Georgia Supreme Court Rejects Case to Hold Georgia Power Accountable for Coal Ash

ATLANTA, GA -- Yesterday, the Georgia Supreme Court denied Sierra Club’s petition to review a 2019 Public Service Commission (PSC) decision that gave Georgia Power almost unlimited power to collect fees from customers for coal ash clean up, despite the utility’s prior knowledge that coal ash contaminates groundwater. This decision follows a multi-year legal battle in which Sierra Club appealed the original PSC decision, took it  to the Georgia Court of Appeals, and then hoped to have the case heard by the Supreme Court of Georgia. 

This case concerned who should pay the ever increasing costs to clean up Georgia Power’s toxic, leaking coal ash ponds after decades of unsafe and imprudent coal ash disposal practices: Georgia Power itself or Georgia Power’s existing and future customers via higher electric bills. In 2019 the coal ash costs were estimated at $7.6 billion, but recent filings from Georgia Power indicate the amount is now almost $9 billion.

Sierra Club argued that the Georgia Public Service Commission failed to consider Georgia Power’s culpability in creating the coal ash problem to begin with, and thus should not be allowed to pass all the costs onto customers. 

Charline Whyte, Senior Campaign Representative for the Beyond Coal Campaign in Georgia, issued the following statement:

“We are incredibly disappointed that the Supreme Court refused to consider our petition that meant protection for Georgia Power’s customers across the state from increased bills due to coal ash containment. 

“There are people all over the state who have to deal with serious impacts from coal ash in the form of poisoned drinking water and unsafe fishing and recreation. Now, every Georgia Power customer is picking up some of the tab for a decision that the utility knowingly made for decades. It’s incredibly unfair to ask customers to pay for a mess that Georgia Power could have prevented in the first place. Despite getting a blank check from the PSC, Georgia Power still wants to cut corners by unsafely storing coal ash in unlined pits that are directly in contact with the groundwater below. 

“But we know that people are powerful when we work together, and Sierra Club, our partners, and countless concerned Georgians will continue our fight to protect Georgia’s water from poisonous coal ash. This might be a bump in the road, but we will not stop until every last ton of coal ash is properly stored in dry, lined landfills.”