I recently shared in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution why residents in English Avenue and Vine City are alarmed about Georgia Power’s plan to build a new substation in our community. But one guest column isn’t enough. The larger issue is that Atlanta lacks a just and transparent process for deciding where critical infrastructure like this should go. Until that changes, historically Black neighborhoods like ours will continue to bear the brunt of energy decisions that prioritize expedience over equity.
Georgia Power insists that this new substation is needed to meet future demand and power the city’s growth. But the question we must ask is whose needs are being served and at whose expense?
English Avenue and Vine City are not blank slates. We are neighborhoods already overburdened by environmental hazards — including lead contamination, legacy pollution, and persistent flooding. We live in the shadow of an existing substation, major highway corridors, and two massive sports stadiums built with little regard for the trauma they caused through displacement and disinvestment. In short: we have already given more than our share.
When utilities along with city and state agencies make decisions about siting infrastructure, they must move beyond simple environmental reviews that evaluate harm to “bugs and bunnies.” A just process must consider cumulative impact — the total burden a community already carries including historical trauma — as well as whether the societal benefit of a project is worth the continued sacrifice of a marginalized neighborhood.
States like New Jersey are already modeling this shift. Under a 2020 law, New Jersey regulators can deny permits for new facilities if they would further harm overburdened communities. The law recognizes what decades of environmental justice research has shown: pollution is not distributed evenly, and some communities face both higher exposure and greater susceptibility to harm.
Georgia has no such protections. That leaves communities like ours with little recourse other than public outcry — a strategy that too often comes after decisions have already been made.
To change this, Atlanta must rethink how it integrates equity into utility planning. That includes:
- Requiring early, meaningful engagement with impacted communities instead of simply public notices after plans are finalized.
- Ensuring siting decisions include data on cumulative impacts, public health vulnerabilities, and historical injustices.
- Expanding advisory boards and oversight bodies to include public members from environmental justice communities, not just technical or corporate stakeholders.
- Establishing clear mechanisms for residents to challenge or reshape proposed projects that disproportionately impact them.
We cannot build a cleaner, smarter grid by sacrificing the very communities that have been denied investment and protection for generations. Energy justice means centering the people who have historically been left out of the conversation. However, It should not fall solely on residents to organize and defend our future. Local businesses, churches, nonprofits, and civic leaders must also take a stand. Energy injustice is a shared concern, and a just process requires shared responsibility. If this can happen in Vine City, it can happen anywhere because there’s no policy, practice, or process for equitable planning of infrastructure.
Georgia Power may see vacant land, but we see a legacy and we demand to be part of its future.
You are right!
Good luck with your silly idea. Hopefully GA Power doesn’t end up needing to waste money countering this silliness. If it does, we will all pay for it via higher electricity rates
Well, No one wants a power substation as a neighbor. Everyone comprehends and understands that apprehension but substations are required if one wants to live in a world with electric lights, airconditioning and the internet. A big detail that must be acknowledged is that substations are required to be placed throughout the service area in a manner that is uniformly dispersed and balanced so as to meet local demand. Were this not true every city would place substations all in one massive site and build a large wall around it to screen the view. On that topic, I am certain that Georgia Power will be more than willing to provide a green buffer if asked but there is a trade off, that will expand the size of the substation. Lastly, and I appologise for what is a red herring, Atlanta has been, in my opinion, overly friendly to the data center industry. I suspect the expanding presence of that industry has something to do with the expressed need. This is a City Hall issue not a power company issue. Northern Virginia, which has far more data centers than Atlanta, has recently witnessed one government after the other pass restrictions to control/curtail their development. If residents in Vine City want to prevent more substations, then you have a far better opportunity for success if you work with like minded neighborhood groups and get Atlanta to implement similar controls.
It’s unclear if this OpEd is about the failure general policy approach (ignoring community input) or about implied racism, which is actually this reads by couching it in “equity”.
As Kent says, “substations are required to be placed throughout the service area in a manner that is uniformly dispersed and balanced.” Unfortunately, that is not what is happening. There is already one substation in the neighborhood. Worse still, the electricity from this proposed second substation is not for the people of Vine City–it is for massive luxury development nearly two miles away! That development has a vast track of land and room for its own substation, but developers don’t want the eye sore and health risks. So, much like the toxic dumping they endured in the 20th century, our fellow citizens in Vine City are being forced to suffer for others’ profit.
In my opinion, this is a continuation of the environmental racism that made English Avenue a Superfund site to begin with. This second substation is being developed next to a school, an elderly care facility, and and single family residences in a community that is already facing significant health challenges as a result of environmental degradation.
Furthermore, this historic Black community put Atlanta on the map as a bastion of hope across the nation. Vine City still holds the homes of civil rights heroes Dr. Martin Luther King and congressman John Lewis. It is where Atlanta’s first Black mayor Maynard Jackson grew up and where state representative “Able” Mable Thomas still lives. How can we claim to be proud of our legacy yet continually rationalize this injustice? People of Atlanta, it’s time to make some good trouble and stand up to Georgia Power.
No one wants an industrial building or some huge house in a neighborhood where it does not belong. Raising my property taxes. I was here first, I have been living in the same house on the west side of atlanta my entire life, I’m 51! This is unacceptable!