by Ty Tagami | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — A critic of the Republican-controlled Public Service Commission was arrested Tuesday on a felony count in connection with removal of documents from a public hearing room.
Patricia Durand of Mableton, who three years ago ran as a Democrat for a seat on the commission, was charged with theft of trade secrets, according to Fulton County Jail records.
The document lists the Capitol Police Department, which secures the commission’s meeting space, as the arresting agency. A police spokesperson said late Tuesday afternoon that the arrest report was not yet available for release.
Durand did not immediately respond to a phone message seeking comment Tuesday afternoon.
A spokesman for the commission, or PSC, said the document that was alleged to have been stolen did not belong to the agency and that the agency neither filed a police report nor asked for an arrest.
Three videos of Tuesday’s incident released by the PSC under the Georgia Open Records Act show a woman in a brown jacket walking out of the PSC hearing room with a booklet. The incident occurred minutes after noon, during a break in a hearing at which the woman, introduced as Patty Durand, had testified that morning.
The first two videos, taken simultaneously from different angles, show her walking to a table where PSC officials had been seated next to the microphone for public comment. She picks up a spiral bound booklet with a blue cover then places it back on the table and walks away.
She then walks to a table where lawyers for Georgia Power had been seated on the other side of the microphone. She picks up a booklet that looks identical, flips through it, looks around, places it in a satchel, then exits the room. A third video recorded minutes later shows her entering an elevator in the lobby.
Georgia Power provided a statement that said the company was cooperating with law enforcement and could not comment about any criminal investigation.
“Theft or exposure of proprietary information is a serious matter,” the statement said. “While we operate transparently, some data must remain confidential to protect customer 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.”
Durand is a founder of Georgians for Affordable Energy, a PSC watchdog group.
“Georgia Power has a long history of aggressively overstating future energy needs so it can overinvest in profitable capital projects to benefit shareholders,” she is quoted as saying in a July press release by the organization.
The hearing Tuesday was about a Georgia Power request to add generation capacity to serve growing demand from data centers. The centers power the internet and are an essential engine for artificial intelligence. They consume vast amounts of energy and are being built across the state.
During her testimony before the break, Durand criticized the PSC and Georgia Power for the high cost of the expansion of nuclear capacity at Plant Vogtle and for rate increases that have created “car payment sized electricity bills.” She said the company’s natural gas affiliates would profit from expansion of natural gas power generation plants.
“It is unfathomable to me why anyone listens to Georgia Power’s lawyers, staff or witnesses about anything,” Durand said at the microphone. “Their claims about costs and demand growth have no credibility because nothing they’ve said in the past has proven even close to true.”
Durand won the 2022 Democratic primary to represent the central eastern Georgia district on the five-member PSC, but the general election was canceled that year due to litigation.
PSC candidates run statewide but each commissioner — all currently Republicans — represents only a fifth of the state. The plaintiffs argued that this dilutes the impact of Black voters.
Durand thus lost her chance to run against Tim Echols, the Republican incumbent.
Echols, meanwhile, is fending off a challenge from another Democrat.
First elected in 2010 and reelected in 2016, Echols was up for reelection in 2022 and has not had to run for reelection in nine years.
Democrat Alicia Johnson wants to unseat him.
Republicans have been expressing concern about the outcome. There was low turnout during the primary elections, and they worry that small numbers of motivated voters could have a big influence on the results.
The more publicity the better, said Josh McKoon, chairman of the state Republican Party.
“You think that you get to a point where nothing will shock you anymore, but it’s shocking that these folks on the left are so radical and are so willing to do anything to advance this green New Deal agenda that even committing crimes is not off the table,” he said. “And that to me highlights how important this election is that unfortunately we don’t have a lot of people participating in at the moment.”
Johnson is running on a platform that calls for more sustainable energy and ratepayer protections. It is like the platform of the other Democrat, Peter Hubbard, who is running against Republican incumbent Fitz Johnson to represent the PSC district for metro Atlanta in the Nov. 4 election.
