What Georgia Lawmakers Are Doing About Your Sky-High Utility Bills

Yahoo

05-03-2025

Ariana Brazier is sick of paying sky-high light bills.
The 31-year-old Decatur resident said she's seen her Georgia Power electric bill surge from about $90 a month in 2023 to roughly $300 a month this year. The added financial stress has left her in a 'constant panic' over ways to reduce her expenses.
She's one of many Black Georgians dealing with rising energy costs in recent years who want regulatory agencies in charge of approving utility rate hikes to stop greenlighting them at the expense of consumers struggling to make ends meet.
'It feels unfathomable to me that these monopolistic companies like Georgia Power have any reason to hike rates,' Brazier told Capital B Atlanta on Tuesday.
Roughly 100 Black Georgians like Brazier recently joined the voter engagement group Black Voters Matter for its Feb. 25 visit to the Gold Dome in Atlanta. Organizers said the goal of the trip was to bring voters from across the state to speak with lawmakers about the issues important to them, such as the elevated cost of living in metro Atlanta.
For many, that included advocating for passage of Senate Bill 94, a measure introduced by Georgia Sen. Chuck Hufstetler, R-Rome, in early February that would restore an advisory group called the Consumers' Utility Counsel. If enacted, the counsel would represent the interest of utility customers in matters brought before the state's Public Service Commission, a five-member elected body that regulates electric, natural gas, and telecommunications services in Georgia and decides what utility service rates are fair and reasonable for most of the state.
Some Georgia residents and consumer advocacy groups have accused the PSC of rubber-stamping rate hikes for Georgia Power, leaving customers grappling with higher energy bills. The group has approved six Georgia Power rate hikes since 2023, the last of which took effect in January.
Georgia Power provides electricity to more than 2.7 million people throughout the state, including most of the people living in the Atlanta region. Since 2023, the average residential customer is paying $43 more per month on their electric bill, according to WABE. The latest 3.5% hike alone resulted in customers spending about $5.48 more on their typical household bill, according to the Georgia Recorder.
PSC spokesman Tom Krause says the rubber-stamping accusation against the commission is 'demonstrably false,' and shows a lack of understanding of how the regulatory body works.
He said PSC commissioners litigate rate increases requested by Georgia Power like court cases, and noted that the commission already has staff members who evaluate Georgia Power utility rate increases on behalf of consumers.
'They go through the entire process of what Georgia Power has asked for in a rate case,' Krause said of the Public Interest Advocacy staff. 'They litigate that, literally, with expert witnesses, with testimony in public hearings before the Public Service Commission.'
Hufstetler told Capital B Atlanta that he was reintroducing SB 94 to give Georgia citizens more input on utility rates. A similar measure he introduced during last year's legislative session stalled in the state House after passing in the state Senate.
The state House or the state Senate must pass the legislation by the General Assembly's Crossover Day deadline on Thursday for it to be signed into law as a standalone bill this year. (Proposals that don't make the Crossover Day deadline can still be added as amendments to other bills).
Former Republican Gov. Sonny Perdue shut down Georgia's previous Consumers' Utility Counsel in 2008 to save money during the state's Great Recession-related budget crisis.
Hufstetler said Georgia is one of a handful of 'states that don't have a consumer utility protection person that looks out for their interest, and we certainly need it.'
'Somebody needs to have some representation for the consumers,' he added.
An amendment approved in February would make the Consumers' Utility Counsel an affiliate of the state attorney general's office that would weigh in on PSC matters.
As of Tuesday, SB 94's fate resides with members of the Senate Rules Committee, where state Sen. Matt Brass, R-Newnan, serves as chairman.
Brionte McCorklé, executive director of Georgia Conservation Voters, an environmental advocacy group, advised Black folks who want to have greater say in how much they're paying on their energy bills to reach out to Brass as well as their district's state lawmakers and tell them to pass SB 94.
She said lawmakers opposed to measures like SB 94 often argue they're not supported by the public.
'It's incredibly important that you call your senator, you call your representative, you tell them, 'Hey, look, I want this Consumer Utility Counsel. I'm tired of my bills being high,'' McCorkle said. 'Tell them how high your bills are. Tell them what you've been dealing with, because they try to act like it's not a big deal and people aren't concerned.'
All five PSC commissioners are Republicans. Two of them, Tim Echols, whose district includes part of east Georgia, and Fitz Johnson, whose district includes metro Atlanta, are up for reelection in November.
Echols noted that PSC didn't raise rates at all during the pandemic and that energy bills are up across the United States, not just in Georgia.
'Every state is experiencing higher energy bills due to higher fuel cost, wages and grid improvements,' Echols told Capital B Atlanta via email on Monday. 'Utility bills are still just 3% of the average family's total expenses because everything else has gone up in price too.'
But Black families in metro Atlanta and around the state are struggling with high energy costs, according to Melinee Calhoun, senior organizing manager for Georgia's Black Voters Matter division. The energy burden endured by Black Georgians in rural parts of the state, such as South Georgia, is also substantial, she added.
'We have communities such as Dougherty County where we have families living in public housing that are paying $1,000 light bills,' Calhoun said. 'If you live in public housing and your utilities are shut off, you immediately get an eviction notice. So not only [are] utilities an energy burden issue. It's a housing issue.'
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