How energy and electricity policy works in Georgia
(Courtesy of Grist)
The Georgia Public Service Commission is a five-member elected body that oversees utilities, including Georgia Power. It sets the rates Georgia Power customers pay for electricity and approves the utility’s plans to make or buy energy and deliver it to customers. That means the PSC wields a lot of power over a large segment of Georgia’s greenhouse gas emissions and over people’s lives and pocketbooks. According to the commission’s own website, “very few governmental agencies have as much impact on peoples’ lives as the PSC.”
This coverage is made possible through a partnership with WABE and Grist, a nonprofit environmental media organization.
Latest PSC News
A glossary of terms
- Integrated Resource Plan (IRP): An electric provider’s long-range plan for generating and delivering electricity. In Georgia, it’s a 20-year plan updated every three years with input from the PSC and stakeholders, which are called intervenors.
- Rate Case: The process of setting the rates an electric utility charges customers for the power they use. In Georgia, this happens every three years following the IRP.
- Investor-owned utility (IOU): A private company providing electricity to customers and owned by shareholders. These are the electric utilities regulated by PSCs. Nearly two-thirds of electric customers in the U.S. get their power from an investor-owned utility.
Georgia Public Service Commission
Under Georgia law, Public Service Commissioners are elected and “shall serve for terms of office of six years and until the election and qualification of their respective successors.” This is why commissioners continue to serve despite the canceled 2022 elections: their successors have not been elected.
District 1 Commissioner: Jason Shaw
Appointed: 2019
Elected: 2020
Originally elected to serve through: December 31, 2026
Rescheduled election: 2028
District 3 – Fitz Johnson
Appointed: 2021
Elected: never; 2022 special election canceled due to lawsuit
Originally slated to serve through: the canceled 2022 special election was for the remainder of his predecessor’s term, which was due to end December 31, 2024
Rescheduled election: 2025 (one-year term)
District 5 – Tricia Pridemore
Appointed: 2018
Elected: 2018
Originally elected to serve through: December 31, 2024
Rescheduled election: 2026
District 2 – Tim Echols
Elected: 2010
Re-elected: 2016
Originally elected to serve through: December 31, 2022; election canceled due to lawsuit
Rescheduled election: 2025 (five-year term)
District 4 – Lauren “Bubba” McDonald
Appointed: 1998 | Elected: 1998, 2008 | Re-elected: 2014, 2020 (lost seat for one term in 2002)
Originally elected to serve through: December 31, 2026
Rescheduled election: 2028
Meet Emily Jones
Climate Reporter
I cover climate change, the environment, and environmental justice as part of a partnership between WABE and Grist, a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Climate change is an overwhelming global threat that can be difficult to wrap your head around, so I try to break down for Georgians how it’s affecting their lives and what they can do about it.
Before joining WABE in 2021, I hosted “Morning Edition” and covered the Georgia coast for Georgia Public Broadcasting. I got started as a reporter at my college radio station in Providence, where I also worked as a DJ and interned for the local public radio station. I have a masters in broadcast journalism from Columbia and have been honored by the Atlanta Press Club and the Georgia Association of Broadcasters.
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