Ga. utility chief takes trip paid for by Germany

Elected state official should disclose cost, watchdog says.

State utility regulator Tim Echols has returned from a trip to Germany where he went to learn about the country’s renewable energy policies as a guest of the German government.

Neither Echols nor the German government would say how much the trip cost. It was financed through the German government’s “visitors program,” according to a statement from Dr. Georg Maue, first secretary of energy and climate for the German Embassy in Washington, D.C.

Echols is not required to report the amount of the trip. Under the state’s disclosure laws, a lobbyist — not the elected official — carries the burden to report such expenditures.

The German government and German Consulate General in Atlanta are not registered as lobbyists with the Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission, formerly known as the state ethics commission.

William Perry, executive director of the government watchdog group Common Cause, said the public has a right to know how much money was spent for travel, hotel and meals because Echols is a statewide elected official.

Christoph Sander, consul general of the Federal Republic of Germany in Atlanta, responded to questions with this statement:

“The German govern- ment regularly invites guests from around the world to promote the exchange of ideas and best practices on important matters. Mr. Echols recently was a guest of the German Federal Government as a member of a high-ranking American delegation on climate change and energy policy,” he wrote.

Echols, 52, is in his third year as a state utility regulator. He is the second member of the Georgia Public Service Commission to travel to Germany in the past year to learn about the country’s energy policies.

Last December, Bubba McDonald traveled with the co-founders of Georgia Solar Utilities, a private solar company whose ambitions he has supported. The company has actively lobbied the PSC and the state legislature to become essentially a solar monopoly in the state.

McDonald said he paid for the overseas trip, but declined to supply a document showing that.

The issue over solar has sharply divided the commission, which is voting on Georgia Power’s longterm energy plan next week. Georgia Power has said it is not adding solar power or other types of electricity to the grid, except for its Plant Vogtle nuclear expansion, because it already has twice as much capacity as what’s required by law.