Georgia Power is back with a proposed mandatory connection fee hike for everyone! This is after they tried a couple years ago to get a mandatory solar power connection fee, but Sierra Club fought that off with town halls around the state.

Bryan Jacob, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, 29 August 2019, Georgia Power Wants You to Pay More For Using Less Energy,

In June, Georgia Power submitted a proposal to charge its customers for an additional $2.2 billion. A very troubling part of Georgia Power’s proposal: they propose to nearly double the mandatory monthly fee (which is hidden on most bills), from the current $10/month to $17.95/month for residential customers.

Customers must pay this fee no matter how much or how little energy is actually used, paying at least $215 per year before even flipping on a light switch. If approved, this would be among the highest mandatory monthly fees of investor-owned utilities around the country! Compared to other states in recent years, Georgia Power’s proposed fee of $17.95 is 78% higher than the average approved fee ($10.11) and their proposed increase of $7.95 per month is nearly 6 times greater than the average approved fee increase ($1.38).

That article has more on why such a rate hike is a bad idea, especially for mandatory connection fees. A pithy summary: many people around here already struggle to juggle electric bills, grocery bills, and gasoline bills, so adding a rate hike beyond their control adds insult to injury.

You can use the SACE form to write to your elected officials against this rate hike.

Please also comment here so the public can see what you think.

 -jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

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