LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Regulators must evaluate and restrict methane leaks

Recent reports of secretive Georgia Power rate-setting negotiations being shielded by Georgia’s Public Service Commission prompt the need for scrutinizing other issues essential to an accountable, responsible state energy policy.

Central to Georgia Power’s agenda, officially conveyed in proposed changes to the Interim Resource Plan now under consideration by the PSC, is the expanded use of natural gas to produce electricity.

PSC approval for extending the use of natural gas, already granted to Georgia Power just last year, was made without any assessment of the destructive effects of methane leaks, which are directly linked to using natural gas. Scientists report that methane leaks of more than 2% result in climate-heating effects that make the use of natural gas worse than burning coal. Yet the PSC conducted no assessment of such impacts in the IRP approved in July 2022.

Despite Georgia now preparing a state Climate Emissions Reduction Plan under Biden Administration funding, there is little reason to expect that the PSC will require — much less mandate adherence to the findings of — a legitimate evaluation of methane leaks risked by Georgia Power’s proposal to expand reliance on natural gas.

Moreover, natural gas market volatility adds to consumer burdens. This problem worsens the great injustice of more than 200,000 household utility disconnections yearly in Georgia.

Georgians deserve equitable and diligent energy policy instead of willfully negligent accommodation to corporate profits. Unless rigorous methane controls are adopted and consistently enforced, urgently needed reduction in climate-heating pollution will be impossible to achieve.

David Kyler

St. Simons Island

David Kyler is director of the Center for a Sustainable Coast.