Georgians do not have any choice in their electricity provider. The state has declared that electric companies have a DUTY to serve a certain geographic area, but they also therefore have a RIGHT to those customers.

Electric Membership Corporations (EMCs) are owned by their members, and have an incentive to keep costs low and reliability high, as their leadership is subject to vote from their members.

Georgia Power, however, is an IOU (Investor-Owned Utility) which lobbies the Public Service Commission to approve projects and allow them to pass on expenses to their guaranteed customers with a guaranteed surcharge to guarantee a profit for its shareholders. IOUs have no risk and all reward.

Georgia Power is currently asking the PSC’s permission to increase rates significantly over the next three years.

If elected, I will seek solutions to these problems that are fair to energy providers (both IOUs and EMCs), businesses seeking to revolutionize our energy industry and protect our grid, and above all the citizens of Georgia, to whom I am ultimately responsible.

I WILL NOT USE MY POSITION TO FORCE GEORGIA POWER TO DO MY PERSONAL BIDDING BUT I WILL DO MY BEST TO LEVEL THE PLAYING FIELD SO THEY HAVE TO COMPETE LIKE EVERYONE ELSE.

Socialism is when the means of producing and distributing goods is owned collectively or by a centralized government that often plans and controls the economy. Investor-owned utilities (IOUs) like Georgia Power have to get all their plans approved by the Public Service Commission. Expenditures and projects are subject to the desires of these elected officials. The PSC can even order Georgia Power to undertake certain projects it thinks are necessary.

However, Georgia Power can also ask the PSC to approve how it charges its customers. Georgia Power can ask for a guaranteed profit (of 10% or more). The PSC almost always approves Georgia Power’s requests.

What then, is the actual risk to Georgia Power? If the PSC can make Georgia Power do what it wants, but Georgia Power can charge its guaranteed customers cost plus 10%, what is the incentive to keep costs low? What is the incentive to compete in the marketplace? What is the incentive to listen to its customers?

Georgia Power (with the help of the PSC) can do whatever they want, without consequence or risk, while passing all expenses to their guaranteed customers and sending all the profits to their shareholders and investors.

Georgia Power and the PSC are trying to keep one foot in the world of socialism and one foot in the world of capitalism. These strategies are incompatible and do not protect or serve the people of Georgia.

This would not be easy. In order to protect the interests of the people of Georgia, the energy market must be truly free. This would require bringing all interested parties to the table. That would include utilities which are not regulated by the PSC, such as EMCs and MEAG. Personally, I don’t think the PSC (or the legislature) should be able to dictate how a business operates or how much profit they may acquire AS LONG AS NO ONE IS COERCED, FORCED, OR HARMED. By necessity, however, customers would have to be free to choose those with whom they do business.

Such changes would require legislative action. I’d be happy to help mediate among all interested parties and PSC staff to help come up with viable solutions and recommendations, which we could then pass to a legislative sponsor as a bill to free the people of Georgia from protected monopolies.

What is important to your neighbor may not be important to you.

Perhaps your neighbor doesn’t mind paying cost + 10% for electricity made by burning coal. Perhaps your neighbor doesn’t mind paying an extra “environmental compliance fee” to help clean up the coal ash that’s been sitting in ponds and leaching into groundwater for decades. Perhaps your neighbor doesn’t mind paying for a nuclear plant that’s years overdue and billions over-budget. Perhaps your neighbor is not interested in trying out new technologies that decrease the cost of electricity and increase reliability.

Should your neighbor make those choices for you? Should you make those choices for your neighbor?

I want every Georgian to be able to make those choices for their own household or business AS LONG AS NO ONE ELSE IS COERCED, FORCED, OR HARMED.

Chick-fil-A used to be the only place to get a chicken sandwich. The market saw how lucrative their product was, and now you can get a reasonable facsimile at a half dozen other joints. Perhaps you don’t like CFA’s politics. Perhaps you love them. Perhaps you make a choice whether the quality of the product and service outweighs those other considerations or not.

Back in the olden days (not so long ago), when you needed eggs you had two choices: 6 or 12? Now you can get white, brown, or green. Now you can have cage free, free range, or organic, or any combination thereof. Now you even have the choice of whether they come in plastic, styrofoam, or cardboard. If you don’t like your options at Kroger, you can go to Publix.

An electron is an electron, but it may be important to you whether that electron came from a steam turbine (made from burning coal or gas or via nuclear radiation), hydroelectric dam (no carbon emissions but with potential environmental effects downstream), wind turbine (no emissions but intermittent and difficult to recycle), or photovoltaics (no emissions but requiring land and rare earth minerals). Perhaps reliability is more important to you, and you may want to choose a company based on how quickly they can restore your power in an emergency. Perhaps you are most interested in transparency, and want to know exactly how your bill is generated and what exactly you’re paying for. Perhaps you want to buy your own solar panels and want to generate your own electricity. Perhaps you would like to sell some of your excess electricity back to your provider, and would like to be compensated fairly for your contribution.

The State does not dictate what kind of chicken sandwich you can eat or what kind of eggs you can buy based on where you live. Consequently, a (mostly) free market has allowed you more and more choices.

The State should not tell you which electricity company you have to use either.

I want Georgians to be able to have a choice in the type of electricity they buy. I want Georgians to be able to change electricity providers if their needs or wants change. I want Georgians to be able to vote with their dollars and influence the market to their own benefit. I also want electricity providers to face the consequences (good or bad) of their decisions. Providers who meet the needs of the market will be rewarded with loyal customers, and those who choose to ignore the needs and wants of the market will dwindle and be replaced.

Right now, Georgia Power sees the value of solar and wind, and are investing in such projects. However, they also want to be the ones to control those resources. Georgia Power and the PSC have limited how many customers are allowed to be paid back for electricity generated on their own property. IOUs (investor-owned utilities) claim that people without rooftop solar are subsidizing those who do. How is this possible? Surely if my rooftop solar puts more electrons on the grid, the cost of electricity should go down for everyone, right? IOUs say that rooftop solar customers still use their power lines and other infrastructure but pay less for it than those without rooftop solar.

Nevermind that the IOU is benefitting from the infrastructure owned and maintained by the rooftop solar customer.

In an ideal world, we would be able to gradually replace our fossil fuel consumption with low-emission alternatives. The price of wind and photovoltaics (solar) is dropping, while the costs of fossil fuels is going up, especially when you consider the cost of cleanup (coal ash and carbon capture, for instance).

Imagine a market in which electricity could be generated completely from the sun, rain, and wind that bless our state. How would an electricity provider justify its charges if it weren’t having to buy coal, oil, or gas?

In this ideal world, I imagine electricity companies would compete for customers based on reliability, billing transparency, fair compensation for rooftop solar, or whatever other feature Georgians decided was important. There will still be costs of equipment construction and installation, costs of transmission and ensuring reliability thereof, and administrative costs of metering and billing. However, I suspect that as the costs of generation continue to ramp down, more and more providers will transition to a subscription-based billing model.

I DO NOT WANT TO TELL GEORGIA POWER HOW MUCH IT NEEDS TO REIMBURSE ITS ROOFTOP SOLAR CUSTOMERS FOR THEIR ENERGY.

HOWEVER, I DO WANT GEORGIA POWER AND OTHER ELECTRICITY PROVIDERS TO COMPETE FOR THEIR CUSTOMERS.

Further Reading:

Rooftop Program Maxed Out.

IOUs Strategies Against Rooftop Solar

A Little Bit About Net Metering

Regardless of the type of electricity we generate, land is required. Vast solar arrays are becoming more commonplace, but enormous coal, gas, or nuclear facilities have been part of our landscape for decades. Hydroelectric facilities in Georgia cover nearly 46,000 acres in water. High voltage transmission lines crisscross our state.

Here’s an interactive map showing different energy resources in our country.

Eminent Domain is the technique used by governments to justify taking property from individuals for public use. Government justifies this by claiming to pay a fair price for that property. Who decides what constitutes a “fair price?” Hint: it’s not the property owner.

I WILL NOT SUPPORT ANY PROJECT THAT REQUIRES THE USE OF EMINENT DOMAIN.

“Your right to swing your fist ends at the tip of my nose.” That’s the simple analogy of the Non-Aggression Principle.

As we’ve learned in the last couple of years, our American culture differs greatly on whether our “rights” can be curtailed in order to protect others.

This unfortunately has been a sticky situation for libertarians, for whom individual rights are paramount. Whose individual rights prevail when simply breathing can put others at risk?

For me, the choice was easy. Wearing a mask is zero risk and all potential reward. It’s the least we can do to protect each other and be a good neighbor.

Unfortunately, no form of electricity generation is without environmental risk. Burning fossil fuels creates carbon dioxide which gradually increases our atmosphere’s temperature. “Natural” gas (methane) is an even more potent greenhouse gas. Burning coal has left behind millions of tons of toxic ash which sits in ponds and leaches into groundwater. Mining for all these fossil fuels scars the land and pollutes groundwater. Nuclear fuel must be mined as well, and the radioactive waste dealt with. Both fossil fuel and nuclear plants require vast amounts of water to supply steam and cool the plants. Hydroelectric dams are built with vast amounts of concrete, which has its own considerable carbon footprint. Damming our rivers can have devastating effects on downstream estuaries and other ecosystems. Even solar panels require mining rare earth materials and can be difficult to recycle. Likewise enormous wind turbines can be difficult or impossible to recycle and may affect bird migration patterns.

Whose rights prevail when our need for electricity harms our neighbors downstream, downwind, or in the future?

For me, the choice is simple:

1. Where damages can be proven, victims of environmental damage should be made whole.

2. Georgians must be free to choose electricity providers which strive to protect us and our neighbors from the consequences of our electricity generation. Customers who value such things will reward companies which share those values.