Ten candidates compete for two seats on Georgia's powerful utility commission

Ten candidates are vying for two seats on the Georgia Public Service Commission in the May 19 primary. Early voting is already underway.

The commission oversees utilities, including telecommunications, natural gas and electricity – notably Georgia Power, the state’s largest electric utility. The commission has final say over how Georgia Power makes energy and what it charges customers. This gives commissioners substantial power over Georgians’ energy bills and the state’s climate future, because burning fossil fuels to make electricity is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions. By its own description, “very few governmental agencies have as much impact on peoples’ lives as the PSC,” according to the commission’s website. 

Still, elections for the commission have rarely received much attention. That changed last year. After a years-long delay due to a voting rights lawsuit, two seats on the commission ended up as the only statewide races on the ballot. Amid frustration over rising energy bills, voters overwhelmingly ousted the two Republican incumbents, sending Democrats to the five-member commission for the first time in 20 years.