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Patty Durand Energy Updates From The Field

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There is so much news and so many things I want to say that sometimes I become paralyzed and can’t say anything. That is why you haven’t heard from me in a couple of weeks, when I could and should be writing every day. For today, being a Saturday, I am going to quickly mow through the list so you can see what’s going on.

First, amazing, over the moon news: the Consumer Utility Counsel legislation passed out of Georgia’s Senate late Thursday with a 53 – 0 vote. Thank you a million times to those of you who called or emailed Senator Cowsert when I asked a couple of weeks ago. This story was written before it passed but you can still learn about it here:

You can see from the subheading above something else is afoot: did you know that predatory for-profit companies backed by venture capital money are coming after our water bills? Yup: it’s not just rental housing, folks. Legislation to fix early signs of bad actors jacking up water bills advanced too. See article for more details.

You know what I think about the PSC – it’s as bad an agency as it could be, doing all the wrong things every chance they get, but in a weird way I’d rather they control water bills than rich venture capital dudes because some day we’ll be able to extract revenge on the commissioners by voting them out, but we can never get back at venture capitalists harming the public interest by seeking crazy levels of profit.

Moving on – did you know that 25% of your GA Power bill is paying for natural gas fuel surcharges? No you don’t because that information is hidden in a single charge on your utility bill that folds in lots of things, under the “less you know the better” behavior that GA Power is fond of and that the GA PSC allows.

Legislation to fix that also passed out of the House late Thursday:

All three pieces of consumer-friendly legislation are likely to face uphill climbs in the other chamber, and would Governor Kemp even sign them? I don’t know, but for today I’m pleased as punch.

Next big news is Vogtle Unit 4. Week before last Unit 4 reached criticality (meaning it began splitting atoms), and yesterday Ga Power announced that Unit 4 was connected to the grid. Georgia Power said operators will continue testing as they raise power to 100%. Today and for the past week it has been operating at 18%.

To read the rest of Patty’s newsletter, click here.

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