ATLANTA – The state Public Service Commission (PSC) Tuesday unanimously approved a fuel costs recovery plan submitted by Georgia Power that will increase the average residential customer’s bill by $15.90 per month.
The rate hike, which takes effect next month, was the product of an agreement between the Atlanta-based utility and the PSC’s Public Interest Advocacy staff that will let Georgia recover 100% of $2.1 billion in higher fuel costs it has incurred during the last two years from its customers.
Commissioner Lauren “Bubba” McDonald blamed higher natural gas prices that are beyond the commission’s control. He said the Green New Deal pushed by the Biden administration is responsible for driving up both gasoline and natural gas prices.
At a recent hearing, McDonald argued that state law requires the commission to let Georgia Power recover higher fuel costs as a pass-through. The company does not earn any profit from higher fuel expenses.
“We owe the bill, and we’ve got to pay it,” McDonald said.
“Just as Georgians paid higher prices at the gas pump in 2022, Georgia Power also paid more for the natural gas and other fuels we use to generate electricity,” the company added in a statement issued following Tuesday’s vote.
“Today’s decision by the Georgia PSC helps spread out these additional fuel costs over three years and adds relief for income-qualified senior citizens through an increased discount program.”
Representatives of environmental and consumer advocacy groups that appeared before the commission in recent weeks asked the PSC to reject Georgia Power’s fuel costs recovery plan in favor of the utility stepping up its use of solar and other forms of renewable energy in generating electricity.
“When bills jump next month, the most vulnerable Georgians are going to have to make unthinkable choices about how to spend their income,” said Jennifer Whitfield, senior attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center.
“The commission’s approach to this moment – giving the utility everything it wants while leaving the majority of its customers to struggle with higher monthly bills – is unacceptable. Georgia Power shouldn’t be pocketing billions in record profits while also putting customers in the position of choosing between power and basic needs.”
Commission Chair Tricia Pridemore proposed an amendment to further increase the higher fuel discount Georgia Power offers income-eligible seniors from $8 per month in the utility’s proposal to $9.50, bringing it to total of $33.50 per month.
The fuel costs recovery increase is one of several Georgia Power has already received in recent months or is poised to seek in the months ahead. The PSC approved a $1.8 billion increase last December that increased the average residential bill by $3.60 per month.
Rates are expected to go up again later this year when Georgia Power brings into service the first of two new nuclear reactors being built at Plant Vogtle south of Augusta.
The Arch on the campus of the University of Georgia in Athens
ATLANTA – The University System of Georgia is holding the line on tuition despite a $66 million budget cut the General Assembly imposed in March.
The system’s Board of Regents voted unanimously Tuesday in favor of a $3.18 billion fiscal 2024 operating budget with no increase in tuition for the sixth time in the last eight years at 25 of the system’s 26 institutions.
Tuition at Middle Georgia State University in Macon will increase by $19 per semester for in-state students and $66 for out-of-state students to fund the second year of a three-year plan to bring undergraduate tuition into alignment with other universities in the same academic sector.
Georgia’s public colleges and universities rank seventh-lowest in the nation for tuition costs, Tracey Cook, the system’s chief fiscal officer, told the regents.
The fiscal 2024 budget, which takes effect July 1, increases spending by 2.1% over the budget lawmakers approved last spring. It includes $87 million in cost-of-living raises for eligible employees and $7.5 million to cover enrollment growth.
The $66 million cut will be allocated across the system’s 26 institutions, Cook said.
System Chancellor Sonny Perdue was unhappy with the reduction and said so the day after the legislature approved it.
“We’re working hard to make our case for restoration of those funds,” board Chairman Harold Reynolds said following Tuesday’s vote.
In addition to the $66 million cut, Gov, Brian Kemp ordered the university system to “disregard” $6.2 million in spending approved by the General Assembly when he signed the state budget May 5.
Cook said those funds will be retained in the system office rather than allocated to the schools while the system awaits further information on how to handle those reductions.
The regents also adopted a $198.2 million fiscal 2024 capital budget that includes $137.8 million for large construction projects on five school campuses.
ATLANTA – A new commission formed by Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to look for ways to reform a business licensing process critics say is hampering workforce development held its first meeting Monday.
The GA Works Licensing Commission includes Raffensperger; Gabriel Sterling, interim director of the secretary of state’s Professional Licensing Division; Republican and Democratic state lawmakers; and economic development leaders.
The group will work to identify barriers to growing Georgia’s workforce posed by the state’s antiquated, cumbersome business licensing process and come up with recommendations for streamlining the process by getting rid of unnecessary requirements.
Georgia’s workforce of 5.3 million is constantly changing, since the Peach State ranks 7th in the nation in domestic migration, Raffensperger said.
“People are moving here because it’s a good place to raise a family and build a career,” he said.
Specific challenges include helping spouses of active-duty military personnel transferred to Georgia from out of state get licenses to pursue professions such as nursing and helping paroled prison inmates navigate the licensing system after being released.
The secretary of state’s office offers 507 different types of professional licenses that are overseen by 41 licensing boards administratively attached to the state agency. Currently, a record 570,000 Georgians hold professional licenses.
“It’s very difficult to administer these things,” Sterling said.
The secretary of state’s office has made some changes recently to reduce the number of license applications that linger for a year or more and increase the number that are being processed in 30 days or fewer.
The agency also plans to begin rolling out an online application and licensing system this fall.
“This is going to be a fundamental change in how we do this,” Sterling said.
But Sterling said there still will be value in the new commission considering why the state requires so many types of licenses for Georgians to do business and examine whether to get rid of some that don’t seem necessary.
But Rep. Brian Prince, D-Augusta, a member of the commission, cautioned against watering down current licensing requirements to the point that they don’t protect “public safety, health, and welfare,” the purpose of having professional licenses.
“We have to have standards,” he said.
Raffensperger said the commission will meet several times this summer and fall to develop recommendations in time for the General Assembly’s 2024 session.
ATLANTA – In a move that contradicts the South’s non-union history, about 1,400 workers at Blue Bird Corp.’s Fort Valley school bus manufacturing plant have voted to join the United Steelworkers Union (USW).
“We’re proud that Blue Bird workers chose to join our union,” United Steelworkers International President Tom Conway said following Friday’s vote. “We’re ready to help them bargain a fair contract that accounts for their contributions to the company’s success.”
The recent Blue Bird union organizing effort was one of the most significant in the South, a region marked by state right-to-work laws that neither require workers to join a union or pay union dues as a condition of employment.
President Joe Biden issued a statement congratulating the Blue Bird workers for voting to unionize.
“The middle class built America. And unions built the middle class,” Biden said. “The workers at Blue Bird, and at companies like it all over the country, are proving the future can and will be built in America. And union workers will be a big part of that future.”
Blue Bird is an active participant in America’s move toward clean energy, manufacturing both low-emission and zero-emission school buses. The company has been approved to receive significant funding through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean School Bus program.
Thanks to Friday’s vote, Blue Bird workers will have a seat at the bargaining table, USW District 9 Director Dan Flippo said.
“For too long, corporations cynically viewed the South as a place where they could suppress wages and working conditions because they believed they could keep workers from unionizing,” he said. “Our union has a history of fighting on behalf of workers in the South and across the country. Now, as members of the USW, workers at Blue Bird have the same opportunity to make positive changes in their workplace.”
On the other hand, political and business leaders in Georgia and other states in the South as well as corporate executives overseas have long cited low union membership in the region as a key factor in corporate decisions to locate their job-creating operations in the region.
ATLANTA – A manufacturer of materials for the lithium-ion batteries used to power electric vehicles will invest $800 million in a plant in Southwest Georgia that will create more than 400 jobs, Gov. Brian Kemp announced Monday.
Chicago-based Anovion Technologies supplies premium synthetic graphite, the largest battery material used in EVs by mass, exceeding copper, nickel, manganese, cobalt and lithium. The new 1.5-million-square-feet plant in Bainbridge will be the first of its size and scale in North America.
“We are thrilled to be opening our first large-scale expansion manufacturing facility in Georgia,” Anovion CEO Eric Stopka said. “The state’s strong technical workforce and top-tier schools will help advance research partnerships and contribute to a highly skilled talent pipeline in support of Anovion’s drive for continued innovation and creation of exciting climate technology jobs of the future.”
“Georgia is fast becoming the e-mobility capital of the nation,” Gov. Brian Kemp added. “Job creators like them are recognizing that every corner of our state has the resources and workforce needed for success.”
The two largest economic development projects in Georgia history are electric vehicle manufacturing plants.
Hyundai is investing $5.5 billion in a plant near Savannah in Bryan County expected to generate 8,100 jobs when fully built out. Rivian’s $5 billion plant east of Atlanta will create 7,500 jobs.
Suppliers of electric vehicle batteries also are springing up across the state to serve the two EV manufacturing plants.
Anovion will be hiring for a variety of technical, production, and engineering jobs, as well as administrative and management positions. Interested individuals can learn more about working at Anovion by visiting the company’s website at www.anoviontech.com.
The Bainbridge plant is expected to begin operations in late 2025.
