Across the country, we’re seeing  a simple but powerful truth affirmed: when communities show up, they shape outcomes that affect our daily lives. A big change to who makes up the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) is a perfect example, it showcases how a strong foundation of training, organizing, and community leadership (like our Amplifiers Atlanta cohort) can help translate citizen power into real regulatory shifts.

Why This PSC Election Was a Big Deal

The Georgia PSC may not show up in prime-time headlines every day, but make no mistake: it matters deeply. The Commission regulates electric, natural-gas, and telecommunications utilities in Georgia – including approving rate increases, overseeing utility investments, and deciding who pays for infrastructure and clean-energy transitions.

In 2025, two PSC seats were on the ballot – the first election for these posts in years. The two newly elected members are known advocates for clean energy expansion in Georgia and won their elections by whopping 25 point margins. 

For many Georgians, this vote became a referendum on affordability, accountability, and the pace of the clean-energy transition. Ratepayers across Georgia have faced rising bills while seeing utilities invest billions in new generation projects, including data-center power expansions and nuclear construction costs. Voters wanted a say in how those costs are shared – and, ultimately, in who governs the energy system that touches every home and business in the state.

When communities mobilize around a local energy commission election, like this PSC election, they’re not just voting for a name – they’re voting for how energy systems are governed, how costs are distributed, and whether the clean-energy transition lifts up or leaves communities behind.

From Climate-Conscious to Climate Citizens

In his book The Big Fix: Seven Practical Steps to Save Our Planet, climate strategist Hal Harvey argues that while individual consumer choices – recycling, driving EVs, eating sustainably – are valuable, they’re not enough. To meet the scale of the climate challenge, Harvey writes, we need to become climate citizens, not just climate-conscious consumers. That means engaging in the systems and structures that determine how energy is produced, regulated, and distributed. It means showing up – at public meetings, in elections, in civic life – where policies and budgets are set.

The Georgia PSC is a vivid example of what that shift looks like in practice. The Amplifiers: Atlanta cohort developed by Generation180 and Rewiring America in April 2025, didn’t just talk about clean energy in abstract terms; program participants learned how Georgia’s energy system actually works – and then used their influential voices to make it more equitable, transparent, and accountable. By stepping into that civic role, the 29 community builders and content creators modeled exactly what Harvey calls for: ordinary people realizing their extraordinary power to shape the rules of the game.

How Amplifiers: Atlanta Played a Role

When we launched Amplifiers: Atlanta last April, our goal was simple: equip local creatives, faith leaders, and community advocates with the tools to tell better clean-energy stories – and to connect those stories to meaningful, lasting action in their communities. To be clear, it wasn’t just our efforts that supported clean energy – Gen180 contributed to a larger, established campaign where groups like Energy and Policy Institute, Georgia Conservation Voters, Climate Power Georgia, and many others led the way. 

Early in the Amplifiers program, the PSC emerged as one of the most urgent and relevant topics:

• Participants dug into how the Commission shapes energy affordability and access.
• Influencers like Joshua Gilyard (aka Queen of the Ratchet) created content to educate his audience.
• Amplifier Lisa Coronado, along with Preeti Jaggi, co-founded Decatur Cares About Climate, a grassroots group focused on the PSC, mobilized students and residents to provide public testimony leading up to this election.
• Amplifiers took 25 PSC actions – from speaking at PSC meetings to hosting on-the-ground voter outreach events with partners.

The Power of Showing Up

At Generation180, we’ve always believed that culture change precedes policy change. Georgia’s PSC race was a real-time demonstration of that principle: creative, community-driven advocacy seeded the ground for systemic impact.

The Georgia PSC election wasn’t just a win for new commissioners – it was a win for civic energy. It showed that when people understand how power works, they can use it. In the language of The Big Fix, our Amplifiers became climate citizens – citizens who see themselves not just as energy consumers, but as co-authors of their communities’ clean-energy future.

That’s the power of showing up. And that’s why Generation180 exists – to spark one story, one training, one citizen at a time.

– Stuart Gardner