Lower power bills by only $8.50 a month is a slap in the face to Georgians
In today’s politics, it’s rare when the progressive approach is also the conservative approach. But that’s exactly what’s happening at the Georgia Public Service Commission — and we should pay attention.
On Friday, the five members of Georgia’s PSC will vote on how much money Georgia Power is allowed to spend to service data centers. The utility’s current proposal is staggering — larger even than the state’s vaunted $14 billion budget surplus.
According to staff at the PSC, the full data center buildout may eventually require as much as $60 billion in revenue from customers.
This issue has pulled Georgians into the democratic process at levels rarely seen for utility regulation. Thousands have provided public comments before the commission. Thousands more are attending city and county government meetings across the state, and 1.56 million voted in recent elections for the PSC — mainly for a change in direction.
Rather than listen to those voices, the Public Service Commission appears poised to approve a closed-door deal that would give Georgia Power everything it wants. In return, the company promises to do its best to lower residential bills by $8.50 a month for three years.
There’s no way to sugarcoat it. This plan is a slap in the face to every voter in this state.
Voters already told the PSC what they expect
Voters demanded a stronger backbone against corporations on Nov. 4. As a Republican rancher from Troup County told the New York Times recently, they voted to “make a statement.”
The company has struggled to accurately forecast projected growth over the years — and Georgians have paid for its mistakes.
Voters have demanded that Georgia’s elected officials help bring down costs.
What would it say about our system of government to ignore them? For one party to lose by 25 points and change nothing?
It says that the people aren’t really in charge.
That the only “citizens” that Republicans care about are the corporations draining everyday people of their money and forcing churches, civic society and the state to subsidize their greed.
Approving this bad deal hurts working families and confirms that the Republican Party in Georgia has completely sold out.
There is no “both sides” to this equation. Only one group of people has been in power. Only one group of people has the power to change course.
This issue isn’t going away
Like it or not, data centers and affordability will continue to be front and center in Georgia politics.
The AJC reported how the family of Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, a Republican candidate for governor, wants to use data centers for the majority of a $10 billion megaproject in Butts County. In the city of Forsyth, Trammell Crow Co. wants to build out a $21 billion data center campus over 1,600 acres.
This moment calls for an approach that saves us billions, protects families and reflects the will of Georgia voters. If it takes further change at the PSC to make that happen, then Georgia Conservation Voters will be happy to oblige.
Because our people are worth more than $8.50.
Brionté McCorkle is the executive director of Georgia Conservation Voters and Georgia Conservation Voters Education Fund and has spent her career training activists, advancing equity and inclusion in the environmental movement and organizing grassroots voters.
