The Good:

A needed win for solar and renewable energy advocates is the creation of a Community Solar Subcommittee chaired by Rep. Beth Camp and the passage of HB 1192, which pauses tax credits for power-consuming data centers and would create a commission to study their vast energy use. The Community Solar Ad Hoc Committee was created following Chair Camp’s introduction of House Bill 1152, or the Georgia Homegrown Solar Act of 2024. Information on future public meetings of the Energy, Utilities and Telecommunications Ad Hoc Committee on Community Solar will be posted online at legis.ga.gov/schedule/house. The pause on data center tax credits, if signed into law, would suspend tax breaks for new data centers – providing a vital opportunity to reassess the environmental impact of these facilities. We, along with the coalition of renewable energy advocates, urge Governor Kemp to sign the legislation into law (read the letter to Governor Kemp). 

The Bad:

Concerns about the increased cost of water grew with the passage of HB 1146. The Georgia EPD can now issue water permits to private companies in areas where no public service can be provided within a period of 12 months. Private water providers are in a position to out compete public water utilities, bypass local government planning, ignore affordable housing designs--and sell access to our drinking water supply to the highest bidder. Our concerns are valid given the risks outlined in this assessment of the privatization of water and the introduction of HB 1220, which, if it had passed, would have given the Public Service Commission oversight of Georgia’s private water companies with more than 1,000 customers. The legislation moved forward after lawmakers heard the testimony of Jacob Fried, a resident of Greene County, high water and sewer costs for his two Putnam County businesses and the ongoing legal battles have forced him into bankruptcy. But the bill ultimately died in the House Energy, Utilities and Telecommunications committee.

The delay to elect commissioners for districts 2 and 3 on the Georgia Public Services Commission has been extended thanks to the passage of HB 1312. The legislation denies Georgia Power customers the chance to elect/re-elect commissioners to the PSC, the governing board that has oversight over Georgia Power rates. Current PSC commissioners have approved several proposals submitted by Georgia Power that have increased the financial burden on ratepayers. Even more egregious is that the legislation extends commissioners' terms from 6-years to 8-years, including the terms of current commissioners, notably Commissioner Lauren “Bubba” McDonald would have his district race placed on the 2028 ballot instead of expiring at the end of 2026, and sets Chairman Jason Shaw’s next race for November 2028, which would be eight years since the previous election.

The Opportunity:

Our advocacy for the advancement of environmental justice legislation gave us keen insight into the need to educate the public and lawmakers about needed reforms to the state’s permitting process by factoring a community's environmental stressors, socioeconomic stressors, and pre-existing health conditions before approving new facilities. This interim period, between now and the opening of the 2025 legislative session, provides the opportunity to platform the environmental policy reforms needed to build economically and environmentally sustainable communities. This is also an election year and the perfect time to bring attention to the issues of environmental health and the growing need for legislative and administrative reforms.

Recommended reforms include, but are not limited to: 

Regulation & Permitting

• Update the state permitting process to incorporate socioeconomic and health vulnerabilities when considering where new industrial facilities are sited. Currently, the state does not consider cumulative environmental impact in their permitting process. Updating regulations and the permitting process could help reduce the pollution burden that these communities face. This analysis showed that many polluting facilities are located in communities with high environmental burdens, social vulnerability, and health vulnerability. Pollution from these facilities has costly health impacts on the surrounding areas.
• Reduce air pollution from various sources by expanding public transit access or promoting non-emission, electric vehicle use. More stringent air quality guidelines paired with monitoring and enforcement could save tens to hundreds of millions of dollars in health impacts in Georgia alone.

Monitoring & Compliance

• Expand access to local, low-cost air sensors to track real-time air quality. An expanded array of low-cost sensors throughout the area, particularly in Augusta and Savannah, can help community members and policymakers identify the real-time severity of air pollution, sources of ambient pollution (facilities, traffic, etc.), pollution hot spots, and which neighborhoods are affected and when (seasonality, time of day, etc.). These air sensors can be placed in homes, schools, and local businesses.
• Support robust, transparent monitoring efforts near facilities that handle radioactive materials, including empirical air, soil, and water sampling. Gaps in monitoring data and incomplete pollution records from SRS make it challenging to determine potential community exposure. The expansion of Plant Vogtle, alongside well-documented mismanagement of radioactive waste during earlier SRS operations, ongoing remediation work, and significant rates of cancer among former SRS workers, makes continuing monitoring efforts a prudent safeguard as well as a reasonable way to address ongoing community concerns. 

Enforcement & Evaluation

• Clean Water Act permit violations data illustrates a clear trend: While more permitted facilities exist in lower ranking environmental justice index (EJI) census tracts, communities with above average EJI rankings experience more permit violations, which could have detrimental health impacts. More routinely evaluate industrial water permit violations, particularly in high EJI census tracts, so that these communities are not disproportionately exposed to pollution. 
• A review of state agency practices around enforcing permit compliance and the consequences faced by facilities that repeatedly, and significantly, violate their permits. To better consider the distribution of facilities and communities impacted, Georgia’s Environmental Protection Division should also track where violations are happening, which communities are being impacted, and how these violations are being addressed. 

As the November election draws near, use the time to research candidates for their stance on the state’s current environmental policy and permitting process, and for details on their plan to sustain a healthy workforce, sound infrastructure, and clean air, soil and water for future generations.  

Andrea Young Jones

Government Relations and Public Policy Director

Note: Administrative policy reforms are the recommendation of the PSE Health Energy Issue Brief on the Cumulative Impacts of Georgia’s CSRA and SRS, December 2023, https://drive.google.com/file/d/18vvq8qKMWPPTO7EqkzHGuuomM4NBdWgp/view?usp=sharing