Analysis: Georgia quietly approves solar power shift

Something remarkable happened last week during a brief meeting of a little-known state agency while most Georgians were focused on upcoming holiday shopping, turkey and college-football rivalries later in the week.Passage of a one-sentence resolution may have started in motion a series of events that could dramatically reshape the state's electricity-generation as well as much of its political landscape. And it was initiated by two of the least-likely politicians.What happened is the Georgia Public Service Commission voted 3-2 to endorse efforts by a start-up company to overturn a law, the Territorial Act, that has divided the state for four decades into geographic monopolies for 94 utilities run by cities, rural cooperatives and the giant Georgia Power Co.The upstart, Georgia Solar Utilities Inc., seeks its own monopoly as a generator of solar power with permission to sell to retail customers. Since it can't produce electricity when the sun isn't shining, it would always be dependent on other utilities for supplemental power as well as for transmission, billing and customer support.
The commission vote doesn't guarantee General Assembly agreement, but it does provide a push.Seasoned observers might bet against the legislature breaking up the monopolies. After all, they were granted for practical reasons that still have some basis.White light for laptop computers or interior lighting in cars.When companies began damning up rivers to harness hydroelectric energy early in the last century, governments stepped in to regulate. When competitors strung power lines down opposite sides of city streets and chopping down rivals' poles in the dead of night, governments became the referees.As the politicians began to sort out the winners and losers, they were persuaded by arguments that economies of scale dictated that larger companies would be more efficient than smaller ones when it came to damning rivers and building power plants, hence monopolies.
The commissioner who sponsored the resolution, Lauren "Bubba" McDonald, had been in the legislature in 1973 and voted in favor of the Territorial Act."I was there in 1973 when the act -- legislation was passed," he said. "Solar wasn't even in the dictionary, I don't think, at that time, much less photovoltaic.... It was something that wasn't anticipated at that time."He argued for removing obstacles to consumers who want access to more power generated from renewable sources.McDonald wasn't the only veteran policymaker whose vote demonstrated a change of position. Commissioner Doug Everett, a great-grandfather and conservative legislator in the 1990s, also supported McDonald's resolution."You know, everybody in here realizes I've always fought solar because I did not think the technology was there for cost effectiveness. But it's changed, technology has changed," he said.