THOMASVILLE — A candidate for the state’s Public Service Commission said Tuesday he would pull the plug on the Plant Vogtle expansion currently underway.

Reported delays and overruns have plagued the building of two additional nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle, and the firm building the reactors filed for bankruptcy last year.

“Sometimes, it’s better to pull the plug and quit throwing good money after bad,” Noel said.

Noel is running as a Democrat for the seat currently held by Republican Chuck Eaton, and the Atlanta resident is founder of an energy company, Energy + Environment. A former legislator — he defeated longtime state representative Billy McKinney in 2002 and served one term in the state House — Noel said he has testified before the PSC multiple times.

“I have testified on energy efficiency,” he said. “Every single time they didn’t take my advice. And every single time they have been wrong. They have been apparently listening to only one person and that’s the power company.”

Noel has been a critic of the PSC’s decision to allow Georgia Power and Southern Company to continue with the building of two new nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle, outside of Waynesboro. The plant’s first two reactors were completed 30 years ago. The utility got the approval in 2012 for building two more reactors, which were originally expected to be completed in 2016-17. 

The PSC voted in December to allow construction of the two new reactors to continue. The new reactors are scheduled to be operational in 2021 and 2022.

Noel said the PSC has allowed the utility to pass on the costs to ratepayers though a nuclear cost recovery fee — which isn’t listed on their power bill.

“But you’re paying it,” he said. “You’re going to pay it later. You’re going to see a rate impact.”

The owners of the Plant Vogtle reactors include Georgia Power, Oglethorpe Power, Dalton Utilities and MEAG Power. MEAG Power provides electricity for the City of Thomasville and the City of Cairo.

“The reason I am running is to remind (the PSC) they have a constituency other than the power company and that’s the people, the ratepayers,” Noel said. “Unfortunately with the Plant Vogtle situation, it’s the municipal EMCs and MEAG that are in that bowl of soup.” 

What’s more, Noel said, is that the power units 3 and 4 at Plant Vogtle will produce is not needed.

“Georgia’s electric consumption is the same as it was eight years ago. Things are getting more efficient,” he said. “We don’t need the electricity. We’re not running out of juice. Instead they decided we will build more capacity. We have all this capacity but the usage is the same. We’re paying for all this excess capacity that we don’t need. The PSC’s own staff said when you finish it, it won’t be economical.”

Noel also said other states have backed off building more nuclear reactors, adding that South Carolina utilities stopped work and canceled building two new reactors this past summer. Noel said if Georgia Power wants to continue to work on the units 3 and 4 at Vogtle, it needs to pay the burden and not pass it on to the customers.

“I want to stop the plant,” he said. “There is a reason no other nuclear plant is under construction right now in the United States. All planning has stopped. No financial viable entity would build a nuclear power plant.”

Noel said when he talks to people about the PSC and Plant Vogtle, they get mad.

“From Republicans, I hear anger,” he said. “People know that it is a crooked and rigged system and they can see it is crony capitalism from a mile away. The man and the woman on the street smell a rat.”

Noel said solar power — he has solar panels at his house and has a power wall fueled by solar energy that charges up his Tesla — is now cheaper than coal. 

He also is pushing for the PSC to spur the use of broadband in rural Georgia.

“The Capitol and the state government have been asleep at the switch in serving rural Georgia,” he said. “Rural Georgia has been neglected for years/decades. I think it’s an outrage. We spend all this money on other things but we can’t put basic broadband services in 99 percent of the houses.”

Georgia Power and AT&T have agreed to test using power lines to deliver high speed internet to underserved areas. But Noel said he has been told that idea is “fraught with technical problems.” He said he would rather use a mix of fixed lines and wireless technology to spur rural broadband. 

Noel also espoused having cities and counties join where they could leverage their resources and combine those with federal money.

“This is not going to be easy,” he said. “If you don’t have broadband, you do not have economic growth.”

Editor Pat Donahue can be reached at (229) 226-2400 ext. 1806.