PSC chair is stepping down after 24 years

Georgia Public Service Commission chair Stan Wise who announced his resignation last October chaired his last administrative session Tuesday, after serving the utility regulatory body for 24 years.

Wise, who has served with 11 different commissioners during his tenure has been the commission’s chair since January 2017.

“I salute my colleagues for what they’ve done. We’ve left this state better than we found it,” said Wise in his final remarks.

During his last year as chairman, Wise presided over heated debates surrounding Georgia’s controversial nuclear plant Vogtle, which he was openly supportive of.

In his resignation letter to Governor Nathan Deal, Wise had indicated he would step down after the Vogtle vote.

The commission last December handed Georgia Power the go-ahead to keep construction going at the nuclear plant, despite the commission staff ’s testimony that the project was uneconomic.

The regulators unanimously approved Georgia Power’s new cost and schedule estimates, which have been changed through the years.

“I just couldn’t tell you that the 2021-2022 schedule will be correct. We have been thumped enough in the last decade on schedule and on the budget to really take a cautious approach,” Wise told WABE’s Denis O’Hayer in a radio interview Tuesday.

He however defended his vote, saying the project would eventually provide a diversity of energy sources in the state.

Under state law, Gov. Deal will appoint a successor to Wise, ahead of elections in November.