Longtime GOP utility regulator to leave post early

Veteran Republican utility regulator Tricia Pridemore is leaving her position next month, creating a temporary vacancy for the governor to fill amid a tense election year defined by increased scrutiny over data centers and electricity bills.

In an email to Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, dated Aug. 18, Pridemore said she would be resigning effective Sept. 4. She had announced in February that she would not run for another term on the panel, which sets the rates and profits for Georgia Power and Atlanta Gas Light.

The governor’s office did not have an immediate comment.

This year’s Public Service Commission races have drawn heightened attention after Democrats flipped two seats on the five-member panel last year. The new Democratic commissioners, Peter Hubbard and Alicia Johnson, rode a wave of discontent from Georgia Power customers over the Republican-dominated commission’s decisions to raise rates in recent years.

Hubbard must run again and will face his previous opponent, Republican Fitz Johnson, in November.

It’s unclear who Kemp will appoint to Pridemore’s seat. The appointment would be temporary.

Republican Joshua Tolbert will face Democrat Shelia Edwards in that race in November.

“It has been an honor to serve Georgia in this position,” Pridemore said in an email to Kemp, his executive council and PSC Chairperson Jason Shaw. She sent the email to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and declined comment.

“I can’t thank Commissioner Pridemore enough for her expertise in energy and her expertise in public policy that she leveraged here at the PSC for the benefit of all Georgians,” Shaw said in a statement.

This isn’t the first time a sitting utility regulator has resigned before the end of a term. GOP Commissioner Stan Wise stepped down in 2018, creating the vacancy that led to Pridemore’s appointment by Gov. Nathan Deal, a Republican.

In 2021, Kemp appointed GOP Commissioner Chuck Eaton to a vacancy on the Fulton County Superior Court and chose Johnson to replace him on the PSC.

Pridemore was slated to run for a subsequent term in 2024, but state lawmakers extended her term after a legal challenge to Georgia’s statewide elections for the PSC.

Pridemore is a staunch supporter of President Donald Trump and has backed his pro-fossil fuel and nuclear agenda. She serves on a wide range of energy councils and recently finished a term as president of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, the trade group for public utility commissions.

“Over the past several years, she brought her Georgia-born tenacity and intelligence to the national stage. To say she will be missed is an understatement,” Shaw said in his statement.

Pridemore will depart as questions continue to swirl about Georgia Power’s plans to serve data centers, including the recent deal it inked to provide electricity to OpenAI, which announced in July it will build a massive, $20 billion campus near Savannah.

The PSC’s staff has until Aug. 26 to complete its contract review.

The data center campus is one of the largest economic development projects in Georgia history and will be the single-largest electricity user in the state.

The size of those demands — combined with the secrecy around the contract to provide all that power — landed the issue under regulators’ microscope during a recent PSC committee meeting.