Sierra Club Takes Coal Ash Cost Recovery Fight to Georgia Supreme Court

Contact: Emily Bosch emily.bosch@sierraclub.org

Atlanta, GA -- Today, Sierra Club filed an appeal with the Georgia Supreme Court disputing a lower court’s ruling that Georgia Power can collect billions from customers for coal ash cleanup. 

This case concerns 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 has 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, Alabama and Mississippi issued the following statement: 

“At the heart of our legal case is the question of whether Georgia Power should take responsibility for decades of improperly storing coal ash. The evidence is clear. Georgia Power made a decision to cut corners by continuing to store coal ash in unlined pits, disregarding the health and safety of Georgia communities and their waterways. If the lower court’s ruling is left unchecked, it will leave the door wide open for Georgia Power to continue to flip the bill to its customers for years to come. 

“We hope the Georgia Supreme Court will take up our case and carefully review the facts, and we urge the court to do right by Georgia Power customers.”