Environmental Groups Demand Georgia PSC Reconsider Data Center Energy Plan Overreach

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ATLANTA — Today, environmental groups demanded the Georgia Public Service Commission reconsider Georgia Power’s plan to build the most expensive gas plants in the nation.

The Sierra Club, the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC), and the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE) filed a motion to reconsider Georgia Power’s “Requests for Proposals,” or RFP, which the PSC approved on Dec. 19. Georgia Power’s plan could lock Georgia ratepayers into higher utility bills for decades while expanding methane gas plants that will pollute Georgia communities until 2075. The PSC’s own staff estimates customer bills could go up about $20 per month and customers would pay $50–60 billion over the next 50 years.

Despite clear evidence that Georgia Power does not need to procure 10 gigawatts of resources by 2031 — including the unnecessary, overly expensive 757-megawatt Plant McIntosh gas plant — the Commission approved the company’s plan anyway. The Sierra Club, SELC and SACE’s motion asks the Commission to reconsider its decision in light of the record.

“The PSC approving Georgia Power’s RFP will line the pockets of corporate executives and shareholders while hardworking Georgians will be left to foot the bill for the most costly fossil fuel expansion in the country. All in the name of speculative data centers that hog power and water in our local communities,” said Michael Hawthorne, Campaign Organizing Strategist for the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign. “This lame duck PSC has delivered another blow to Georgians and the PSC must reconsider the RFP.”

“This approval by the PSC gives Georgia Power the largest and most expensive grid expansion in the country. This is state-sanctioned corporate welfare approved by two lame duck commissioners with one foot out the door, and it’s exactly the business-as-usual approach that voters overwhelmingly rejected at the ballot box in November,” said Adrien Webber, Sierra Club Georgia Chapter Director. “The RFP should be reconsidered now that Commissioners Johnson and Hubbard have been seated.”

“The PSC’s late December approval of high-cost and high-risk investments in support of speculative data center gambits demands reconsideration,” said Dr. Stephen A. Smith, Executive Director of Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. “This is too much bill payer money, directed at too many risky projects, with too little oversight, and too few protections.”

About the Sierra Club

The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person’s right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.