Unusual odd-year primaries on tap for Georgia PSC seats on June 17

Elections for state and federal offices usually take place only in even years But this year Georgia voters will head to the polls to fill two seats on the five-member state Society Function Commission starting Tuesday June with Republican and Democratic primaries Incumbent Republican Commissioner Tim Echols faces a challenger for the GOP nomination in PSC District which includes eastern Georgia from Atlanta s eastern and southeastern suburbs to Savannah Democratic Primary voters will decide which of three candidates takes on incumbent Republican Commissioner Fitz Johnson in November in District which covers the metro counties of Fulton Clayton and DeKalb The odd-year polling stems from a lawsuit that challenged the way members of the PSC are elected Four Black Fulton County residents and their lawyers argued that electing commissioners statewide instead of by district dilutes Black voting strength in violation of the federal Voting Rights Act making it harder for Black voters to elect a candidate of their choice A lower federal court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs but the th Circuit U S Court of Appeals overturned that decision and the U S Supreme Court declined to take up an appeal The ongoing scenario resulted in the postponement of both the and PSC elections District Democratic candidate Daniel Blackman was removed from the ballot by Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger for failure to prove residency a decision upheld by a Fulton County Superior Court judge earlier this month District Republicans Lee Muns a former member of the Columbia County Board of Schooling who ran unsuccessfully for the Columbia County Commission is up against veteran Commissioner Tim Echols in District It s distinctive for an incumbent to draw a primary challenge and Muns declared he wouldn t run if he thought his opponent was doing a good job We ve seen the cost overruns at nuclear Plant Vogtle and the lack of looking forward to the future Muns noted Voters are concerned about the oversight of the current commission Muns has more than years of experience in industrial construction having founded multiple profitable businesses Before going into business on his own he helped build Units and at Georgia Power s Plant Vogtle in the late s I m a business owner he mentioned I understand budgets I understand supply-chain issues I understand how much overhead you need to run an operation If elected Muns announced he would push to freeze any Georgia Power rate increases until the PSC requires full transparency and accountability for Georgia Power and other utilities the commission regulates Georgia Power agreed last month to freeze customer rates for the next three years But an agreement the company reached last month with the PSC s Masses Interest Advocacy Staff nixed the next rate occurrence Georgia Power had been due to file with the commission and the multiple rounds of populace hearings that would have taken place Muns commented the proposed rate freeze is a political ploy timed to coincide with this year s elections It s trying to throw this out to voters and blind them he announced Voters are smarter the present day than they used to be Muns stated he supports prohibiting Georgia Power from recovering from residential and small business customers the costs of supplying strength to the power-hungry content centers that are popping up across Georgia Law that included such a requirement was introduced in the state Senate this year but failed to gain traction Echols declared the PSC already has provided such a safeguard by approving a resolution last January forbidding Georgia Power from passing on the costs of serving new large-load customers including evidence centers to ratepayers We have taken precautions to make sure large loads like records centers pay all incremental costs to generate and transmit their ability he reported I feel good about the protections we have put in place for ratepayers Echols who grew up in Clayton County but lives in Hoschton near Athens was elected to the PSC in and reelected in His term was supposed to be up in but was extended when the ballot was postponed After graduating from the University of Georgia with a bachelor s degree and two masters degrees Echols started a Christian nonprofit educational ministry for teens He also is an enthusiastic supporter of electric vehicles and has owned one for years Echols embraces the wave of records centers moving to Georgia as good for the state s economic activity Georgia is poised to become the artificial intelligence capital of America just like with fintech he explained Figures centers bring in seven-figure tax revenue for counties that land the projects and that is attractive Echols also supports the nuclear expansion at Plant Vogtle that was completed last year seven years behind schedule with massive cost overruns Vogtle s Units and were the first new nuclear reactors built in America in decades Vogtle is an vital milestone for Georgia Power and the entire state he commented That revealed to build more reactors we need selected sort of financial backstop from the federal regime One thing Echols and Muns agree on is Georgia Power s decision to continue relying on coal and natural gas as part of the utility s portfolio of vitality generation sources District Democrats The three Democrats seeking their party s nomination in PSC District beg to differ We are supposed to transition out of coal announced Robert Jones a California native with a resume that includes working in system sales as a instrument executive as a senior analyst at the California Residents Utilities Commission as an executive at Telecom Utility and as a global business leader at Microsoft All the environmental evidence says we should do it Expanding fossil fuel infrastructure will lock Georgia into decades of reliance on oil coal methane gas further contributing to greenhouse gas emissions and setting change which we ve seen in all these storms throughout the country added Keisha Sean Waites a former member of the General Assembly and more in recent times the Atlanta City Council You can t meet that no net-carbon goal set by Georgia Power parent Southern Co and build new fossil fuel plants announced Peter Hubbard a clean-energy advocate for a Georgia nonprofit Renewables could power the grid reliably but there s invariably been a headwind from the fossil fuels industry Jones stated he s the only candidate or sitting commissioner with the extensive utility management experience needed to assess the impact power-generating financing proposals from utilities would have on business and residential customers My background of having worked in utility regulation is particularly relevant to the challenge Georgia voters face at this time he stated Waites brings extensive leadership experience to the race having spent years working for the U S Small Business Administration and the Federal Emergency Management Agency Waites is wary of the rapid expansion of statistics centers in Georgia because of their impacts on both the circumstances and electric ratepayers A material center uses the equivalent of a small town daily in water consumption and power she stated I have to make sure we don t use small businesses and residential customers as a financial backstop for Georgia Power Waites also suggested that the use of solar ability could be expanded if the PSC would increase the cap on its rooftop solar initiative from the current homeowners Hubbard has testified as an expert witness before the commission during the last four rounds of hearings on Georgia Power requests for additional electrical generating threshold He announced the utility is asking for more maximum than it necessities You can t assume all these giant companies building input centers want to build them in Georgia he noted Georgia Power is overestimating demand They use these forecasts to justify new projects But the load demand isn t there The winner of the District Republican primary between Echols and Muns will face Democrat Alicia Johnson in November while the Democrat who wins the District primary will take on GOP incumbent Fitz Johnson Appointed to the PSC in this will be the first time Johnson has sought voting to the post The polls across Georgia will be open on Tuesday June from a m until p m Rough Draft Atlanta editor Collin Kelley contributed to this account The post Uncommon odd-year primaries on tap for Georgia PSC seats on June appeared first on Rough Draft Atlanta