Outside groups pump millions into races that will decide control of PSC

Outside groups have poured an unprecedented $3.1 million into the statewide races for Georgia Power’s regulator, with control between Republicans and Democrats hanging in the balance.

Clean energy political action committees have ramped up spending on ads and mailers in the Georgia Public Service Commission races to make sure incumbent Democrat Peter Hubbard is reelected and Shelia Edwards, also a Democrat, joins the five-member panel next year.

If elected, the pair, along with sitting Democrat Alicia Johnson, would create a 3-2 majority that supporters say would steer Georgia away from planet-warming fossil fuels and toward cleaner sources of electricity.

Pro-industry groups have also opened their wallets, outspending the clean energy groups four-to-one. As of Thursday afternoon, pro-industry groups have committed more than $2.5 million for ads and other expenses in support of Republican Josh Tolbert in his race for an open seat against Edwards. A Tolbert win would make sure the GOP maintains its majority, which the party has claimed since the 1990s.

These outside groups — nonprofit organizations incorporated as 501(c)(4)s — are more commonly known as “dark” money groups because they do not have to disclose their donors.

The PSC is a wonky, quasi-judicial agency that sets the rates and profits for Georgia Power and Atlanta Gas Light. The commission had largely operated out of the public eye despite its decisions affecting millions of Georgians’ wallets.

But the PSC took center stage in elections last year that saw Hubbard and Johnson ride a wave of voter discontent over recent utility bill rate hikes, notching the first Democratic wins on the commission since 2000.

Affordability is top of mind

Heading into last November’s election, the Republican-controlled PSC had approved six rate increases for the utility in roughly three years. For residential customers, that’s meant their monthly Georgia Power bills have climbed by an average of $43 since the start of 2023.

The Republicans, facing consumer anger, voted in summer 2025 to keep Georgia Power’s base rates steady for three years. Georgia Power, meanwhile, has promised that rules passed by the PSC would help ensure data center operators pay for their power and infrastructure needs while applying “downward pressure” on bills.

But economic concerns and a seemingly endless pipeline of data centers coming to Georgia have again put this year’s PSC race in the spotlight.

Democrats hope a blue wave Nov. 3 helps them reclaim the majority.

Industry-aligned groups are backing Tolbert, an engineer by trade.

The dollars have been used in part to finance advertisements that appear on Meta, the company that owns Facebook and Instagram, as well as mailers and other campaign literature.

The ads frame the PSC’s work around decisions that affect every Georgian, their families and their livelihood, arguing that someone with technical expertise, not a politician, is needed to do that job.

“Your light, your job and Georgia’s future is at stake. Will you choose unqualified commissioners or leaders who know what they’re doing?” one ad reads.

Two nonprofits, which fall under the broad umbrella of “social welfare organizations,” are the conduits for the cash flow pipeline, according to campaign disclosures and an analysis by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

One group, Powering Georgia’s Future, has spent $2.5 million total on the election in support of Tolbert, including $1.5 million in the past two weeks, campaign disclosures show. The group has one backer, Competence Matters, a self-described non-partisan group whose website advocates for energy decisions to be made based upon “real technical competence” and not politics.

Tolbert’s campaign tagline on his campaign website reads: Engineer for Georgia’s energy future.

Rick Thompson, who once headed the state ethics commission and runs the political consulting firm RTA Strategies, is listed as the chairperson for Powering Georgia’s Future, according to the Georgia Secretary of State’s office. Bryan Tyson, a top election lawyer who represented the state in a legal challenge to Georgia’s statewide elections for PSC seats, is the registered agent for Competence Matters.

As of late Thursday, there were no federal or state public records of campaign disclosures from Competence Matters, formed in late July, according to the state ethics commission and the secretary of state’s office.

The deadline was Tuesday, and there is a five-day grace period.

Tyson, Thompson and the chairperson for a third organization, Georgians for Lower Energy Rates, did not respond to texts or emails from the AJC.

Tolbert said he learned of Powering Georgia’s Future “the same way everybody else has.”

“I have friends telling me they’re getting texts; I have literally been hit with a text and gotten mailers,” he told the AJC. “I mean, I’m not going to sit here and tell you I’m mad at somebody sending ads on my behalf, but that’s all I know.”

The Georgia Conservation Voters Action Fund has been throwing money behind Hubbard since his first election last year. Its main backers are the national League of Conservation Voters and the Green Advocacy Project, a self-described left-of-center organization that is aligned with many climate groups.

Others spending money to support Hubbard and Edwards include the pro-solar and storage PAC, American Power Forward and an immigrant advocacy group, CASA in Action.

Data centers loom large

At the heart of this race are data centers, something that has become a flashpoint in the midterm elections nationwide. Georgia is now the No. 1 state for data center construction, something that many state elected officials argue will bring jobs and carry the state’s economy into the future. The large computer-filled warehouses demand huge amounts of power and have drawn the ire of many who are worried about air and light pollution and rising power bills, among other things.

Still, an AJC poll of Georgia voters found three out of five disapprove of the construction of more data centers.

The PSC does not approve data centers, but the agency does sign off on any power grid expansion and upgrades to support them. Its technical staff approves any long-term electricity contracts between Georgia Power and data center operators.

Last year, the PSC approved a historic 10,000-megawatt expansion for Georgia Power, much of it powered by fossil fuels, with solar and battery storage also part of the mix.

Georgia Power has since launched an aggressive public relations campaign touting, among other things, its efforts to freeze base rates and take steps to lower power bills in what is an otherwise tight economy. The company also has agreed not to collect any revenue shortfalls from other customers if a data center operator terminates its contract early.

Tolbert and Edwards are running for the seat vacated by Tricia Pridemore, who often voted in favor of proposals by Georgia Power, and is now a lobbyist for DC BLOX, an Atlanta-based data center developer whose footprint is primarily in the Southeast.

Tolbert said he isn’t making his party affiliation part of his campaign.