Jane Nelson, UUCA, Former Public Service Commission (PSC) Staffer
Reported by Barbara Stahnke, Good Trouble Organizer, UUCG
Sparked by UUCG’s Good Trouble, Climate Justice Revival, and Green Sanctuary ministries coming together and identifying a place of collective power, we have partnered with amazing UUs in the great state of Georgia to change policy that impacts each of us and our fellow Georgians. Our project with the Public Service Commission was exciting, energizing, and, as usual when one is fighting for the oppressed, somewhat depressing (in this after-action moment ONLY, because we must keep fighting).
We had UUCG folks showing up at two major public comments for the Integrated Resource Plan. We had UUs from other congregations in Metro Atlanta show up too! At the June 23rd event, the UUs from Savannah showed up and showed out. They drove up that morning to make public comments at the PSC. I was so inspired by their effort.
Between UUs from across GA, Interfaith Partners, Organizational Partners, and our UU T-Shirts from Side with Love, we enabled all the public comments on the 23rd to be heard. The public comments group were advised that because so many people had signed up to make public comment, the Commissioners would stop public comment at the one-hour mark. They wanted us to give up. But did we…NO WAY. With the inspiration of Josie Mitz and Rev. Hammamy from Side with Love, we learned and practiced some Climate Focused Justice/Protest songs right there in the hearing room. We planned to sing these songs if we were stopped from speaking. (The government was already recording the events in the hearing room.) The PSC staff came back prior to the comment period starting and advised all the folks in the room that the PSC would hear all comments. (I was called, as a leader of the action, to talk to a Capital Sergeant (Police) to make sure that our action would not happen because of the time extension. I advised, if EVERYONE gets to speak our action was not necessary.) EVERYONE SPOKE. So many different folks commented including loads of UUs with special kudos to the Savannah folks.
The night before the actual vote on the final IRP, I partnered with our own Ginny Andino (Duamente) to sing UU Hymns and American Climate songs as part of the GIPL Interfaith Vigil. The Vigil occurred from Sundown to Sunup before the last Public Comment period. We led everyone in singing all the verses of “America the Beautiful” as well as singing “Blue Boat Home”. There were moments during the evening when I had tears in my eyes from the UU Interconnections and Connections.
As you are all probably aware, our action did not lead to rainbows and unicorns. Jon Reese at UUCA summarized the results in an email to the activists: “After months of targeted advocacy, multiple public meetings, and thousands of public comments, the Georgia Public Service Commission announced its IRP decision. According to this GIPL press release, the PSC “voted to approve Georgia Power’s long-term energy plan that threatens to roll back promised relief for bill payers and allows the utility to build or buy an extraordinary amount of new capacity to meet the demand of data centers the company pledges are headed to the state. Fossil fuels, including keeping coal plants online indefinitely, will drive much of the new capacity.””
“This is an incredible blow to Georgia Power’s credibility and the credibility of the IRP process,” said Codi Norred, executive director of GIPL. “I can’t see how anyone would come to the negotiation table with Georgia Power in good faith again after witnessing the bait and switch the company just pulled off with The Commission’s blessing.”
“Frankly, I am shocked that Georgia Power did not honor its commitment and heartbroken the commission did not step up and defend bill payers in this moment,” said Jennifer Whitfield, a senior attorney in SELC’s Georgia office. “The Commission had an opportunity to give this plan a silver lining but instead left meaningful relief for Georgians on the table.”
“Families and businesses should come first in the IRP process—not necessarily Georgia Power shareholders. This is why advocates fight so hard to expand energy demand curbing programs,” said James Marlow, president of Southface Institute. “By failing to live up to a signed agreement with Georgia Interfaith Power and Light, and then the failure of this public process not being called into question by the Public Service Commissioners hurts Georgia’s citizens and Georgia Power’s credibility.”
The good news is small, but we did have an actual impact according to Jane Nelson, our resident PSC Energy Expert on the UU GA Legislative Action Network. “There are several details in the areas of renewable energy and Demand Side Management (DSM) programs that were real wins for the climate and the citizens of Georgia. It sort of takes a utility nerd to see the wins, but let me assure you, we DID make an impact! I am pleased (though, of course, not as much as I might have been with no extensions of fossil fuel plants) with the increase and elimination of caps on participation in several different solar programs and pilots, with the modifications to DSM programs for commercial customers, with the increase in transmission and distribution to accommodate increases in solar (both utility-scale and customer-based distributed generation), the approval of upgrades to hydroelectric power, and various other smaller tweaks to programs, including rebate levels, payments for $/kWh, and customer inclusions.”
Terry Welsher, my compadre in all things Climate Justice Good Trouble said, “my focus now is on communicating to the team we have gathered that they have made a difference, and there are still impactful differences to be made”.
Please join us as we make Good Trouble with Get out the Vote (GOTV) for the November Statewide Race for the two PSC elected offices.