Georgia regulator blasted for calling state's energy the nation's 'cleanest'

ENVIRONMENT

Georgia regulator blasted for calling state's energy the nation's 'cleanest'

John Deem

Savannah Morning News

Updated May 28, 2024, 3:33 p.m. ET

As the U.S. Supreme Court considered hearing a case about how members of the Georgia Public Service Commission are elected this past week, a long-time member of the panel offered a dubious assessment of the energy portfolio he and his colleagues regulate.

"Where we are today in the state of Georgia as energy goes, we have the cleanest and most reliable of any state in the nation," Commissioner Lauren "Bubba" McDonald wrote in an emailed response to questions from E&E News, an online national publication covering the energy industry.

While Georgia is experiencing an unprecedented economic boom fueled primarily by the clean-energy industry, it is nowhere near the top nationally in terms of the percentage or total output of emissions-free power. That would be Vermont, which gets nearly all of its energy from renewable sources.

Georgia Power, the state's largest utility, still produces 60% of its energy by burning coal or gas, whose heat-trapping pollution is the primary cause of climate change. It's a statistic critics of the PSC's recent support of Georgia Power's plan to add more gas-fired facilities were quick to point out when told of McDonald's comments.

"Georgia's electricity is neither the cleanest nor the most reliable," said Maggie Shober, research director at the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. "In fact, by approving new fossil fuel resources in the 2023 Georgia Power (Integrated Resource Plan), the (GPC) made it harder for Georgia to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from its electricity generation, made it harder for Georgia to attract businesses that demand clean energy, and put ratepayers at risk of higher bills in the future as gas prices continue to be volatile."

The case that was appealed to the Supreme Court involves a challenge to the state's use of statewide voting to select district representatives to the five-member PSC. The plaintiffs in the case argued that the system violated the federal Voting Rights Act because it dilutes the votes of Black citizens.

McDonald, a PSC member since 2009 who also served from 1998 until 2002, did not respond when asked for an explanation of his "cleanest and most reliable" claim.

PSC Vice Chairman Tim Echols, whose district includes the Savannah area, declined to respond directly to McDonald's claims but did provide an emailed comment.

"With the recent approval of another 6,600 megawatts of capacity, in addition to the (Plant) Vogtle capacity of 2,200 megawatts that recently came onto the system, Georgia is in a unique position to serve load that other states cannot," said Echols. "The state's power grid continues to transition away from coal utilizing more natural gas, new nuclear, big solar, storage, and more and more virtual power plants."

Georgia Power's Vogtle nuclear facility is the largest single producer of emission-free energy in the nation.

The E&E reporter who wrote the story, Niina Farah, confirmed the accuracy of McDonald's quote and clarity of the questions that prompted it.

"I asked each of the commissioners for comment about the lawsuit and what they thought of the current voting system and possible changes to it," Farah, who covers legal issues for E&E News, wrote in an emailed response. "The quote I included in the story was the full extent of his response to me, so there wasn't any additional context about the state's energy mix."

Because the PSC makes decisions about the mix of energy sources that fuel the state's electric grid, its members are expected to have a firm grasp of how that power is produced.

"The generation of electricity in Georgia is not clean, not reliable and certainly not affordable," said Mark Woodall, legislative chair for the Sierra Club, when told of McDonald's statement. "While we commend Commissioner McDonald for insisting Georgia Power add utility scale solar, rooftop solar and community solar lag far behind the rest of the United States. Georgia (also) is far behind Texas in battery storage that would make solar more reliable."

John Deem covers climate change and the environment on the Georgia coast. He can be reached at jdeem@gannett.com