The PSC is responsible for varying degrees of regulation in State telecommunications, gas, and electric companies and for establishing and enforcing the standards for quality of service.
By 1907 the commission began to regulate docks and wharves, as well as telephone, gas, and electric-power companies, and in 1931 its jurisdiction expanded to cover the trucking industry.
The commissioners are assisted by experts on utility and transportation operations, who may provide testimony and make recommendations regarding rates or arbitration.
The commission regulates only the rates charged and the services provided by most intrastate, investor-owned telecommunications, gas, and electric utilities operating in Georgia.
Its authority over truck and express companies and private and for-hire motor carriers is restricted to requiring proof of insurance and safety inspections.
Instead of regulating the rates of telephone and gas services, the commission plays a strong role as a manager and facilitator of open-market competition.
The commission's role under the Natural Gas Act is similar to the one it plays in the telecommunications market: to facilitate the transition from a regulated monopoly to a competitive marketplace.
Several problems have plagued the deregulation process from the beginning, and unusually high gas prices have recently exacerbated the situation.
The PSC voted unanimously to impose an immediate moratorium through April 1, 2001, on shutoffs of gas service for residential customers.
David Burgess, a Democrat who was appointed by Roy Barnes in 1998 to represent District 3, was the first African-American member of the PSC and won election to a full term in 2000, but was defeated for re-election in 2006 by Chuck Eaton.
Successive African American party nominees, including Democrats and a Libertarian, have failed to win election to any seat on the PSC since.
After the 2020 PSC election, in which African-American Democrat Daniel Blackman was defeated in a run-off by District 4 incumbent Lauren "Bubba" McDonald (who won the most total votes of all three Republican statewide candidates on the runoff ballot, while both David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler lost their runoffs for U.S. Senate on the same ballot[5]), a lawsuit was filed against the PSC election method by Georgia Conservation Voters, alleging that the method violated the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Durand alleged that Gwinnett County was moved out of the district in order to deny a challenge to Republican incumbent Tim Echols.
[11] In March 2024, a new law was passed by the Georgia legislature extending the terms of current commissioners and establishing a new schedule of statewide elections.