ICYMI: TIME: The Backlash to High Electric Bills Could Transform U.S. Politics

Atlanta, GA — Yesterday, Time Magazine published a piece spotlighting Georgia organizers and their work to mobilize Georgia voters to participate in this year’s Public Service Commission (PSC) election. 

Read some highlights below: 

Time Magazine: The Backlash to High Electric Bills Could Transform U.S. Politics

• For years, residents of this part of south Georgia have faced electricity bills that locals say often exceed their rent.
• Now, organizers around the table say they have an opportunity to do something about it—if they can persuade voters to care about the virtually unknown Public Service Commission (PSC), the state’s key utility regulator. In November, two seats on the powerful panel are up for grabs.
• Seated between an environmental activist and the head of SOWEGA Rising, a longtime organizer named Lethia Kittrell, from the nearby town of Fitzgerald, described how the issue of power prices has galvanized her community.
• People respond viscerally to utility-bill discussions, and her PSC candidate forum drew dozens of voters—including a large contingent of young people. It’s a surprising turnout for a town of 9,000, she says. “The conversation is just beginning down here,” says Kittrell. “But we’re going to do it. We’re fighting.”
• This corner of the state, where many residents rely on municipal rather than investor-owned utilities, is far from alone. In Macon, residents turned up in droves for a raffle to win money to be used for their power bill. In Atlanta, a homeowner says she is considering selling her house to escape the electricity costs.
• In Georgia, and across the U.S., electricity bills are on the rise. The average Georgia Power monthly bill for a residential customer has increased by more than $40 over the past two years, according to an analysis from the Southern Environmental Law Center. Across the U.S., electricity-price increases have outpaced inflation, increasing 13% since 2022, according to Energy Information Administration data.
• Meanwhile, the power supply and aging grid struggle to keep up. Inadequate supply and growing demand mean higher costs. The Trump Administration’s approach to energy isn’t helping. President Trump, citing reliability, signed an Executive Order requiring that some old and costly coal-fired power plants stay running, and his budget bill nixes subsidies that helped reduce the cost of some new plants.
• While the challenge of rising costs has become an increasingly prominent topic in energy circles, the issue has largely slid under the national radar up to this point, often seen as one component of a much bigger conversation about the cost of living.
• But the implications of higher electricity prices—political, economic, and otherwise—should not be underestimated. Electricity prices will shape how companies spend their capital—including if, when, and how they build the data centers necessary for AI. Electricity prices will also help determine the U.S. climate trajectory.
• And for the first time, electricity bills seem destined to have a political valence. American consumers, and voters, hate higher prices.
• “This is no longer a niche concern among energy experts and advocates,” says Charles Hua, the founder of PowerLines, a nonprofit pushing for wider recognition of utility regulation nationally. “At the end of the day, there are real human beings that set their utility bills, and so people deserve to know that there are people in their own state that have power over [prices].”
• Across the state, residents are angry about their bills. In some counties, locals have become skeptical of new data centers even as they offer a surefire way to generate revenue given the massive real estate and personal property taxes they often pay. And candidates at the PSC and beyond are running for office with the promise they’ll cut electricity bills.
• But when he dives into the economics of energy, it’s much easier to imagine him on the PSC dais. Peter Hubbard, the Democratic nominee for the PSC district that includes metro Atlanta, has built a career in energy and currently works as a solar developer.
• In his telling, his critique of the PSC is built on a foundation of decades in the sector… “There’s a whole host of things that we could do to lower costs,” he says.
• At the core of the issue is a simple question of business models. Investor-owned utilities make money by building new infrastructure: power plants, transmission lines, and the other hardware that makes the grid work.
• In exchange for providing that public service, regulators give utilities a guaranteed return on their investment. That means that utilities really like to build new things, while regulators are supposed to ensure that they don’t build unnecessarily.
• That structure creates a challenging dynamic at any time, but it’s especially difficult to navigate in this era of growing electricity demand.
• In a filing with the PSC, Georgia Power said it anticipates 8.2 GW of new power demand at peak times by 2031, in large part due to new data centers. That’s a 50% increase from today.
• To meet that demand, the company says it needs to extend the life of two large coal-fired power plants that it was planning to retire, upgrade its nuclear power fleet, and build new gas and solar capacity. Those big improvements, which the PSC unanimously approved in July, come with a price tag that critics warn could total in the tens of billions of dollars in the coming years.
• Asking electricity consumers to split the bill won’t necessarily be a burden, if data-center companies end up using all that power and paying their share of the cost. And, in any event, Georgia Power will reap big financial returns.
• And therein lies the crux of the problem: if Georgia Power makes big investments in the state’s grid and the demand doesn’t materialize, ratepayers—i.e., everyday consumers—will be left paying for it. “They’re not looking out for the interests of the consumer,” says Hubbard.
• He is far from the only critical voice. Advocacy groups have poked holes in the plan, calling it a risky bet for cash-strapped Georgians. “All that risk transfers from them to us,” says Patty Durand, who runs Georgians for Affordable Energy. “No matter what assets are stranded, customers have to pay for it.”
• It’s not just activists. Companies have been skeptical too. Microsoft, which has announced multiple billion-dollar-plus data-center projects in Georgia in recent years, formally questioned Georgia Power’s projections in a PSC filing last year. The tech giant said that faulty methodology could lead to “over-forecasting near-term load,” thereby leading to higher carbon emissions.
• Voters will soon have a chance to weigh in. Two PSC seats are on the ballot in November, and voters across the state can cast a ballot for both, even though the PSC commissioners technically represent five different districts. If Hubbard and the other insurgent on the ballot were to win, the dynamics of the body would change instantly.
• The PSC has approved all of Georgia Power’s major requests in recent years—including six rate-increases since 2022—and, critics say, the tone between commissioners and executives in hearings more closely resembles that of a country club than what one might expect at a public hearing. 
• Hubbard acknowledges that two new commissioners wouldn’t be enough to shift the vote on the five-person body, but said that being able to “directly push back” can make a difference. “I very much will use the bully pulpit,” he says.
• What would it look like to shift power dynamics on public-utility commissions (PUC)? For one, you might expect more scrutiny of utility growth plans and a push for better consideration of measures to cut consumption.
• Energy-efficiency tools can help homes and businesses cut usage.
• The issue of electricity prices isn’t likely to remain confined to PUC races. Already, congressional Democrats have framed rising prices as a consequence of the Republican vote for Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB), which cut subsidies for solar power among other things.
• While solar has climate benefits, it also happens to be the primary source of new generation deployed today, and the bill is expected to raise the annual cost of electricity for the average household by more than $150 by 2030, according to research from Energy Innovation, a nonpartisan firm.