Energy
Energy bills are rising across Georgia, and families need power that’s affordable and reliable year-round, whether it’s 100° humidity or an ice storm shutting down I-75. Expanding clean energy like solar, wind, and battery storage keeps electricity costs stable, protects Georgians during outages, and creates homegrown jobs that keep energy dollars in our state, not sent out of it.
Expand Renewable Energy
Renewable energy is growing in Georgia, but we’re still just scratching the surface. Expanding clean energy will lower bills, reduce our dependence on volatile fossil fuel markets, and ensure that more Georgians benefit from the transition.
Georgia S.B. 203 (2025)
- Summary: Would create a framework for community solar in Georgia — letting families, schools, and small businesses sign up for local solar projects and get credits on their power bills. Even though it stalled in the 2025 session, it’s a strong model Georgia should revisit.
- Why It Matters for Georgia: Most Georgians can’t put solar panels on their roofs , renters, shaded homes, and rural EMC customers are left out. This bill would give them a fair way to save money and keep more energy dollars local.
- Status: Proposed (did not advance in 2025 session)
Virginia H.B.1526 (2020)
- Summary: Requires 100% of Virginia's electricity come from carbon-free sources by 2050
- Why It Matters for Georgia: Georgia lacks a statewide climate plan. This commitment would accelerate Georgia’s transition to clean energy, which would reduce energy bills, bring new clean energy jobs, and better protect our communities from pollution.
- Status: Enacted
South Carolina Energy Freedom Act (2019)
- Summary: This bipartisan bill, which unanimously passed in South Carolina, makes it easier and more affordable for communities to access solar by creating fairer and more transparent rates and ensures a more transparent process to connect large-scale solar projects to the public grid.
- Why It Matters for Georgia: Georgia lags behind other Southern states, like South Carolina on rooftop solar, consumer access to energy data, and transparency in utility planning. This bill is a powerful model for increasing clean energy adoption while protecting ratepayers.
- Status: Enacted
Indiana H.B. 1537 (2025)
- Summary: Would make it more affordable for families, schools, and small businesses to access solar energy by ensuring fair compensation for excess electricity sent back to the grid.
- Why It Matters for Georgia: In Georgia, only a small number of households currently get fair credit for the extra solar power they produce. A policy like this would help more people afford solar, cut their energy bills, and reduce our dependence on expensive fossil fuels.
- Status: Proposed
Modernize Georgia’s Grid
Georgia’s grid wasn’t built for today’s demands, from extreme heat to fast-growing clean energy projects. Modernizing our power lines and adding local energy storage would prevent widespread outages and make it easier to plug in more renewable energy while keeping costs stable for Georgia families.
Utah H.B. 212 (2025)
- Summary: Encourages utilities to deploy smart grid technologies to boost capacity, cut costs, and prevent outages.
- Why It Matters for Georgia: Georgia’s grid faces growing strain from heatwaves, storms, and rising demand. This policy helped Utah avoid costly upgrades while making their system more resilient. Georgia could benefit from the same smart investments.
- Status: Enacted
Illinois S.B. 1652 (2011)
- Summary: Massively modernized the grid with smart meters, automated lines, undergrounding, and storm-hardening backed by a $2.6 billion utility investment plus job creation and consumer protections.
- Why It Matters for Georgia: Over 500,000 customer interruptions were avoided in Illinois the year after this bill was passed, thanks to upgraded grid resilience and automated lines. Georgia could use this to update aging infrastructure, prevent outages during summer heat or storms, and support clean energy tools like EV charging.
- Status: Enacted
Texas S.B. 3 (2021)
- Summary: Mandated winter-hardening of power plants and transmission systems, plus set up an alert system and organized a reliability council.
- Why It Matters for Georgia: Georgia doesn’t face Texas-level cold, but with hurricanes and heatwaves, the same issues apply. A resilience strategy like the one in Texas keeps our grid strong through extreme weather.
- Status: Enacted
Holding Data Centers Accountable
Data centers are a major part of Georgia’s energy future, but they shouldn’t grow at the expense of regular ratepayers. These policies ensure transparency and fair cost-sharing, so energy infrastructure upgrades aren’t quietly passed onto Georgia families and small businesses.
Virginia H.B.1601 (2025)
- Summary: The plan would make data centers report how much energy, water, and emissions they produce, and add state oversight to big projects. It would stop households and businesses from paying for the industry’s costly infrastructure. Tax breaks would only go to data centers that meet high clean energy and efficiency standards.
- Why It Matters for Georgia: Even though Virginia’s governor vetoed it, this legislation shows how important it is for states like Georgia to get ahead of the curve before data centers grow out of control. Transparency matters.
- Status: Vetoed
Georgia S.B.34 (2025)
- Summary: Requires data centers to pay their fair share of energy costs instead of sticking ratepayers with the bill.
- Why It Matters for Georgia: (highlight rise of data centers in GA and what is happening with GPC reacting to that and building new gas plants that customers have to pay for…) As more data centers move into Georgia, this policy would help protect our wallets and keep energy costs fair. (All of the energy not just 80%)
- Status: Proposed
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