Power Company Faces Legal Fight For Making Too Much Energy

Environmental and religious groups, led by the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC), have taken Georgia regulators to court following the approval of a major energy expansion by Georgia Power. The SELC, along with co-plaintiffs including the Sierra Club, Georgia Interfaith Power & Light, Park Avenue Church, and the Unitarian Universalist Church of Savannah, petitioned the Fulton Superior Court on March 25. They allege that the Georgia Professional Standards Commission (PSC) overstepped its authority by allowing the utility to make what they deem "unnecessary and uneconomic investments" that will be passed on to customers. The lawsuit specifically targets the PSC's certification of 9,617 additional megawatts for Georgia Power, bringing its total capacity to 32,117 megawatts. This expansion is reportedly intended to meet potential demand from companies interested in establishing data centers in Georgia. The SELC argues that the PSC approved 757 megawatts more than the estimated capacity requirement and that Georgia Power misrepresented certification costs, unfairly allocating them to existing customers. They also claim the PSC failed to properly review Georgia Power's assertion that some resource purchases were immune from competitive bidding. Adrien Webber, a Sierra Club Georgia Chapter leader, criticized the PSC for allegedly bending rules to favor Georgia Power, leading to increased pollution and higher energy bills. Georgia Power is a subsidiary of the Southern Company, which recently received a $26.5 billion loan for grid expansion in Georgia and Alabama.