Tiny turnout likely for Tuesday’s PSC primary runoff

Peter Hubbard and Keisha Sean Waites File What if they held an ballot and no one came That was nearly the occurrence last month when only about of Georgia s roughly million registered voters cast ballots in Republican and Democratic primaries for seats on the state Residents Facility Commission PSC which regulates utilities The low turnout likely will be even more dismal Tuesday when Democratic primary voters return to the polls to choose the party s nominee for the PSC s District seat With incumbent Commissioner Tim Echols having won the Republican nod to seek reelection in District in last month s GOP primary the Democratic contest in District will be the only race on Tuesday s runoff ballot Neither former Atlanta City Councilwoman Keisha Sean Waites nor clean-energy advocate Peter Hubbard won a majority of the vote in last month s three-way Democratic primary in District which covers Fulton DeKalb and Clayton counties forcing the runoff Former utility regulator and device executive Robert Jones finished third and was eliminated Waites and Hubbard differ more in their career backgrounds than in their positions on issues facing the PSC Waites served three terms in the Georgia House of Representatives before being elected to the Atlanta City Council in Before entering city and state politics she spent years working in the federal ruling body with the Small Business Administration and the Federal Emergency Management Agency Hubbard has worked on vigor issues from outside of administration circles as an advocate for the nonprofit Georgia Center for Vitality Solutions In that role he has served as an intervenor calling for reducing the use of fossil fuels in the production of electricity which is expensive pollutes the air and harms human medical Both candidates have criticized the five-member commission all Republicans as a rubber stamp for Atlanta-based Georgia Power signing off on a series of rate increases in latest years without sufficiently considering the impacts of rising monthly bills on the company s residential and small business customers Georgia Power has brought in record profits Waites commented I don t have a issue with Georgia Power making money I just don t want them to do it on the backs of consumers Hubbard explained members of the PSC have stood by while Georgia Power increases its profits by building more electric generating limit using fossil fuels With Georgia Power the more you build the more you earn he explained We re just keeping coal and gas plants for reliability purposes But I say renewable resource hardware has reached a point where those sources have become reliable Waites commented Georgia Power could do more to increase its use of solar capacity given the Peach State ranks seventh in the nation in solar power generating ceiling If elected she announced she encouragement increasing the cap the PSC has imposed limiting its rooftop solar operation to no more than homeowners Georgia Power has no incentive to push that because it messes with their profits she stated Hubbard mentioned solar wind and batteries accounted for of the new power generation in the U S last year With solar you build it once and there s no fuel costs he revealed The winner of the Democratic primary between Hubbard and Waites will challenge incumbent Republican Commissioner Fitz Johnson in November Polls across Georgia will open on Tuesday July from a m until p m The post Tiny turnout likely for Tuesday s PSC primary runoff appeared first on Rough Draft Atlanta