The people who control Georgia’s climate and energy plans

This story is part of a collaboration with Grist and WABE to demystify the Georgia Public Service Commission, the small but powerful state-elected board that makes critical decisions about everything from raising electricity bills to developing renewable energy.  

Georgia may not have a state-level office or agency that addresses climate and energy policy, but there are many positions that wield power over those decisions — from the Public Service Commission, which regulates the main utility provider and determines energy sources, to the attorney general and state treasurer, who can join lawsuits for or against climate action. 

Here are some of the major players in Georgia’s climate-related policies — and some who have had significant recent impact — and what they’re responsible for.

Public Service Commission

Elected; next on the ballot 2025

Established in 1879 to regulate the railroad industry, the Georgia Public Service Commission, or PSC, now regulates Georgia Power — which has 2.7 million customers across the state — as well as natural gas pipelines and telecommunications. Every three years, Georgia Power submits an updated Integrated Resource Plan — the 20-year outlook detailing what energy sources it intends to use (gas, coal, nuclear, solar). The plan and the rate case, which is the process of setting electricity rates, are then subject to feedback from consumer and environmental groups, businesses, and the public, before being finalized by the PSC. 

The commission has five elected members and a staff of 85 to 90, including an advocacy staff that typically opposes the utility’s requests to raise rates and represents the state’s residential and small commercial and industrial consumers during proceedings. In recent years, Georgia Power and the Public Service Commission have been criticized by both Republicans and Democrats for frequent rate hikes. (See a timeline of the PSC’s major recent decisions.)

Each member of the commission serves a six-year term, though elections have been on hold since 2022 due to a lawsuit filed under the Voting Rights Act, which alleges that the commission’s statewide elections dilute the power of Black voters. In 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the suit, and the state passed a law that lays out a new schedule for PSC elections beginning in 2025, meaning all commissioners will serve beyond their elected term. Though Black people make up roughly a third of Georgia’s population, the PSC has had only two Black members in its 145-year history, both appointed by governors to fill a vacancy. All five current members are Republicans.

Governor 

Elected; next on the ballot 2026

For years, environmental advocates have been demanding that Georgia develop a climate action plan, as dozens of states have done. In 2023, Governor Brian Kemp’s administration started putting one together, buoyed by federal dollars made available under the Inflation Reduction Act. The state’s priority plan was due in March, with the full plan due next year. 

Governors have authority to set a state’s regulations and policies. For example, governors in other states have also set emissions targets, like in neighboring North Carolina, where Governor Roy Cooper issued a 2018 executive order aiming to cut emissions, which was later followed by legislative action with longer-term goals.

A conservative Republican, Kemp doesn’t talk much about climate change. But he has aggressively courted the electric vehicle industry, luring battery plants and companies like the electric automaker Rivian. He said his intention is for Georgia to become the “electric mobility capital of America.” 

Governors appoint several of the positions on this list; they also get an occasional opportunity to influence the makeup of the PSC, filling vacancies before an election can be held.

Attorney general

Elected; next on the ballot 2026

An attorney general is the main legal counsel to state government agencies and legislatures. In some states, attorneys general have addressed the climate crisis by joining the legal battle against fossil fuel companies for the damage created by greenhouse gas emissions: This year, for instance, Michigan is set to become the ninth state whose attorney general is suing fossil fuel companies for allegedly covering up harms caused by their emissions. 

Georgia’s attorney general, Chris Carr, has often opposed federal regulations, including those related to climate and environment. Carr joined a lawsuit in 2024, along with a couple dozen attorneys general of Republican-led states, seeking to block a Biden administration EPA rule that would reduce emissions from coal and natural gas power plants. He has also criticized and challenged other climate-friendly federal moves, like the Biden administration’s 2021 moratorium on oil and gas leasing and drilling permits on federal land.

Agriculture commissioner

Elected; next on the ballot 2026

The agriculture commissioner oversees the Department of Agriculture. In Georgia, the department is not only overseeing the agriculture industry, it’s also responsible for inspecting and testing gas pumps — and, now, electric vehicle charging stations — to ensure consumers are getting a fair shake. A 2023 law requires the department to have a plan for EV charger inspections in place by 2025, which the commissioner says would make it the first state in the country to implement such a program. 

Georgia’s commissioner Tyler Harper is one of a dozen Republican agriculture commissioners around the country challenging major banks (Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, and others) that joined an alliance “committed to financing ambitious climate action” to get the global economy to net-zero greenhouse emissions by the middle of the century, arguing it creates undue burden on farmers. Agriculture commissioners take many approaches to stewarding the state’s farmers and farmworkers. Commissioners in states including Colorado and Michigan, for example, have launched programs to boost farmers’ resilience in the face of warming temperatures. 

Committee chairs

Elected; all Georgia House and Senate members are on the ballot every two years, next in fall 2024

While most of the other offices with power over Georgia’s climate positioning won’t be on the ballot this year, Georgia House and Senate members will be. 

In the state Legislature, two committees — the Senate Regulated Industries and Utilities Committee and the House Energy, Utilities, and Telecommunications Committee — are responsible for issues within the Public Service Commission’s ambit, like legislation involving gas or electrical utilities. The chairs are Republicans Bill Cowsert and Don Parsons, respectively; they’re both up for reelection this fall. In the 2024 legislative session, Parsons sponsored legislation to get more specific information listed on Georgia Power bills, which failed. Both House and Senate committees unanimously approved a bill that would have restored a consumer advocate program for the PSC.

Environmental Protection Division

Director is nominated by the governor and approved by the Board of Natural Resources

A division of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, the EPD is tasked with drawing up the state’s climate plan. It’s collaborating with researchers at Georgia Tech. The university leads Drawdown Georgia, a project to track emissions and create options to reduce them, which could halve the state’s carbon emissions by 2030. The EPD also has other responsibilities, including overseeing Georgia Power’s coal ash cleanup efforts and monitoring emissions from factories and power plants. Jeff Cown, the current director, was appointed by Governor Kemp in 2023. He is a longtime employee of the natural resources department. 

Treasurer

Appointed by the State Depository Board (comprised of the governor, insurance commissioner, state accounting officer, commissioner of banking and finance, transportation commissioner, and treasurer)

The stewards of pension funds for public-sector workers like teachers, firefighters, and government employees, state treasurers have the ability to steer investments away from dirty energy, and the leverage to push larger asset management companies to divest from fossil fuels.

Georgia’s Republican treasurer, Steve McCoy, has joined about two dozen state financial officers around the country in what a 2022 New York Times investigation described as efforts to “thwart climate action.” In 2022, McCoy signed onto a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission objecting to a proposed policy requiring companies to disclose climate risks to their investors, saying among other things that the proposed rule “indulges in irrational climate exceptionalism, elevating climate issues to a place of prominence in disclosures that they do not deserve.”

Mayors and local sustainability officials

Elected and appointed, respectively

Some of Georgia’s cities have taken up the mantle of addressing climate change in recent years — countrywide, mayors and their administrations have led climate and energy planning. Atlanta has a goal to obtain 100 percent clean energy by 2035. The city has a cabinet-level chief sustainability officer and a clean energy advisory board, all appointed by the mayor. The Atlanta Regional Commission — whose board contains elected reps from around the 29-county metro area, and is currently chaired by the mayor of Atlanta — is in the midst of developing its own regional climate plan. Savannah has also set renewable energy targets for 2050, and has an office of sustainability and a clean energy program manager; Athens-Clarke County has a sustainability office and director.

Utility consumer advocate

This isn’t a position that exists — yet. But when the idea of establishing a consumer advocate within the Georgia Public Service Commission came up in the most recent legislative session, it garnered bipartisan support, even if it failed to make it across the finish line. It’s not a new concept: A consumer utility counsel existed until 2008, when it fell victim to Recession-era belt-tightening. Advocates say it would give the public a stronger voice to challenge things like frequent hikes in electricity rates. PSC commissioners, though, argue that consumer perspectives are sufficiently represented by the commission’s advocacy staff, which is not appointed or elected.

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline The people who control Georgia’s climate and energy plans on Jul 24, 2024.