Category Archives: Politics

Nuclear’s “bet-the-farm” risk —Moody’s

Wonder why Southern Company couldn’t get private financing for its new nukes at Plant Vogtle? Because back in June 2009 bond-rater Moody’s said this:

But from a credit perspective, the risks of building new nuclear generation are hard to ignore, entailing significantly higher business and operating risk profiles, with construction risk, huge capital costs, and continual shifts in national energy policy.

In case that wasn’t clear enough, they spelled it out further.

Nuclear’s “bet-the-farm” risk

The NRC says about 14 companies to date have submitted COL applications, proposing numerous new nuclear reactors for power generation. The first of these COL’s is expected to be approved beginning in mid-2011. Many of the COL license applications include partners, but the next table lists the primary holding company entity behind each project, and our view of the activity level associated with the endeavor.

From a credit perspective, companies that pursue new nuclear generation will take on a higher business and operating risk profile, pressuring credit ratings over the intermediate- to long-term.

Moody’s wraps up with some reassuring words for financiers, but maybe not so reassuring to we the taxpayers:

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New nukes increasingly bad business bet for Southern Company and Georgia Power

Harvey Wasserman wrote for HuffPost 9 April 2012, America’s 2 New Nukes Are on the Brink of Death,

The only two U.S. reactor projects now technically under construction are on the brink of death for financial reasons.

If they go under, there will almost certainly be no new reactors built here.

The much mythologized “nuclear renaissance” will be officially buried, and the U.S. can take a definitive leap toward a green-powered future that will actually work and that won’t threaten the continent with radioactive contamination.

Those are the stakes. And in that high-stakes poker game, it seems Southern Company is doing a little bluffing.

In Southern Company’s (SO) Q1 2012 Earnings Call 25 April 2012, its CEO Thomas Fanning revealed another little flaw in the project:

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Fixing the illusion of certainty in Georgia Power’s decision-making

Why is it so hard to get a company like Georgia Power or The Southern Company to get on with solar and wind power for clean energy, for national energy independence, and, most importantly to such corporations, for their own profit? Why instead do they keep investing in coal and natural gas and wasting our tax and customer dollars on nuclear financial boondoggles? Why did Cobb EMC back new coal plants until they had their nose rubbed in national shame about corruption and do nothing about solar until their shareholders revolted and changed a majority of their board? We don’t even need to wait for that forensic audit the new Cobb EMC board wants to get the big picture. Such companies consider what they’re used to to be low risk, and anything new to be risky. Why are they so stodgy, and how do we change that?

These companies have many decades of experience with coal and natural gas, so they consider them less financially risky. (Details like neighbors dying disproportionately from cancer cost a little bit to buy up property, but that’s nothing compared to readily predictable profits.) Even nuclear such companies consider not risky to them, since they’ve got the federal government and their own customers guaranteeing all the financial risk through Construction Work in Progress charges on their bills for power they’re not even receiving from the new nukes and agreement from Georgia PSC that cost overruns like those caused by concrete sinking into the dirt can be passed on to the customers.

Neal Stephenson wrote for World Policy Journal September 2011, Innovation Starvation,

The illusion of eliminating uncertainty from corporate decision-making is not merely a question of management style or personal preference. In the legal environment that has developed around publicly traded corporations, managers are strongly discouraged from shouldering any risks that they know about—or, in the opinion of some future jury, should have known about—even if they have a hunch that the gamble might pay off in the long run. There is no such thing as “long run” in industries driven by the next quarterly report. The possibility of some innovation making money is just that—a mere possibility that will not have time to materialize before the subpoenas from minority shareholder lawsuits begin to roll in.

But if the old ways turn out to be suddenly risky, change can come. Funny how Cobb EMC changed its tune after subpeonas started raining down for its former CEO Dwight Brown. Sure, he got off on a technicality, but it turns out Cobb EMC shareholders didn’t like Continue reading →

This gang movement —Barbara Stratton

Received yesterday on People, citizens with the same rights as everyone else, being intimidated and bullied –Jeff, another in a series of opinion pieces. -jsq

Please note this comment left on the You Tube video by acon4awhile (I guess this means a conservative for a while. Could this be one of the “Blue Republicans” who have jumped parties to try to get Ron Paul nominated because the Democrats like his promise to legalize drugs and other liberal interests? Good possibility since I first linked to the Blue Republican web site from one of his posts.)

“There’s 2/3rds needed to close the debate over the slate, but just 50% + 1 to pass the slate. So where does this lead? Making people wait so long they have to leave and then vote on the slate that already passed?? I’m assuming there can be a motion to amend the slate passed once some of the original majority have to leave, adhering to a filibuster. I guess we could have been more aggressive, but could have been just as successful. We got 14/28 district and 8/22 state for Ron Paul that day.” acon4awhile in reply to acon4awhile (Show the comment) 1 day ago

This comment speaks for itself. The intent was

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ALEC, bills to ditch renewable energy, and the Southern Company

Got caught promoting laws that encourage people to kill people? Double down on laws to kill people through pollution! That’s what ALEC is doing. And look who’s apparently a member of ALEC: the Southern Company, parent of Georgia Power, and proprieter of several of the largest and dirtiest coal plants in the country.

Brian Merchant wrote for Treehugger Tuesday, Two ALEC Campaigns Exposed: One Kills Renewables, One Boosts Fracking,

After major corporations like Pepsi, Kraft, Proctor & Gamble, and Coke all ditched the rightwing group, ALEC announced that it would Plant Scherer abandon its drive to enact gun and voter ID laws. The group’s decision came after a couple high profile campaigns were launched decrying ALEC’s involvement in passing the ‘stand your ground’ laws.

But the group is actually stepping up its efforts in other arenas, as I noted last week. And two new reports, one from ProPublica, the other from DeSmogBlog, outline its new aims: dismantle legislation that incentivizes renewable energy generation, and preserve loopholes that allow natural gas companies to keep the chemical cocktails in their fracking fluids secret from the public.

This is the same ALEC that promotes laws like Georgia’s HB 87 that lock up more people to benefit private prison companies like CCA, which wanted to build a private prison on Lowndes County, Georgia. Traficking in human beings is not too sordid for ALEC, so poisoning people through polution doesn’t seem surprising.

Hm, let’s look at the corporate membership of ALEC, as collected by Sourcewatch’s ALEC Exposed. Why there’s The Southern Company, parent of Georgia Power! I’m frankly a little surprised Continue reading →

ALEC “covers the spectrum in terms of bad policy for people” –FL news

ALEC will no doubt try to tar WCTV as “liberal media.” That will be amusing!

Troy Kinsey wrote for WCTV Monday, themselves as members of ALEC. Damien filer with ‘progress florida’ says its time for them to break their ties with a group that’s taking national heat over ‘Stand Your Ground’.

“This is not just about ‘shoot first’ laws; this is about everything from the so-called ‘parent trigger’ law that we saw during the last legislative session, the prison privatization schemes that we’ve seen crop up. It really covers the spectrum in terms of bad policy for people, and policy that’s really aimed at padding the pockets of the corporations that fund this organization.”

Hm, I wonder who in the Georgia statehouse are ALEC members?

-jsq

People, citizens with the same rights as everyone else, being intimidated and bullied –Jeff

 

We have another response to Interesting voting at Lowndes County Republican Convention Delegate Meeting. Jeff blogged on WOW! Lowndes County Republican Delegate Meeting Video:

…What you will see in this short video is people, citizens with the same rights as everyone else, being intimidated and bullied at what is supposed to be a meeting that has rules and procedures in place to ensure fairness and due process. I will be the first one to admit, this video is a wake up call to me that I need to have a better understanding of these rules and procedures. One does not have to have a full working knowledge of the rules and procedures to see what is happening in this video. There are a few at this meeting (some are newbies to this process) that obviously disagree with the majority and the majority do not like it one bit! At this point I would like to point out that it would have been proper if those that were experienced would have been nicer and appreciate the fact that other people in the community are getting involved, as we all should, and taken the opportunity to help them understand procedures. Instead they do their best to ridicule and make them feel uncomfortable….

I don’t think the reaction of those that were guilty of using such tactics was because these people were Ron Paul supporters. I believe they would have responded exactly the same to anyone that had the audacity to question or challenge them, to not just sit there like good little zombies and go along with whatever they said. You see, that is where the real problem lies. Those with power or authority have either been corrupted by that power and authority or believe

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If the “establishment” had wished to…. –Barbara Stratton

Received yesterday on Interesting voting at Lowndes County Republican Convention Delegate Meeting. -jsq

What the video does not say is the Ron Paul people have been crashing all GOP conventions nationwide & they have been encouraged to create confusion & stalling in the hopes regular GOP delegates have to leave for other commitments & they can then vote themselves in as delegates. Ron Paul cannot win the GOP nomination so they are attempting to hijack the system to put their delegates in hoping to be able to vote for RP at the national convention. Whether or not one agrees with their methods the fact is at the Lowndes County GOP Convention the RP people were clearly outnumbered by what they call the establishment (those who pay dues & work all year for the party). If the “establishment” had wished to do so we could have out voted them on each and every individual delegate position so that they had zero delegates. Instead they were generously allowed a more than fair number of delegate slots in an effort to have a compromise. If there appears to be some impatience from those in charge it was because the RP participants were not cognitive of the fact they were arguing a moot point that could have gone against them if pursued. The video also does not tell you that some of the RP Libertarian values are so attractive to liberal Democrats that a large group of Democrats have joined the RP forces, calling themselves Blue Republicans, in an effort to aid the RP hijacking of the GOP conventions. The RP participants are aware of these Blue Republicans because they communicate with & encourage each other. I have spoken with RP delegates who participated in the county convention who agreed that they could have been totally shut out for delegate nominations per the number ratio. I’m confused about from who & why this video is surfacing now when the convention was back in March and at least some of the more intelligent RP participants acknowledged they were treated more fairly than could have been the outcome. In hind sight many wish they had encouraged individual voting to be pursued, thus eliminating all RP delegates, since the compromise was not appreciated.

-Barbara Stratton

I must have missed any answers to the questions raised in the video. As for when the video “surfaced”, YouTube says it was posted 11 March 2012. Apparently some “establishment” Republicans find certain RP positions, such as against NDAA, attractive. Or maybe there are issues that transcend party labels. That could be why “establishment” Republican Barbara and liberal Democrat jsq collaborate in LAKE.

-jsq

Southern Company wants even more special nuke loan terms

Southern Company wants even more special loan guarantee terms for its new Plant Vogtle nukes. When that or CWIP gets revoked, maybe Southern Company will see that solar is a lot less trouble, and more profitable.

The license authorized by the NRC 9 February 2012 for the new Plant Vogtle nukes is the first one in thirty years. Harvey Wasserman wrote for CounterPunch 18 April 2012, The Big Liability,

It’s about a proposed $8.33 billion nuke power loan guarantee package for two reactors being built at Georgia’s Vogtle. Obama anointed it last year for the Southern Company, parent to Georgia Power. Two other reactors sporadically operate there. Southern just ravaged the new construction side of the site, stripping virtually all vegetation.

It’s also stripped Georgia ratepayers of ever-more millions of dollars, soon to become billions. This project is in the Peach State for its law forcing the public to pay for reactor construction in advance.

Look on your Georgia Power bill for Nuclear Construction Cost Recovery Rider, aka Construction Work in Progress (CWIP). It’s probably about 3% of your bill, for power you may never receive.

If you get your electricity from an EMC instead, remember Georgia’s Electric Member Corporations already participate in the existing Plant Vogtle nukes, so you’ll be on the hook one way or another for the new nukes.

When the project fails, or the reactors melt, the public still must pay.

And even before then, Georgia Power customers get to pay for cost overruns. Not to worry; last time nukes were built at Plant Vogtle, they only ran over budget by a factor of seven.

Southern Company’s existing Plant Vogtle reactors had an unexpected shutdown last year days after NRC said they were fine. And Southern Company says Continue reading →

Caucus to elect delegates to DNC from GA-01, Waycross, 2012-04-21 @ DPG1 2012 04 21

Saturday Democrats from across Georgia’s First Congressional District caucussed in Waycross to elect delegates to the Democratic National Convention (DNC). The winners were announced:

DNC Delegates from GA-01: Miguel Camacho, Audrey Stewart, Joe Segui, Laverne Gaskins, Al Williams,
plus Jeana Brown GA-01 Chair

Speeches by the winners:

Here’s a playlist. A few videos are still uploading. Maybe some delegates or elected officials would like to do something about the horrible Internet connectivity we have here in south Georgia. For example, how about repealing the law that prohibits municipalities from running their own ISPs.

Caucus to elect delegates to DNC from GA-01, Waycross, 2012-04-21
Elect Delegates to Democratic National Convention,
DNC Caucus, 1st District, Democratic Party of Georgia (DPG1),
Jeana Brown, Chair,
Waycross, Ware County, Georgia, 21 April 2012.
Video by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes County Democratic Party (LCDP).

-jsq