GIPL and Southface invite you to join us for the first of a six-part training and roundtable discussion in preparation for the 2025 Georgia Power Integrated Resource Plan (IRP), the utility’s 20-year energy resource plan.
This first session is designed to provide an introduction and overview to the Georgia IRP. The session will answer questions like: What is the IRP? How does the process work? What’s included in the filing? How do I get involved? This session will include a panel and examine key topics anticipated in the 2025 proceeding.
Each session will be hosted in person at Legacy Park in Decatur(500 S Columbia Drive, Decatur, GA 30030) from 12-2 p.m. with lunch served prior to each session at 11:30 a.m. We will also support virtual participation, though portions of some sessions may not be available online.
Register below for this session and upcoming sessions. All sessions will be recorded and recordings will be distributed the week following each session for those that register.
Email jay@gipl.org if you have any questions.
PANELISTS
JENNIFER WHITFIELD
MODERATOR
Whitfield is a Senior Attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center working to ensure Georgia transitions to clean energy quickly and equitably. She also works to protect air quality and fights alongside communities that are disproportionally impacted by environmental harms. Jennifer grew up in Atlanta and spent summers in North Carolina, hiking through mountain laurel and rhododendron forests. Jennifer joined SELC in 2022. Her previous experience includes litigation work at the Georgia Innocence Project, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the Northern District of Georgia, and Covington & Burling.
THATCHER YOUNG
Young serves as the Vice President of Business Development at Velo Solar, a solar installer headquartered in Atlanta that specializes in commercial, industrial, and utility solar projects across the Southeast. Thatcher is responsible for all aspects of business development, marketing, and PR for Velo. Thatcher also serves as board member of the GA Solar Energy Industries Association (GASEIA), where he serves on the policy committee helping to advise and guide solar policy being promoted at the state and federal levels. Thatcher represented GASEIA in the 2022 Georgia Power Integrated Resources Planning proceedings and the 2022 rate case. Thatcher’s personal goals are to maintain a balance in life between career, family, faith and fun. To help reduce the impact of humanity on our planet and to create a healthier, happier and more just future for my children.
EDDY MOORE
Moore serves as the Decarbonization Director at the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE). He grew up in South Carolina in the upstate, near the mountains, but spent a lot of time on the coast, camping with family and shrimping and fishing. He now lives in Charleston to be near the coast. Even as a child, Eddy was interested in energy because it underlies everything else. Following a 10-year stint on Capitol Hill, he moved to California, working for an environmental non-profit in transportation, energy, and water policy. After helping pass a solar energy bill, he knew he was hooked on public utility issues. Eddy moved to Arkansas for law school and went on to work for the Arkansas Public Service Commission, where he helped craft a major expansion in energy efficiency programs and net metering. After seven years at the PSC, he moved home to South Carolina and has been working on various utility reforms following the abandonment of a nuclear plant in 2017. Eddy believes a regional outlook is needed with utilities’ current rush to expand fossil gas in the Southeast, so he’s glad to be part of the SACE team.
DAVID NIFONG
Nifong works as the City of Decatur’s first ever Energy and Sustainability Manager in the City Manager’s Office. David graduated in 2019 from Emory University with a B.A. in Environmental Science and a minor in Community Building and Social Change. David joined the City in the inaugural class of Lead for America Hometown Fellows, a national public service organization providing recent college graduates a pathway to serve their communities through placements in city, county, and tribal governments. In his current role, David leads the City’s clean energy, resilience, and sustainability projects, including the creation of Decatur’s Clean Energy Plan and the City’s joint Climate Resilience Plan with Agnes Scott College
NEIL SARDANA
Raised in a first-generation South Asian immigrant household in Metro Detroit, Neil has been dedicated to organizing for human rights and social justice for over 20 years, starting his career as a part of human rights and peace and justice movements fighting against the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Prior to becoming an Organizing Manager for Georgia Conservation Voters (GCV), Neil worked to build Atlanta Jobs with Justice, a coalition committed to bringing labor and community organizations together to win living wages for working people, defending workers’ rights, and promoting economic justice in Metro Atlanta. More recently, Neil transitioned to organizing with the climate and environmental justice movements as the Senior Georgia Beyond Coal Organizer for the Sierra Club. Neil’s goals are to unite communities to not only take on the challenge of climate change, environmental justice, and protecting our planet but also to transition our economies towards good green union jobs and affordable clean energy.