Environmental and religious groups are taking Georgia regulators to court after they approved a utility company’s energy expansion.
The Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) and its activist co-plaintiffs petitioned the Fulton Superior Court on March 25 demanding review Georgia Power’s bid to buy or build 28 energy generative resources. The suit alleges the Georgia Professional Standards Commission (PSC) exceeded its legal authority by allowing a “monopoly utility” to make “unnecessary and uneconomic investments that will be charged to captive customers,” according to the petition documents.
The SELC is a non-profit environmental law firm that received at least $50 million from Fred Stanbeck, a billionaire who frequently donates to groups supporting environmental causes, abortion, and population control. The SELC took over $175.4 million in donations from the Foundation for the Carolinas where Stanbeck is a one of the largest account holders.
SELC represented the Sierra Club on behalf of itself, Georgia Interfaith Power & Light, Park Avenue Church, the Unitarian Universalist Church of Savannah, the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy and the Sierra Club Georgia Chapter leader Adrian Webber.
Georgia Interfaith Power & Light (GIPL) is an environmental activist group that “inspires and equips communities of faith to organize, implement practical climate solutions, and advocate across Georgia on issues of climate change, environmental justice, and community resilience,” according to their website.
Park Avenue Church describes itself as an “abolitionist church,” and its goal as a parish is “not only to resist militarism and policing in a patriarchal, white supremacist system but to co-create along with the Spirit of God, new systems,” according to their website.
PSC issued Georgia Power a certification allowing the company 9,617 megawatts, bringing their total capacity to 32,117 megawatts. The large energy purchase was made to meet potential demand from companies interested in building data centers in Georgia, according to the petition documents.
The SELC argued the PSC overstepped its statutory power by approving 757 megawatts more than their capacity requirements, estimated at 31,360 megawatts. 757 megawatts powers more than 150,000 households, according to the petition documents.
The petition claimed Georgia Power misrepresented the certification costs allocated to existing customers rather than new customers amid other projects driving up demand. The plaintiffs argued Georgia Power’s certification plans demonstrate unnecessary costs have already been incurred, noting a proposed $100 million methane gas-fired power plant through 2026 prior to certification.
The SELC said that Georgia Power presented several of the resources as being immune from competitive bidding and the PSC did not “make a determination” whether Georgia Power could purchase the resources without the bid process, according to the petition.
“The Commission’s approval of new gas units in the 2025 All‑Source Certification proceeding will only prolong fossil‑fuel dependence, worsen pollution, and impose unnecessary costs that show up directly on the bills of Georgians,” said plaintiff Adrien Webber in a statement to the SELC. “We are tired of a Public Service Commission bending and outright breaking its rules and the law to give Georgia Power whatever it wants, no matter the cost to our air and water or the impact on our monthly energy bills.”
Georgia Power is owned and operated by the Southern Company, a large utility company that received a historic $26.5 billion loan to expand Georgia and Alabama’s electrical grids from the U.S. Department of Energy in February.
Energy companies have faced massive legal challenges in court concerning their negative effect on the climate. Maryland Supreme Court dismissed local lawsuits from Baltimore, Annapolis, and Anne Arundel County against 26 fossil fuel companies on March 24. The plaintiffs claimed the companies violated Maryland law by damaging the climate via fossil fuel emissions.
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