As Georgia goes backwards on clean energy, power customers will pay the price
Over the summer, the AJC published an essay titled "Georgia is on the path to a cleaner, sustainable future," written by Erica Bibbey, a member of Citizens Climate Lobby.
In her essay, Bibbey championed Georgia’s “significant strides in addressing climate change and pollution.”
Contrary to the essay’s optimistic claims, decisions are being made or have already been made that reveal the opposite is true.
On April 16, 2024, the Georgia Public Service Commission approved Georgia Power’s request to expand its gas and coal generating capacity by 6,600 megawatts (MWs), an enormous expansion that is three times the size of Plant Vogtle’s recent large addition to the grid.
This fossil-based expansion was approved to address what Georgia Power characterized as an urgent need to meet data center growth needs.
That would be bad enough, but on Jan. 31, less than one year later, Georgia Power filed a 2025 Integrated Resource Plan (IRP), or long-range energy plan, asking the Public Service Commission to cancel all coal plant retirements to meet data center needs.
PSC hearings for that plan revealed in May that Georgia Power plans to add another 8,000 MWs of gas generating capacity this year. All told, Georgia Power seeks to add 14,000 MWs of fossil based generating capacity, making Georgia the leading state for fossil-based grid expansion in the country.
And that would be bad enough, but on May 19, Georgia Power and the Georgia Public Service Commission announced a three-year base rate freeze from private discussions that nobody knew were underway.
While positioned as good for Georgia Power customers, the rate freeze is a Trojan horse: it locks in astronomical profits for Georgia Power through a high return on equity that is far above industry norms; it hides costs for the fossil fuel expansion underway by postponing public scrutiny for three years, preventing those who must pay for it from understanding the costs being spent in their name; and it fails to address evidence suggesting that Georgia Power’s growth estimates are exaggerated.
Pledges are unfulfilled while Atlanta’s air quality is poor
While this is happening at the PSC, on April 23, the American Lung Association released a new report titled, “State of the Air”, that ranks Atlanta’s ozone and particulate pollution among the worst in the Southeast, giving Atlanta a failing grade in air quality.
According to the media reports, as of June 2025 the Atlanta Beltline’s Eastside Trail has added 25,000 new jobs, which would be a good thing, except Mayor Dickens has sidelined transit on the Eastside Trail because of a small but well-connected group of opponents who don’t see where rail would fit and don’t understand who would ride it, since they wouldn’t.
This decision is wasting tens of millions of sales tax dollars that Atlantans have paid and that has already been spent for transit infrastructure alongside and under the Eastside trail, and millions more for engineering and environmental studies.
So at the state level, instead of celebrating Georgia’s position as a top 10 sunny state with a robust solar rollout, the Public Service Commission is poised to approve Georgia Power’s expansion of coal, gas, and oil for data centers while keeping Georgia in 43rd place for rooftop solar, and 47th place in solar per capita through policy choices like high fees.
At the city level, instead of repurposing the Beltline’s abandoned railway to create a 22-mile emerald necklace of parks and transit so that thousands of young tech workers drawn to Atlanta, older people who can’t drive and everyone in between, can make the choice to live a car-free lifestyle, a few months ago Mayor Dickens tanked the Eastside Trail rail project, the only shovel-ready segment that could have been in service in 2028.
We are told to wait for a theoretical Southside trail rail project that is 10 years from starting construction that is frankly difficult to believe. Meanwhile, Atlanta has a Grade of F for air quality from the American Lung Association. This makes no sense.
Leadership failures should sway voters to go to the polls
These leadership failures are astounding. Hurricane Helene was the most destructive storm in Georgia’s history and 2024 was the warmest year in Earth’s recorded history.
Yet instead of pursuing clean energy and public transit, the PSC is facilitating Georgia Power’s increased reliance on gas and coal, and Mayor Dickens signed an $8 million deal with Beep, Inc.
This priority on corporate-centered profit models and failure to protect the public interest is deeply disturbing.
But it is not too late: we can replace two commissioners in November PSC elections, and more people can increase pressure on Mayor Dickens. Our quality of life depends on the actions we take today.
Patty Durand founded Georgians for Affordable Energy, a nonprofit that is fighting for fair utility rates and a clean energy future.
