Patty Durand, founder of Georgians for Affordable Energy, speaks during the public comment portion of Tuesday’s Georgia Public Service Commission meeting. Durand was arrested later and charged with theft of trade secrets, which is a felony. Screenshot of Georgia Public Service Commission video stream
Patty Durand, a former Democratic candidate for the Georgia Public Service Commission and a clean energy advocate, was arrested Tuesday for the alleged theft of a Georgia Power document containing trade secrets during a commission meeting earlier that day.
Georgia Capitol Police arrested Durand, who is a frequent critic of the PSC, on Tuesday before transferring her to Fulton County Jail. According to the arrest warrant, Durand “intentionally (took) a booklet containing confidential information owned by Georgia Power Company without permission.” Durand’s arrest was first reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Durand did not yet have an attorney listed as of Wednesday, according to the Fulton County Clerk’s Office. Attempts to reach Durand for a comment Wednesday were unsuccessful.
The arrest warrant alleges that Durand was captured on a video recording re-entering the PSC meeting room during a lunch break and walking past a desk containing a booklet labeled “Georgia Power Trade Secrets.”
Durand initially picked up the booklet and put it back. She then walked past a second desk, picked up a similar booklet, “flipped through the booklet briefly before placing the booklet into her purse and left the meeting room without returning,” according to the warrant.
This week’s PSC proceedings were held to consider a request from Georgia Power to add nearly 10,000 megawatts to the state’s power grid. About 60% of the energy requested would come from expanding or building new gas plants, while 40% would come from renewable energy.
Durand, who this year founded Georgians for Affordable Energy, a watchdog organization, claimed in her comments during a public hearing earlier Tuesday that Georgia Power is prioritizing profits for its five affiliated gas companies in building natural gas power plants instead of focusing more on solar panels and battery storage. She said that Georgia Power should be held accountable for its “immoral” actions.
“There is no court in the land that would allow that kind of corruption to go on, and I have no idea why the state of Georgia does,” Durand said.
She also criticized Georgia Power in a Sunday email newsletter for seeking approval for a plan that she estimates could cost customers over three times as much as the Plant Vogtle nuclear expansion project. Durand wrote that while Georgia Power’s filing shows about $15.7 billion for certified projects, a project cost summary table is “fully redacted.” Durand claimed that energy experts estimate those redacted costs to be “about $5-6 billion dollars, a huge number.”
Durand alleged the costs are redacted because the company doesn’t want the public to know “these costs are required to be paid by customers throughout construction.”
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Jennifer Whitfield, a senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center, said in a statement that “the stakes are really high for Georgians right now and people feel desperate,” but denounced Durand’s alleged theft.
“While we do have serious concerns about Georgia Power’s use of trade secret, those concerns must be addressed through the proper, legal channels,” Whitfield said.
Sarah Brewerton-Palmer, a First Amendment and business law attorney and president of the Georgia First Amendment Foundation, said in a phone interview that the incident underscores the need for the PSC and other governmental agencies to balance allowing companies to shield sensitive business information with ensuring adequate government transparency.
“Whenever information in the hands of the government is kept from the public, it raises a specter of suspicion, and this lack of transparency lets conspiracy theories fester and tends to feed a public perception of unfairness and background deals and all that sort of stuff, which is why we have transparency laws in the first place,” Brewerton-Palmer said.
A perceived lack of transparency in the PSC’s dealings with Georgia Power has been scrutinized more intensely recently after the commission approved six energy bill increases over two years. Groups like SELC and other organizations filed a motion seeking access to some data on cost and power generation from the public, according to a July report from the AJC. However, the PSC denied the motion, stating that it might reconsider the issue in the future.
Matthew Kent, a spokesperson for Georgia Power, said in a statement that confidential data is meant to protect customers’ interests and “ensure we deliver the best value to all customers.”
“Unauthorized disclosure risks harming both our company, the vendors and contractors with whom we do business, and the customers we serve,” he said.
The Georgia Republican Party quickly pounced on Durand’s arrest. Early voting is underway for a pair of commission seats that are on the ballot, and Georgia Republicans have been openly concerned that Democratic candidates Peter Hubbard and Alicia Johnson could flip two PSC seats in this year’s unique off-year election, where experts say that municipal elections could favor Democratic mobilization.
Josh McKoon, who chairs the state GOP, said in a statement that “there’s no leftist activist more involved in pushing the candidacies of the two Democrat candidates for PSC than Patty Durand” and that she built “her brand” by attacking the PSC.
“Georgia voters should take note of these illegal actions,” McKoon said in a statement. “The rhetoric of Patty Durand telegraphs the Democrats’ extreme plans for the PSC – plans that will lower our power supply and reliability and that will lead to higher prices for Georgia families.”
Durand was a Democratic candidate for the commission in 2022 before she was drawn out of the district she was attempting to represent through redistricting. That election was ultimately postponed because of an ongoing lawsuit challenging the at-large method of seating commissioners, who represent districts but are elected statewide.
