadcasting bring a fresh perspective to coverage of the state's biggest issues from its perch near the Capitol in downtown Atlanta. Georgia Public Broadcasting view news as a vital community service and believe that government accountability and transparency are valued by all Georgians. Support quality journalism. GPB is committed to bringing you comprehensive news coverage from Georgia, across the country and around the world. Your support makes this possible. 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Twenty-Three acres by the zoo: Nashville votes to buy the land rather than let the data center open. Cities argue with developers all the time. What they rarely do is decide the argument is not worth having and simply move to buy the ground out from under it. That is what Metro Council did on August 4, voting 27-5 to authorize the city to acquire 23 acres at 648 Grassmere Park through eminent domain - the parcel where Atlanta-based DC BLOX had planned to build a data center next door to the Nashville Zoo. The numbers that make this complicated. DC BLOX bought the site in July 2026 for $23 million. Davidson County's appraisal puts it at $37.4 million - roughly $14 million above the purchase price. That gap is the whole story of what happens next. Eminent domain does not mean the city names a price; it means the city commits to paying fair value, and fair value here is a moving target somewhere in an eight-figure range. The final number is now subject to negotiation between Metro Legal and the company, and the city retains the option to walk away from the acquisition entirely if no agreement is reached. In other words: the vote authorizes a purchase. It does not complete one. What was actually going to be built. Worth keeping the scale straight, because "data center" now conjures images of the enormous hyperscale campuses going up across the Southeast. The DC BLOX proposal was a 10-megawatt facility at roughly 69,220 square feet - substantial, but not one of the giants. The objection was never really about square footage. It was about the neighbor. A data center runs continuously, draws serious power, and moves heat and noise through industrial cooling equipment. Placing that against the fence line of a zoo - an institution whose entire operating premise is animal welfare and a quiet visitor experience - was always going to draw a fight. This is the second act, not the first. Nashville has been building the legal architecture for exactly this moment. In late July, Council unanimously adopted Davidson County's first data center zoning framework and paused new large-scale permits through December 1. That pause bought the city time; the eminent domain vote is what it chose to do with it. And there is a third track still running. Separate zoning appeals - filed by the Nashville Zoo and by Councilmember Courtney Johnston, challenging how the property was classified - were deferred to August 20. If those appeals succeed, the project could be stopped on zoning grounds without the city spending anything at all. The city is, in effect, running two strategies at once: the expensive one that definitely works, and the cheap one that might. Why it matters beyond Grassmere Park. Nashville is in the middle of deciding what kind of industrial development it will host as its land runs short. The same Council that has watched a major tech tenant walk away from Music Row is now voting to spend tens of millions to keep a different kind of tech facility out of a specific neighborhood. That is not a contradiction so much as a statement of priorities: Nashville wants the jobs, and it is increasingly particular about the address. Whether $37 million is the right price for that particularity is the question the next round of negotiation will answer. The next date to watch is August 20.