Georgia Power Must Share Burden of Fuel Cost With Ratepayers
May 14, 20262 hours
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ATLANTA — Today, the Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy submitted their post-hearing brief in Georgia Power’s 2026 Fuel Cost Recovery docket, detailing how the company seeks to escape any responsibility for rising energy costs and avoid making any adaptations to relieve the burden on ratepayers.
The brief strongly encourages the Public Service Commission to open an investigatory docket to create a fuel cost sharing mechanism between the Company and ratepayers. As just one example of how bad it is for customers to pick up the entirety of the fuel cost bill, Sierra Club, SACE and NRDC’s expert analysis showed that Georgia Power lost $152 million of customers’ money by running its coal plants uneconomically. The brief also supports several improvements to Georgia Power’s request that Staff achieved in a proposed settlement that’s before the Commission in this case.
In response, the Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy released the following statement:
“Georgia Power wants to have its cake and eat it too,” said Adrien Webber, Sierra Club Georgia Chapter Director. “It wants to choose the most expensive, most uneconomic use of coal power; and it wants to keep advocates and the public in the dark about why it made a $152 million decision when more affordable options were available. The Public Service Commission must stop Georgia Power from ruling like kings over us, making decisions without any accountability. Georgia Power continues to make record profits, while Georgians foot the bill. It’s time Georgia Power pays its fair share of our fuel costs, and puts people over profits.”
“If I had a guarantee that someone else would pay off my credit card every month, I would have absolutely no incentive to stay within a given budget. That is what is happening in Georgia with utility fuel costs. Georgia Power is going on a shopping spree, building new gas plants to boost shareholder profits, because the Commission has always rubber stamped their 100 fuel cost pass through. We say no more,” said Maggie Shober, Research Director for Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. “Georgians deserve a utility that can be held liable for the impacts of its decisions, not one that treats its customers as an unlimited line of credit.”
“For years, Georgia Power has operated as if nearly every dollar it spends on fuel can simply be passed straight onto customers with little scrutiny,” said Patrick King II, Georgia Policy Advocate with Natural Resources Defense Council. “This is a textbook moral hazard. Over the last 15 years, the Commission has disallowed less than one percent of the conservatively estimated $29 billion in fuel costs. With no real skin in the game, there is a little incentive to control cost or reduce overreliance on volatile fuels like natural gas. A meaningful fuel cost sharing mechanism is needed to better protect customers, and ensure the utility is acting as a responsible steward of ratepayer dollars.”
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person’s right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.
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