Stan Wise, who served on the Cobb County Board of Commissioners and two other county boards before spending 23 years regulating Georgia's utilities, is heading back to the Georgia Public Service Commission.
Gov. Brian Kemp announced Friday, Aug. 21, that he is appointing Wise to replace Commissioner Tricia Pridemore on the five-member PSC, which sets the rates Cobb County residents pay Georgia Power and Atlanta Gas Light each month. Pridemore's resignation takes effect Sept. 4, and Wise will serve through Dec. 31, when the term expires.
Wise, a Republican, previously held the same District 5 seat from 1995 to 2018. He chaired the commission four times during that stretch. Before joining the PSC, he ran an insurance business in Cobb County for 20 years and served on the Cobb County Planning Commission and the Cobb Board of Zoning Appeals, according to the Marietta Daily Journal.
"We are also grateful for Stan's willingness to return to the PSC, bringing decades of direct experience and wisdom with him," Kemp said in a news release.
Wise is currently an associate with the Pendleton Group, an Atlanta-based economic development consulting firm, and will step down from that role once sworn in, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. No swearing-in date has been announced.
Why Pridemore left
Pridemore, also a Republican, had served on the PSC since February 2018, when then-Gov. Nathan Deal appointed her to fill Wise's unexpired term. She chose not to seek re-election to the commission in 2026, instead running for the U.S. House in Georgia's 11th Congressional District. She finished third in the May Republican primary.
During her tenure, the PSC approved rate hikes six times in three years, including increases tied to the new nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle and a fuel-cost adjustment, The Current Georgia reported. This spring, the commission approved new rates that resulted in a net decrease in power bills compared to last year. Pridemore's congressional opponents attacked her over the increases; she previously denied the criticism to the Marietta Daily Journal and declined to comment on her resignation.
What's next for the seat
The District 5 seat is on the Nov. 3 general election ballot. Republican Josh Tolbert and Democrat Shelia Edwards are the nominees. If no candidate wins a majority, the top two advance to a Dec. 1 runoff.
The PSC currently holds a 3-2 Republican majority; an Edwards win would flip that to 3-2 Democratic, the first such majority since 2002, according to the Atlanta Press Collective.
District 5 covers 23 counties in western Georgia, with Cobb County at its northern end. PSC commissioners are elected statewide, so every registered Georgia voter will decide the seat in November.
