Thorough review identifies Georgia’s Climate Champions in the State Legislature
(Atlanta, Georgia) – Today, Georgia Conservation Voters (GCV), one of the state’s leading environmental justice organizations, released its Environmental Scorecard for the 2023-2024 Legislative Sessions. The Scorecard evaluates how legislators voted on critical environmental and democracy issues throughout the two-year legislative session and is available for download. The thorough review identifies the most impactful bills taken up by the legislature and how each district’s elected representatives voted. Two representatives received a perfect score: Rep. Lisa Campbell (D-35) and Rep. Becky Evans (D-89). Eleven lawmakers, six Democrats and five Republicans, were awarded “honorable mentions” for going above and beyond to support an important piece of environmental legislation.
Connie Di Cicco, Political Director of Georgia Conservation Voters, framed the scorecard’s importance within the contemporary context, saying, “Since the last publication of our Environmental Scorecard in 2020, we’ve seen historic federal action and funding coming to Georgia to tackle the climate crisis, which has resulted in thousands of new clean energy jobs. But just 13% of Georgia Power’s generation mix is renewable, with less than 1% of the state’s energy coming from small-scale generators despite Georgia’s intense amount of sunlight. Georgia is making progress thanks to federal investment, but our state leaders must step up to magnify those wins.”
Two of the most consequential bills were HB 1192 – which would have paused tax credits for data centers and revised job requirements for tax break recipients – and HB 1312 – which unconstitutionally extended the terms of the Public Service Commission (PSC). Data centers and artificial intelligence represent significant threats to our clean energy transition due to the enormous strain they place on Georgia’s energy grid and give Georgia Power the excuse to build power gas plants while leaving renewable energy solutions off the table. By not providing timely elections for the PSC, the State Legislature allowed anti-clean energy commissioners in unelected seats to approve the largest rate increases in Georgia’s history. Jesús Rubio, Government Affairs Manager for Georgia Conservation Voters, characterized the legislation in blunt terms. “It’s blatantly unconstitutional. It hurts Georgia’s democracy, and it protects commissioners who have, time and again, bent to Georgia Power’s will and approved every rate increase the company has requested.”
Major federal investments in the clean energy industry, resulting in more than 30,000 new jobs, represent progress. However, if Georgia’s state leadership does not commit to a clean, renewable energy future, they will expose residents to billions of dollars in preventable damages as the impacts of climate change increase in the next twenty years. GCV recognizes that the jobs of legislators are not easy, and active lobbying and spreading of misinformation from the fossil fuel industry makes it difficult to understand which bills are good and which bills are bad. The scorecard is just one of many accountability tools and one way to measure environmental champions, but GCV acknowledges that it does not present the full picture of who our climate champions in the state are. That’s why there’s a section to highlight legislators who went above and beyond for the environment to sponsor legislation. GCV has also provided an action constituents take to contact their representatives and urge them to review their scores and commit to 100% clean energy by 2050.
Media Contact: Paul Glaze, (404) 431-5962