The commission is set to discuss a request from Georgia Power to increase the state’s energy capacity by nearly 10,000 megawatts, equal to about five Hoover Dams, to meet an expected spike in demand because of new energy-hungry data center growth. Staff initially recommended approving only about one-third of the utility’s request and granting conditional approval to another third but changed their recommendation to agree with Georgia Power to move forward with the full request.

Several people disrupted the start of proceedings with chants of “Rein in Georgia Power” and “Power to the people, not Georgia Power,” and were escorted out. According to law enforcement, no one was arrested, and some people were allowed to return to the hearing.

Georgia Power spokesperson Matthew Kent said in a statement that the company welcomes “all public comment during this important process, but these public hearings are in professional settings that require an amount of decorum.”

In exchange for allowing Georgia Power’s energy buildout of at least $16 billion, with 90% of it intended to power data center growth, Georgia Power promised to lower power bills by about $100 a year in its subsequent rate case proceedings. Because Georgia Power and the commission agreed to a three-year rate freeze, the promised savings wouldn’t be considered by the commission until after 2028.

“This plan means more money stays in your pocket while we power Georgia’s future,” said Georgia Power’s head, Kim Greene, in a statement.

But environmental organizations involved in the proceedings weren’t convinced about Georgia Power’s promise that the deal would lead to “downward pressure” on customers’ power bills. Jennifer Whitfield, a senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center, said during lunch break that there is no guarantee the decrease will ever materialize, and it was unclear what the customer got out of the deal.

“It doesn’t mean that in 2029 residential customers will see their bills go down. What it means is that when they do all the various accounting, they promise that if we have a rate case — which we may not — that this class of customers will put downward pressure on the costs otherwise attributed to residential customers, which is just a really long, complicated way of saying, ‘we don’t know what’s going to happen,’” Whitfield said.

At the start of the hearing, Whitfield asked commissioners for additional time to review the agreement, saying they had not had enough time because they became aware of it on their commute to the hearing. PSC Chair Jason Shaw said that, because of the public hearings, lawyers for the advocacy organizations had the morning to review the agreement and could leave the room if they wished.

“There’ll be some more time there. We will probably not even get to the hearing until after lunch,” Shaw said.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

The post PSC hearings disrupted by protestors after surprise agreement with Georgia Power appeared first on Rough Draft Atlanta.

A massive data center project backed by Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and his family could be coming to Butts County, but many of the project’s details are still unknown.

Jones, a Republican, is running to be Georgia’s next governor.

The Highway 16 Interstate Health Development near Interstate 75 owned by Jones’ father is set to include a 450,000 square-foot hospital, 1.2 million square feet of medical office space and 11 million square feet of data centers – making it one of the biggest data centers currently planned in Georgia and placing it among the largest ever built by today’s standard.

The estimated $10 billion project is expected to go through more than 4.5 million gallons of water per day, more than tripling Butts County’s current water usage, and generate nearly $92 million per year in annual tax revenues when it is completed by 2040.

That’s just about all the information publicly available on the project, and those details come from a two-page development of regional impact filing that was submitted to the Georgia Department of Community Affairs.

The lack of information is a problem for environmental advocates like Fletcher Sams, executive director of the Altamaha Riverkeeper.

“Here’s what I don’t know: I don’t know how many megawatts it is. I also don’t know the cooling technology that they will use to cool the chips,” he said. “Those things are very important for me to know because the concern that I have for the location of it is that it’s in the upper Ocmulgee basin, and I’ve got 24 other data centers projected to come into that basin. The issue that I have with that basin is that between now and 2060, that region is going to see approximately 740,000 new residents.”

Decision-making on data centers left to local officials

The Georgia Department of Community Affairs recently approved new rules to bring large-scale data center developments under official state review, but critics say the rules fail to fully account for the cumulative burden the facilities have on the state’s energy and water supplies.

The amendments to its “developments of regional impact” process, for the first time, explicitly list “technological facilities (including data centers).” This comes after a self-imposed pause in processing regional impact reviews for data centers that was meant to give the department time to clarify the rules, DCA Commissioner Christopher Nunn said during a legislative subcommittee meeting in August. Some local governments began applying previous rules for impact reviews not intended for data centers since the projects did not fit under any of the previously specified development types, leading to a lack of consistency across the state.

While other proposals for data centers moved forward without a state review during the months-long pause, the Butts County development includes a hospital and commercial areas, which was enough to trigger a regional review.

Yet, the main issue, according to environmental advocates and community organizers, is the limitations of the process itself: The state’s impact review process is designed to be a communication tool, not a regulatory one.

“This simply ensures that neighbors are talking to neighbors, that cities are talking to counties, that other stakeholders are engaged in a process,” Nunn said to the legislative subcommittee at the time, stressing that his state agency serves merely as a “repository” for data, and the final regional impact report is purely advisory. The local government “maintains the authority to make the final decision on whether a proposed development will or will not go forward.”

The reliance on local government autonomy and information sharing leaves the state’s natural resources vulnerable to depletion, environmental advocates say.

But for Butts County, proponents of the mega project say the tax revenue would allow the county to advance and compete with neighboring metro areas. Residents often have to travel out of the county for many amenities, which is “not conducive to a good community,” said county manager Brad Johnson. He said that the development – called River Park – would diversify the county’s tax base, which currently largely comes from residents.

“We’re looking forward for some commercial or industrial tax generation to help take the burden off of our citizens, so I think not just Butts County, I think the entire region will benefit by the proposed project,” Johnson said.

Dan Diorio, vice president of state policy at the Data Center Coalition, a national association for the data center industry, said in a letter submitted during the public comment period on the revised regional review process that any new rules should consider the economic benefits data centers may bring. Attempts to reach the coalition for a comment for this story were unsuccessful.

“These tax revenues support investments in community priorities like education, transportation, and public safety that help enhance the quality of life for Georgians,” Diorio said.

Butts County’s planning commission is set to hear the developer’s application to rezone the property to mixed-use development in December, Johnson said, and the county commission can consider the application beginning in January, starting with a public hearing. Once rezoned, developers can begin construction.

Concerns about water usage

If you’ve ever sat down to watch a movie with your laptop on your lap and felt your legs start to become uncomfortable from the warmth, you know that computer components heat up when they’re doing their jobs. Data centers contain a lot more hardware than your laptop and perform complex calculations, generating massive temperature increases.

Keeping everything cool enough to function requires a lot of water – hundreds of thousands or millions of gallons per day – and Sams said it’s just not clear whether Georgia’s rivers can provide for all the planned data centers plus population growth and the power needs that come with that.

“Of the 25 data centers that I am tracking in the Ocmulgee, only nine have DRI information available,” Sams said, referring to the state impact review. “Of those nine, they’re going to withdraw close to 10 million gallons on top of the other withdrawals.”

Sams said Georgia has seen concerns over water usage surrounding large projects in recent years, pointing to the Bryan County Hyundai plant that has sparked concerns over water use.

“I’m worried about us over issuing withdrawal permits in the Ocmulgee basin for these data centers and for the power generation for the data centers when there is no backup,” Sams said.

For years, Georgia allowed the data center boom to expand without clear, statewide metrics, leading to what advocates call a “data vacuum,” a term Kristen Stampfer, director of Coastal Communities United, a nonprofit working to preserve rural communities, used in a letter submitted to DCA during a recent public comment period.

“These projects, collectively, represent an immense and largely unaccounted-for draw on Georgia’s finite resources … The proposed Project Sail in Coweta County alone demonstrates the scale of the challenge: its daily water use could reach 9 million gallons and its energy demand of 900 MW rivals that of a small city, yet it falls outside a rigorous review,” Stampfer said.

‘It’s not sustainable’

It’s not just water that has advocates concerned about the spike in data centers. All that new digital number crunching needs a lot of electricity – Georgia Power has claimed that data centers will consume about 80% of the new power generated in Georgia through 2031.

But like the water draw numbers, projecting exactly how much of Georgia’s juice will be squeezed out by data centers is a tough job, says Amy Sharma, executive director of Science for Georgia, a science advocacy nonprofit.

“If all the planned ones that we have found – which by the way all of these numbers are estimates based on publicly available information like newspaper articles and like DRI reports and stuff like that. So who knows? We’re not getting exact numbers from the data center developers themselves – there’s about 40 plans for the state that would take up 14 gigawatts,” Sharma said.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, 14 gigawatts is enough energy to power 1.4 billion LED lightbulbs.

“It’s just bonkers,” Sharma said. “There’s no other word for this besides bananas, right? Like it’s just off the rails. It’s not sustainable.”

Utility rates have been rising in Georgia and were a major issue for Democrats, who flipped two seats currently held by Republicans on the five-seat Georgia Public Service Commission running on energy affordability. The two incumbents had voted to approve six rate increases over the last two years, resulting in an estimated average annual increase of about $500 for the average household.

The politics

The Butts County property has been at the center of a political battle over hospital regulations and alleged self-dealing in the past.

Jones came under criticism in 2023 for a push to rewrite rules for new hospitals in a way critics said was catered to allow for a hospital to be built on property owned by Jones’ father.

That effort fell short, but Gov. Brian Kemp signed a bill easing those hospital regulations last year.

Jones’ push toward loosening those restrictions has already become campaign fodder in the Republican gubernatorial primary.

Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, who is also jockeying to be the Republican candidate for governor next year, accused Jones of using his office to line his family’s pockets.

“If you honor me by allowing me to be your next Governor, unlike the Lt. Governor, I will promise you this: I will not change the rules or rig the system to enrich myself or my family on your backs or the backs of our fellow Georgians,” Carr said on social media in October.

A billboard standing over the Butts County site reads “Burt Jones’ $10 billion family project, Rewritten laws. Family profits. That’s Burt Jones’ family payday.”

The billboard was paid for by Keep Georgia Strong Action Inc., an independent campaign group that supports Carr.

Jones’ spokesperson Kayla Lott dismissed the issue.

“This is a simple rezoning application by a private company,” she said. “It’s a nonstory.”

“As for Chris Carr, he’s not a serious candidate. He’s grasping at straws because he’s stuck in a distant third place, his fundraising has collapsed, and the only people paying attention to him at this point are the ones on his payroll,” she added.

The post Massive Burt Jones-backed project among wave of data centers proposed for Georgia appeared first on Rough Draft Atlanta.

U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene from Georgia, a Rome Republican, announced her plans to resign from Congress Friday evening in an unexpected video message.

Greene, who was first elected in Georgia’s 14th congressional district in 2020, said in a lengthy and pointed video statement posted on social media her last day in Congress will be Jan. 5, 2026.

Once a staunch supporter of President Donald Trump, Trump publicly broke ties with Greene after she expressed disagreement with him on a number of issues, the biggest of which was the release of the Epstein files.

Greene expressed disillusionment with the political system and Trump, predicting that if she were to stay in office, she would face and defeat a Trump-funded opponent while Republicans would lose the midterms nationwide.

“It’s all so absurd and completely unserious,” she said in the video. “I refuse to be a battered wife hoping it all goes away and gets better. If I’m cast aside by the president and the MAGA political machine and replaced by neocons, big pharma, big tech, military industrial war complex, foreign leaders and the elite donor class that can never, ever relate to real Americans then many common Americans have been cast aside and replaced as well.”

“There is no plan to save the world or a 4-D chess game being played,” she added. “When common American people realize and understand that the political industrial complex of both parties is ripping this country apart, that not one elected leader like me is able to stop Washington’s machine from gradually destroying our country and instead the reality is that they, common Americans, the people, possess the real power over Washington, then I’ll be here by their side to rebuild it.”

The Constitution calls on a state’s governor to declare a special election when a vacancy happens in the House of Representatives. 

Greene was reportedly considering a run for higher office, including as Georgia governor or for Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff’s seat, both of which are up next year, but bowed out of consideration after being discouraged by Trump. 

Republican strategist Brian Robinson said that it’s unclear what Greene will do next, but that “she has the profile and the talent to make a splash whatever she does.”

“Her video message laid out a clear and detailed vision that could serve as a roadmap to a political future,” he said in a statement.

Greene said in her speech that her goal was to hold the Republican party accountable and put “America first.”

“I look forward to seeing many of you again sometime in the future,” she said and signed off with a smile.

The post Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene says she will resign in January appeared first on Rough Draft Atlanta.

Democrats Peter Hubbard and Alicia Johnson have delivered an upset in Georgia’s off-year special election on Tuesday, defeating two Republican incumbents on the state’s Public Service Commission.

Click here for full coverage of the Nov. 4 municipal elections.

The double victory marks the first time the Democratic Party has won a statewide constitutional office in Georgia since 2006 and reshapes the political landscape ahead of the pivotal 2026 midterm elections. As of 10:15 p.m., Alicia Johnson led with about 60.5% of the vote, according to unofficial results from the Georgia Secretary of State’s website, while Hubbard carried 60.7% of the vote.

The PSC regulates Georgia’s major utilities, including Georgia Power, and its decisions directly impact residential energy bills.

Republican incumbent Tim Echols, who has served on the commission since 2011, congratulated Johnson Tuesday night. 

“Congratulations to Dr. Alicia Johnson for her well-fought victory tonight. I pray your experience on the PSC will be as meaningful as mine. Godspeed to you,” Echols posted online.

Alicia Johnson in a statement pledged to support energy policy at the PSC that benefits the public, rather than catering to the interests of powerful energy companies. 

“This victory isn’t just mine, it’s ours. It’s for the single mother choosing between groceries and her power bill, the senior trying to keep the lights on, and the young voter who showed up believing that their voice matters,” Johnson said in a press release.

Hubbard, a clean energy advocate, ousted Republican incumbent Commissioner Fitz Johnson in the District 3 race. In a statement, Hubbard framed the results as a clear mandate from voters frustrated by soaring power costs.

“Affordability is front and center in voters’ minds, and today they overwhelmingly said they’re tired of subsidizing corporate interests at the expense of their families,” Hubbard said. “As I serve out my first term on the Public Service Commission, I will work tirelessly to lower utility costs, to bring more clean, reliable energy resources to this state, and to refocus the Commission’s work on the public interest.”

Fitz Johnson conceded just past 10 p.m. and said he intends to run again in 2026 when the seat will be back on the ballot. He said that he knew the odds were against him with concurrent municipal elections favoring Democrats, but added that he’s “certain the underlying policies offered by the Democrats do not reflect the preferences of the majority of Georgians.”

“The work I’ve done with my colleagues on the Public Service Commission has helped to move Georgia forward with a vision to keep energy prices below the national average. We have maintained resiliency of our grid and reliability for consumers,” Fitz Johnson said in a statement.

The Democratic Party of Georgia and the Democratic National Committee quickly cheered the wins.

Democratic Party of Georgia Chair Charlie Bailey celebrated the “decisive” win in a press release by saying this was a referendum on Republican leadership.

“In this election, Georgians spoke up loud and clear: they’re sick of Republicans who help corporations and billionaires enrich themselves on the backs of working people, and they’re ready to hold those Republicans accountable,” Bailey said in a statement.

The DNC also celebrated the victory as a rejection of the Republican agenda on costs.

“This victory is a direct response to [Republican]’s cost-raising agenda that is squeezing pocketbooks in Georgia and across the country,” said DNC Chair Ken Martin.

DNC vice chair Jane Kleeb called the results a sign that the strategy of “organize everywhere” and a message focused on affordability is “clearly working.”

“We now head into the 2026 midterm elections with incredible wind behind our backs,” Kleeb said.

The wins come as the cost of electricity has become a major consumer issue. The defeated Republican incumbents had voted to approve six rate increases over the last two years, resulting in an estimated average increase of about $500 per year for the average household.

“The election of two new Public Service Commissioners represents a seismic change in Georgia’s energy landscape and reflects a new politics of electricity in America,” said Charles Hua of PowerLines, an organization focused on affordable energy. “Consumers have sent a clear message: they are paying attention and will hold public officials accountable for decisions that impact their utility bills.”

A PowerLines/Ipsos poll found that 3 in 4 Americans are concerned about rising utility bills.

Other environmental groups also celebrated the results, with the Sierra Club, which advocates for retiring fossil fuels and transitioning to clean energy, stating it looks forward to working with Johnson and Hubbard.

“This is a monumental victory for Georgia ratepayers, families, and small businesses who deserve affordable, clean energy to power their lives. This election shows that Georgia voters are paying attention and understand that business as usual down at the Public Service Commission cannot continue. This election is also a clarion call to our elected officials to advocate for everyday people, not multi-billion dollar companies,” said Sierra Club Georgia Chapter Director Adrien Webber in a statement.

The races drew some heavy outside spending, with Georgia Conservation Voters spending at least $2.2 million in the elections.

Georgia Conservation Voters launched a website linked theyraisedyourbill.com blaming the two Republican incumbents for energy bill increases.

“The message of this election is unmistakable: Georgians demand an end to utility bill rate hikes and corporate politics as usual on the PSC,” said Brionté McCorkle, executive director of Georgia Conservation Voters.

But not every voter is sold that Democrats can deliver reliable energy while also promoting economic development. Airline pilot Bradley Heydt, a Cherokee County resident, said he cast his ballot for the Republicans on Tuesday because he feels they will strike the proper balance between people and businesses.

“I believe that our state needs somebody who represents the interests not only of the people, but also for business interests in terms of development and expanding energy in the state,” he said. “I usually do not vote for people who represent the interests of just lowering utility bills. There’s more than just lowering utility bills. It’s managing our energy and our infrastructure in the state, and we need people who are prepared to do that job.”

Georgia Republican Party officials had openly expressed concern over the unique timing of the election, which coincided with local municipal contests that experts said would likely spur higher Democratic mobilization. GOP leadership, including Gov. Brian Kemp, had tried to rally support and warned of a potential Democratic win.  

The PSC races are seen as a potential indicator of statewide voter sentiment, suggesting that a Democratic breakthrough could provide significant momentum for the party’s attempts to regain traction in Georgia heading into an election year when U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff will be fighting for another term and several high-profile contests, like an open race for governor, are on the ballot. 

This year’s PSC special elections represented the first time since 2020 that any of the sitting commissioners have faced voters in a general election. The elections had been delayed by a lawsuit challenging the commission’s at-large voting system. Fitz Johnson, who was appointed to the seat by the governor in 2021, was up for election for the first time as a commissioner. 

Georgia Recorder deputy editor Ross Williams contributed to this report. 

The post Georgia voters reject GOP on energy policy, elect Democrats to Public Service Commission appeared first on Rough Draft Atlanta.

Two Republican incumbents, Tim Echols and Fitz Johnson, are being challenged by Democratic nominees Peter Hubbard and Alicia Johnson in an unusual off-year election delayed by litigation. Republicans fear that, since these state PSC races are being held outside major election years when voter attention to statewide races is low, local elections in Democratic-leaning cities could result in an upset.

The special election, which has attracted national attention, represents the first time since 2020 that any members of the all-GOP commission have stood for reelection in a general election. This is Fitz Johnson’s first time facing voters since he was appointed to the panel in 2021. 

Georgia Republican Party Chairman Josh McKoon said in an interview that because of the unique nature of the election and likely low turnout, his focus is on raising awareness, saying that it would be disappointing to have a statewide position elected by a small fraction of voters.

“Unfortunately, there are a lot of people in the state that have no idea that these two statewide offices are up for election,” McKoon said.

Nearly 638,000 people, or about 9% of registered voters, had cast ballots during the early voting period for the 2025 general election, according to the Georgia Secretary of State election data hub. By comparison, nearly 3.8 million people voted early in the last presidential election.

High-profile Georgia Republicans have stepped in to help raise the election’s profile. After Gov. Brian Kemp headlined a rally to energize the state party and “came to (his) rescue,” as Echols said in his “Energy Matters” radio show this week, others have joined in. U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene reminded her followers on social media to vote early, saying that Republicans are “skipping an extremely important election” and that “Democrats will turn Georgia into California!”

“(Kemp) has done quite a bit for me lately. He’s done a series of commercials. He’s engaging I call it ‘his machine,’ and there’s not a more popular Republican in the state of Georgia than Gov. Brian Kemp,” Echols said in the Wednesday episode titled “Tim’s future is on the line. What will happen?”

When asked if he is feeling more comfortable after the high-profile endorsements ahead of Tuesday, Echols said he’s “making slow progress.” He’s seeking another term in the District 2 seat, which represents a swath of east Georgia that goes as far north as Hart County and as far south as Savannah. 

Fitz Johnson, who is running for the District 3 seat, which includes Fulton, DeKalb and Clayton counties, has been stumping in conservative areas outside his district. The five members on the commission must live in specific regions of the state but are elected by voters statewide. Fitz Johnson said in a text message “there’s no doubt this is going to be a close election” but that he feels like he is getting his message across to voters.

“Voters clearly understand the difference between our sound conservative leadership versus Democrats’ reckless climate mandates,” he said.

The Democratic candidates have centered their campaigns on recent utility bill increases, with the Democratic Party of Georgia having a statewide “My Power Bill’s Too High” tour during the early voting period. That message echoed a $2.2 million campaign from the Georgia Conservation Voters Action Fund highlighting the current commission’s approval of six Georgia Power rate hikes in the last two years. That campaign, which launched a website linked theyraisedyourbill.com blaming the two Republican incumbents for energy bill increases, has “engaged over a million voters” ahead of Election Day, according to Allie Brown, deputy director of Georgia Conservation Voters.

“GCV Action Fund launched this campaign because we need cheaper, cleaner power. To get that, we need new leadership on the Public Service Commission,” Brown said in a statement. “Our campaign reminds voters what they already feel every month: they can’t afford more of the same. Tim and Fitz have raised our bills, and now it’s up to voters to stand up and fire them on Tuesday.”

Hubbard said his strategy for reaching voters uses specific economic data to target Georgians most affected by rising energy costs. Hubbard said that his campaign is “very much micro-targeting” Georgia Power customers.

“They don’t usually know about the PSC unless someone like us tells them about it. It’s still pretty obscure, but they all know their power bill’s gone up, and I tell them why,” Hubbard said Saturday while campaigning in Lawrenceville in Gwinnett County. 

At each house, Hubbard would tell the resident who answered the door that “if you’re a Georgia Power customer and you’ve seen your power bill go up, we can help do something about that,” while reminding them to vote for him and Alicia Johnson.

These messages have resonated with some voters. Tiffany Barkley, a 28-year-old nurse from DeKalb County who voted early, said the current commission’s decisions were a key concern and that she wants to see the commission be more accountable to the public. 

Anne Branscome, a 79-year-old retiree in DeKalb County, said that a change in the PSC “at this point in time is enormously important,” referring to a growing number of data centers under proposal or being built in Georgia. These data centers require large amounts of energy and water, and Branscome said she is concerned that officials aren’t considering their impact on the future.

“We need people to understand that we can still have technology, and we can still do the right things, and we can use the right ways to do it,” Branscome said. “And we feel like there’s too much corporate interest driving this whole effort without much thought or preparation.”

The Republican campaign has focused on boosting turnout among reliable voters in low-turnout areas, including areas without a local contest on the ballot, and on framing the election around the parties’ ideological differences.

McKoon said that the party is “certainly highlighting the partisan differences,” saying that Georgians “don’t want to go down the road of financing Green New Deal initiatives that, frankly, don’t work and will undermine the reliability of Georgia’s electric grid.” 

The post Battle for two seats on Georgia Public Service Commission heats up as campaigns enter homestretch  appeared first on Rough Draft Atlanta.