People Power: UUs in Georgia are Energized for Utility Justice

Among the social justice-related issues that Unitarian Universalists discuss on Sunday mornings, utilities may not be the most frequently raised topic.

But utility justice—broadly speaking, the idea that all people should have access to affordable and sustainable utilities such as power and clean water—is linked to matters of racial, economic, and environmental justice.

Over the past year in Georgia, a growing number of UUs have taken action to organize around issues of utility justice, with particular focus on how the state generates power.

“This can seem like an esoteric issue,” said Raymond Smith, a member at the UU Fellowship of Athens. “But we’re all connected to it.”

At congregations in Atlanta, Athens, Gwinnett, and other Georgia cities, UUs are expressing dissatisfaction with the state’s Public Service Commission (PSC) and utility companies including Georgia Power. Notably, UU activists say the commission has consistently raised rates on citizens for the profit of utility suppliers, while failing to replace environmentally damaging energy sources, such as coal plants.

Through the UU Georgia Legislative Action Network, a group of congregations organizing for change at the state level, Smith and his fellow Unitarian Universalists are working to challenge the status quo in Georgia power generation.

This group of activists has rallied around two primary goals: lowering the cost of electricity, which disproportionately burdens low-income communities, and converting Georgia’s power grid to draw more on green energy sources, such as solar.

“The Public Service Commission has approved six rate increases in the last two years, and Georgia Power has one of the highest returns on investment of any state-regulated monopoly utility in the country,” said Smith. “Customers are basically subsidizing Georgia Power’s bottom line. And that to me is unacceptable.”

A Day of Action in Atlanta

Over a dozen Georgia UUs traveled to Atlanta in June to advocate for lower costs and clean energy at Public Service Commission public comment session.

The June 23 session was an opportunity for the public to give feedback on Georgia Power’s Integrated Resource Plan, a ten-year roadmap for how the utility provider will generate its power.

“We had UUs in Savannah getting up at 2 a.m. to make the 8 a.m. session,” said Smith, who spoke before the commission. “I talked about how I want my home to be as good for my children as it can be. The choices that the Public Service Commission are making are degrading our natural resources, so I’m afraid that my son won’t be able to enjoy them the same way that I was able to.”

UUs in attendance held a rally outside the government office building where the session was held, joining in prayer and singing protest songs.

Rev. Ranwa Hammamy, who is Congregational Justice organizer for Side With Love, the UUA’s Organizing Strategy Team, helped lead the rally.

“Utility justice is something that greatly affects our climate, our health, and our wallets,” said Hammamy. “This is a really impactful way to engage these issues at the local level.”

Some UUs in Georgia were inspired to join this effort by participating in their congregation’s Climate Justice Revival. In Gwinnett, for example, Hammamy said the Revival brought members of the congregation working in different justice-related ministries together to work for utility justice.

“What’s happening in Georgia is a perfect example of the kind of transformational work we hoped would emerge from Revivals,” said Rachel Myslivy, who serves as Climate Justice Strategist for Side With Love.

“Advocating for fair electricity rates or increasing renewable energy at the regulatory level is one of the greatest opportunities to advance climate justice,” added Myslivy. “Unfortunately, it’s a largely overlooked opportunity.”

Jessica Swanson, who attends the UU Church of Savannah and is on the congregation’s green team, described her participation in the comment session as a spiritual practice rooted in her UU values.

“Taking the time to organize around this is an act of love,” said Swanson. “Not just for myself but for my broader community and state and the world. Air is everywhere. Water is everywhere. It’s an act of love to show up and to lean in and pay attention.”

Swanson and Smith said the UUs in attendance overheard commission members discussing the possibility of ending the session before everyone was able to speak.

“We started talking about how if they were going to not let us speak, we were going to stand up and start singing,” said Smith. “And we practiced a couple of songs before the session started and, lo and behold, they let us speak. They actually extended the comment period. I think it’s just a good example of how there are more of us than there are of them. And if we assert our rights, we can make them move and make them hear us.”

“They [the commission] had a little side meeting and then rushed over to tell us, ‘No, no, we’ll stay and hear every single comment. Please don’t sing, please don’t sing,’” said Swanson with a laugh.

Jane Nelson, a member of the UU Congregation of Atlanta, has been involved in utility justice activism after working for 20 years in the electric utility industry. She was also on the staff of the Public Service Commission as an engineer, which she said helped her understand the obstacles to systemic change.

Nelson emphasized the substantial profit earned by Georgia Power, noting that “the profit margin is actually set by the Public Service Commission.”

Nelson also noted that members of the Public Service Commission receive major campaign funding from utility-affiliated sources.

According to the Energy and Policy Institute, PSC Commissioner Fitz Johnson “received more than 87 percent of his campaign contributions from donors tied to entities regulated by the Public Service Commission (PSC).” For Tim Echols, another Commissioner on the PSC, that figure was over 61 percent.

“The commissioners are supposed to be protecting the customers from predatory practices by the utility,” said Nelson, saying she has felt “frustrated” for years to see the way the industry is governed in her state.

Change on the Horizon?

While the Integrated Resource Plan ultimately passed, the UUs advocating for utility justice said they are not giving up on their efforts to make change. Rather, the UU Georgia Legislative Action Network has been focused on organizing around an upcoming November 4 election, in which two seats on the Public Service Commission will be contested.

With the Georgia power grid facing major demands in the near future—such as a request from Georgia Power to the commission for vast amounts of energy to fund data centers for artificial intelligence—the UU activists interviewed spoke to the importance of the upcoming election.

“We want to make sure people are aware of how critical this election is for their day-to-day lives and encourage people to turn out to vote in November,” said Swanson.

“It’s overdue for the voters of Georgia to be able to decide who’s going to represent them,” said Nelson, noting that commission elections have been postponed in recent years due an ongoing lawsuit, according to PBS. The terms of Commissioners Johnson and Echols ended in 2022, but they were allowed to continue holding their seats in light of the ongoing legal process, PBS reports.

For those motivated to work for utility justice in their own communities, Nelson emphasized the importance of learning about how local utilities operate, how they are regulated, and speaking out publicly.

“Our democracy is participatory, it’s not something that’s supposed to just exist in a vacuum,” said Nelson. “It really takes people getting involved to make a difference, or otherwise these [utility] commissions can potentially get away with anything.”