PSC District 5: Sheila Edwards, Josh Tolbert

Shelia Edwards (D)

Edwards believes that the PSC has acted too favorably toward Georgia Power in regulatory hearings. She said she’d reject any rate hike until the utility company can provide a comprehensive plan to protect residential ratepayers from unfair increases and cost justifications.

Edwards also supports lowering how much Georgia Power is allowed to make in profits from a 12% return on equity to under 10%, which is more in line with the U.S. average. She also supports stricter limits on what information that can be redacted from contracts and filings that the utility submits to the commission.

“Right now, it’s about affordability, accountability, and making sure that we’re doing the right things for the people of Georgia. They redact so much information. We don’t know what we’re paying for … So we need to hold them accountable. Make sure we peel the onion back and see what’s actually going on,” Edwards said.

Josh Tolbert (R)

Tolbert has argued that the Public Service Commission requires technical and engineering expertise to properly evaluate regulatory filings from utilities and said he would push back if he feels the utility proposals are unfair.

He supports lowering how much Georgia Power is allowed to profit from new infrastructure they build to a national average, which he said would have a modest impact on monthly energy bills. He also would like more oversight over Georgia Power’s spending to ensure they are using the most cost-effective measures.

“What incentive exists for them to find a way to reduce their fuel costs, to buy fuel more cost effectively or reduce the heat rate on the power plant so they can be more efficient? These incentive structures don’t appropriately exist right now to drive those costs down,” Tolbert said.

Shelia Edwards (D)

Aside from rejecting future rate increases without a comprehensive plan that protects consumers, Edwards is against building additional power plants that rely on fossil fuels and believes that tapping into clean energy will allow ratepayers to save on their monthly power bills in the long run.

Edwards said that recent rate hikes placed an undue burden on working-class families, seniors and marginalized communities and has called for additional consumer protections, such as prohibiting shutting off power during extreme weather.

“I believe that low-income and marginalized communities shouldn’t be forced to pay these high bills. We shouldn’t have people getting their powers turned off during the dead of winter or the hottest days of the summer,” she said.

Josh Tolbert (R)

Tolbert said that the current freeze on rate hikes the PSC approved in 2025 is not sufficient to protect residential ratepayers, saying he doesn’t think freezing them “at their highest is very helpful.”

“While I’m thankful they’re not continuing to go up, I’m not throwing a party saying, ‘Yay.’ I think we’re looking for more than that,” Tolbert said.

He said that every cost that is passed down to the ratepayer needs to be “proved and justifiable,” and that when building new power plants, the commission should require the most cost-effective methods. He argues that the state is currently spending too much on expanding its energy infrastructure and that costly utility project mismanagement shouldn’t be passed down to ratepayers.

“When we have growth, we do have an opportunity,” Tolbert said. “When we build new power plants, if we build those that produce electricity and they cost less than what we currently spend, then by definition we can drive prices down.”

Shelia Edwards (D)

Edwards believes in diversifying Georgia’s energy grid by deploying clean sources of energy, like solar and battery storage. She is explicitly against building additional nuclear power that could have cost overruns like Plant Vogtle or fossil fuel plants that can release pollution into the atmosphere.

Edwards also proposed building small solar and battery storage plants in South Georgia to help with storm resilience, saying that those residents are often left in the dark for long periods of time while they wait for utilities to restore power.

“Look at the people in South Georgia, when these storms come through and they’re wiped out, and they’re waiting for somebody to help them, and they’re told to wait on the big trucks from Georgia Power. Well, just imagine if they had a solar unit in their community that they could tap into, that they could get their lights back on, save the food in their refrigerator,” she said.

Josh Tolbert (R)

Tolbert said that he rejects the “all-of-the-above” approach to building new energy capacity, a stance that is usually taken when officials justify keeping fossil fuels online to help with reliability. Instead, Tolbert proposed employing the most cost-effective measures depending on the situation, such as employing solar to help with midday peak energy usage.

“If we have a base load generation problem in the middle of the night, obviously solar is not the best thing to solve that particular problem,” Tolbert said.

Tolbert is also opposed to building nuclear power without clear ways to control the cost, pointing to Plant Vogtle’s expansion that was completed seven years late and with $17 billion in cost overrun. He also said building nuclear technology is not cost competitive with current federal regulations in place.

“I love nuclear power from a technology standpoint, but as somebody who’s spent time in nuclear power, I hate the price of it. And I think that Georgians are being burdened with a 25% rate increase because Plant Vogtle was poorly managed, and us as ratepayers had to pay the cost for mistakes of other people,” he said.

Shelia Edwards (D)

Edwards supports a pause on data center construction for at least one year, arguing that the state needs to develop regulation to stop what she called the unchecked growth of the massive facilities. But she said that one year may not be enough to allow all 159 counties to have a voice in the process of developing statewise regulations.

“Everybody should have a voice on what’s going on with data centers, and they’re upset because they just open doors and they begin flooding in,” she said.

Edwards also said that the state needs to claw back the tax credits Georgia provides for data center development.

“They come in and they got the free meal, and we kick women and children off of welfare, and we turn around and let these companies get corporate welfare, and we have to shut that down and make them pay their own way, their share of electricity, the share of water, and make sure that they’re not contaminating our community and making a problem for our future, for our children and children’s children,” she said.

Josh Tolbert (R)

Tolbert believes that data center developers must pay for the full direct costs as well as indirect costs, like building new transmission lines and pipeline infrastructure. He said that residential ratepayers should have a financial benefit from the growth of data centers, which he believes can happen if the Public Service Commission prioritizes low-cost energy sources that could bring rates down.

“I don’t even just want to see data centers pay their cost. I want to see them pay more than their cost. I want to see a return on investment for us, the ratepayers. If we’re going to bring them into our state, if we’re going to expand our grid, how do we use that to benefit us?” Tolbert said.

He also cautioned against overbuilding energy capacity that could sit idle if the proposed data centers don’t show up, saying that residential ratepayers would have to pay for that energy infrastructure if the data center demand falls short.

“If we potentially overbuild our grid, build more power plants than there’s going to be data centers. Well, those are stranded assets. Those are extra power plants. Guess who pays for those extra power plants? You do, and I do, and I do not want to see that happening for our state,” Tolbert said.