by Dave Williams | Jun 26, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Executives representing Georgia Power and the state’s energy regulating agency Thursday defended the utility’s plan to freeze rates against accusations that the temporary pause won’t stop customer bills from increasing.
Georgia Power and the state Public Service Commission’s Public Interest Advocacy (PIA) Staff reached agreement last month to freeze the company’s base rates for the next three years. However, the proposal exempts “reasonable and prudent” costs the utility has incurred from storm damage primarily from Hurricane Helene.
The agreement, which the commission is due to vote on next week, would cancel the rate case Georgia Power had been planning to submit by July 1. Had that case gone forward, the company likely would have sought a significant rate hike, Aaron Abramovitz, the utility’s chief financial officer, testified Thursday during a hearing before the commission.
Temporarily pausing rates would help Georgia Power customers recover from the impact of several rate hikes the PSC has granted the company in the past three years, Steven Ruetger, an analyst with the PIA Staff, testified Thursday.
“Staff believes the (agreement) is a reasonable resolution,” he said. “Stabilizing these rates has tremendous value.”
Abramovitz said Georgia’s Power electrical capacity demand projections have risen substantially in recent years, from an expected increase of just 200 to 300 megawatts forecast in 2022 to about 8,000 megawatts covering the next five to 10 years. Some 80% to 90% of that new demand will come from “large load” customers including data centers, he said.
To meet that demand, Georgia Power is planning major investments in a variety of energy-generating sources, Abramovitz said.
“We’re investing in three new [natural gas] combustion turbines, 1,000 megawatts of battery energy storage units and … more investment to come,” he said.
Environmental advocacy and consumer watchdog groups have argued Georgia Power’s energy demand projections are overblown since not all data center operators that have shown interest in setting up in Georgia will actually come here rather than somewhere else.
On Thursday, critics of the proposed rate freeze also focused on the exemption that would allow the company to recoup its storm recovery costs, estimated at $860 million.
“The rate freeze isn’t a rate freeze,” Patty Durand, founder of the nonprofit Georgians for Affordable Energy, told commissioners. “It freezes rates but does not freeze spending.”
But Ruetger said it’s important that Georgia Power be allowed to recover its storm damage costs sooner rather than later.
“The under-recovery of storm damage costs must be dealt with because Helene was so tremendously damaging,” he said. “Otherwise, the company’s balance sheet is simply going to grow.”
Some of the agreement’s opponents have called upon three members of the PSC – commission Chairman Jason Shaw and commissioners Tim Echols and Lauren “Bubba” McDonald – to recuse themselves from voting on the plan because they had publicly endorsed the proposed freeze prior to Thursday’s hearing. All three declined to do so Thursday after a member of the PSC’s Public Interest Advisory Staff said there were no grounds for such a recusal.
by Dave Williams | Jun 26, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The Georgia Department of Transportation’s Highway Emergency Response Operators (HERO) program will resume patrolling interstate highways across metro Atlanta during the overnight hours seven days a week effective July 1, the state agency announced Thursday.
HERO vehicles also will resume full coverage of the region’s nearly 400 miles of interstates.
The program cut back on its operating hours in 2023 due to a staffing shortage, patrolling only between 5 a.m. and 11:30 p.m. each day to ensure adequate coverage during peak traffic.
“HEROs are our first and best resource to keep traffic moving safely and efficiently in metro Atlanta,” Georgia Commissioner of Transportation Russell McMurry said. “The reinstatement of full service of HERO’s coverage area with 24/7 patrols is reflective of the department’s commitment to providing consistent and immediate assistance to everyone who uses our roadways.”
“Traffic incidents do not operate on a schedule,” added Tyrone McCord III, the DOT’s HERO unit manager. “Now that we are back to a full staff, thanks to effective recruitment strategies and intensive training, we are committed to patrolling the nearly 400 miles of metro Atlanta roads at all hours to improve public safety, reduce traffic delays, and be better prepared for emergencies.”
While HERO units are primarily responsible for roadway clearance after traffic incidents, the program also offers free roadside assistance, helping stranded motorists with flat tires or dead batteries, and providing fuel and coolant.
The HERO program was launched back in 1994. The DOT followed up in 2017 by creating the Coordinated Highway Assistance & Maintenance Program (CHAMP) to patrol Georgia’s interstate highways outside of metro Atlanta, except for interstates 59 and 24 in the northwestern corner of the state.
To request assistance from HERO or CHAMP, contact 511GA by dialing 511 hands-free on your mobile phone, downloading the 511GA app to your Apple or Google mobile device, or by visiting 511GA.org.
by Dave Williams | Jun 25, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Georgia’s two U.S. senators have reintroduced legislation to declare Atlanta’s West Hunter Street Baptist Church a National Historic Site in honor of the late civil rights leader Ralph David Abernathy Sr.
Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, both Democrats, got the bill through a Senate committee two years ago with bipartisan support, but it didn’t reach the full Senate for a vote.
Abernathy, a Baptist minister, began his pastoral service at West Hunter Street Baptist in 1961 and served there for nearly three decades until his death in 1990. He was a close friend of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
Abernathy co-founded the Atlanta-based Southern Christian Leadership Conference and assumed its leadership after King as assassinated in 1968.
“Ralph David Abernathy Sr. was a great Georgian, a great American, and a titan of the civil rights movement,” Ossoff said.
“As a pastor of Dr. King’s spiritual home, I remain committed to preserving Georgia’s history and uplifting the power of faith in action,” Warnock added.
The bill received bipartisan backing in 2023, with members of both parties from Georgia’s congressional delegation signing on as cosponsors. U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams, D-Atlanta, introduced the 2023 legislation on the House side and is doing so again this year.
by Dave Williams | Jun 24, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The State Road and Tollway Authority (SRTA) awarded a record $26.5 million in Georgia Transportation Infrastructure Bank (GTIB) loans and grants Tuesday that will help fund 13 transportation projects across the state.
This latest round of GTIB awards stems from $46 million the General Assembly added to the fiscal 2025 mid-year budget.
“Thanks to conservative budgeting and strategic funding of our priorities, Georgia is not only the No.-1 state for business,” Gov. Brian Kemp said. “We’re also the best state for reliable infrastructure. We’re preserving our competitive edge and reaffirming our commitment to creating opportunity in all parts of the state, especially rural Georgia.”
The largest investment is a $4.9 million loan to the Cumberland Community Improvement District in Cobb County. The money will go toward a path of more than three miles around the core of the Cumberland District, including a 0.4-mile path connecting to an existing pedestrian bridge over Interstate 285.
Colquitt County will receive more than $4.5 million in grants and loans to resurface 10 roads covering a distance of 11 miles. The GTIB investment will accelerate completion of the project by three years.
Dodge County will get more than $4.4 million in grants and loans to finance three road projects. The list includes paving Bill Mullis Road from Roddy Highway to Georgia 87, performing full-depth reclamation on Milan Eastman Road from Georgia 117 to Georgia 280 to repair damage from increased truck traffic, and resurfacing Zion Hill Church from Antioch Church Road to Coody Road. Combining the three projects will accelerate completion by a decade, resulting in significant savings.
Nearly $2.5 million in loans and grants will be used to build a single-lane roundabout in Barrow County at the intersection of State Route 53 and Mulberry Road and realign the intersection. The project is expected to improve road safety and freight movement. The state funding will accelerate completion of the work by three years.
A $2 million loan will help finance a new two-lane roadway in Cherokee County connecting the regional airport near Canton to an existing Interstate 575 interchange. The new spur road will allow the county to move ahead with plans to extend the runway to 6,000 feet, which will let aircraft carry more fuel and make longer trips.
Athens-Clarke County will receive a $1.7 million grant that will go toward realigning the intersection of Hawthorne and Oglethorpe avenues to improve overall safety and enhance the city’s sidewalk and bike networks.
The city of Mount Vernon in Montgomery County will get a grant of about $1.4 million for drainage improvements and road repairs to significant damage caused by Hurricane Helene. Carver Street, currently a dirt road, is slated to be paved.
Almost $1.25 million in grants and loans will go to Dougherty County to widen and increase the weight capacity of two bridges on Gravel Hill Road to better accommodate trucks and farm equipment. The project also calls for paving and widening four dirt roads that are heavily affected by adverse weather.
The city of LaGrange will receive a grant of $1 million to go toward building a two-lane road – Callaway South Parkway – from the intersection of Pegasus Parkway ending in a roundabout. The project will provide greater access to undeveloped parcels in the Callaway South Industrial Park.
Grants and/or loans of less than $1 million will fund four additional projects: road resurfacing in the Emanual County city of Twin City, road resurfacing and an intersection realignment near the West Georgia Regional Airport in the city of Mount Zion in Carroll County, street repaving in Seminole County’s Iron City to help jumpstart downtown revitalization efforts, and road improvements aimed at reopening both lanes of a bridge on Moores Stone Road at Bussey Creek in Stewart County.
Since its inception in 2010, the GTIB has awarded $242 million in grants and loans. Applications are evaluated based on criteria including economic value and the availability of matching funds.
by Dave Williams | Jun 24, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Increased storage capacity is helping the Port of Savannah offset some of the impacts of the tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump.
Last month was Savannah’s second busiest May on record, exceeded only by May of 2022. Savannah handled 500,900 twenty-foot equivalent container units (TEUs), up 2.2% over the same month last year, the Georgia Ports Authority reported Tuesday.
The added storage capacity is giving port customers greater flexibility in timing supply-chain movements, said Griff Lynch, the authority’s president and CEO.
“Garden City Terminal West was specifically built for long-term storage for import and export cargo,” he said. “Our customers tell us they have been looking for a service option like this to manage supply-chain speed fluctuations.”
Meanwhile, business was less robust at the Port of Brunswick. The port’s Colonels Island Terminal moved 79,134 units of Roll-on/Roll-off cargo last month, including 73,995 autos, a decrease of 8.6% compared to May of last year. May of 2024 was the ports authority’s second busiest month on record for RoRo cargo, at 86,608 units.
The first phase of a new rail yard being built on the south side of Colonels Island will go into service next month, doubling the rail capacity at Brunswick from five to 10 trains per week.
The $22 million investment will increase annual rail capacity to more than 340,000 units. More than 90% of vehicles moving by rail in Brunswick are U.S. exports.
