\r\nWhere:<\/strong>\r\nThe Lodge Conference Center at Callaway Gardens, \r\n \r\nWhat:<\/strong>\r\n\r\nSouthern Company 2019 Annual Meeting of Stockholders<\/a>\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\nThat Annual Report<\/a> page on Microgrids and Batteries\r\nlooks good. Until you start to notice what’s missing from the documents.\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\nWhile coal dropping to less than half its former percentage is indeed good,\r\nreplacing it mostly by ramping up natural gas from 56 to 47% is yet another\r\nbad Big Bet.\r\n \r\nSpeaking of omissions, what’s that LNG facility in Jacksonville, Florida,\r\non the map at the end of the\r\nProxy Statement<\/a>?\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\nOver in the Annual Report on page 147 we find:\r\n \r\nPivotal JAX LNG, LLC\r\n \r\nSouthern Company Gas owns a 50% interest in a LNG liquefaction and storage facility in Jacksonville, Florida, which was placed in service\r\nin October 2018. This facility is outfitted with a 2.0 million gallon storage tank with the capacity to produce in excess of 120,000 gallons of\r\nLNG per day.\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n \r\nCuriously, there’s no mention of JAX LNG’s dock with a pipeline for\r\nits LNG barge, nor of JAX LNG’s half-parent Pivotal LNG, owned by Southern Company,\r\nwith its contract with Crowley Maritime to ship LNG as far as Puerto Rico\r\nfor purchase by a pharmaceutical company.\r\nAll of this is announced on\r\n\r\nJAX LNG’s own newsroom web page<\/a>,\r\nbut not anywhere in Southern Company’s Stockholder Meeting documents.\r\nFor that matter, Pivotal LNG’s other LNG facilities are plainly visible\r\non the map (3 in Georgia, and one each in Tennessee and Alabama),\r\nbut are not identified in the documents.\r\n \r\nWell, this sounds good: about 61% reduction in coal since 2007,\r\nand a goal of 50% reduction in greenhouse gases by 2030 and low to no GHG by 2050.\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\nBut since 2007, SO almost tripled the mix percentage of natural gas.\r\nAnd the total of natural gas and coal only went down from 85 to 74%.\r\nThat difference of 11% is about the same as the mix increase of 10%\r\nfor “Renewables\/Other” which in the previous figure we saw as “Hydro, Wind, Solar”.\r\nIt’s safe to say Southern Company hasn’t built a bunch of new water power reservoirs or we would have heard about that,\r\nso the renewable mix increase has been due to wind and solar power.\r\n \r\nIt certainly wasn’t due to the never-completed nukes at Plant Vogtle,\r\nwhich only continue work because the GA-PSC hasn’t yet done what Mississippi PSC did and say no more overruns charged to customers.\r\nAnd even SO isn’t going to be building any additional nukes.\r\n \r\nSo the only way Southern Company can get a 50% reduction in GHG emissions\r\nby 2030 is by switching still more coal and a lot of natural gas mix\r\nover to solar and wind power.\r\n \r\nWhich means Southern Company’s own “Low-Carbon Future” plan\r\nmakes its recent expenditures on natural gas pipelines and power plants\r\nand LNG stranded investments.\r\n \r\nFor that matter, 50% reduction from when?\r\nAnd of which GHG emissions?\r\nI hope SO is not counting only CO2 from coal while leaking CH4 (methane) from pipelines\r\nand burning it to produce CO2.\r\n \r\nFinally, note the fudging of the 2050 goal:\r\n“LOW to NO GHG emissions”.\r\nOh, so SO doesn’t really mean no, just some undefined “LOW”.\r\n \r\nNonetheless, an interesting development on page 48 of the Proxy Statement is\r\n“New GHG Reduction Metric for CEO’s 2019 Long-Term Incentive Award”\r\n \r\nOur energy strategy includes the continued development of a diverse\r\nportfolio of energy resources to reliably and affordably serve\r\ncustomers and communities with a focus on reducing GHG emissions,\r\nincluding a 2030 goal of reducing carbon emissions by 50% as\r\ncompared to 2007 and a goal of low- to no-carbon emissions by 2050.\r\n<\/p>\r\n \r\nTo demonstrate our commitment to the GHG reduction goals, the\r\nCompensation Committee added a new metric to the CEO’s 2019\r\nlong-term equity incentive award. A meaningful portion of the CEO’s\r\n2019 PSP award (10% or up to $2 million) is aligned with our GHG\r\nreduction goals.\r\n<\/p>\r\n \r\nThe Compensation Committee worked closely with the Operations,\r\nEnvironmental and Safety Committee to design the new metric. The\r\nCommittees shared a desire to implement a measurable, quantitative\r\ncomponent that is aligned with our 2030 goal of 50% reduction in GHG\r\nemissions, as well as a qualitative component that incentivizes\r\nbehaviors to get us to our goal of low- to no-carbon emissions by\r\n2050.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n \r\nThat section continues with the specific quantative metrics,\r\nwhich make sense, but only insofar as SO’s low-carbon goals make sense.\r\n \r\nIn the light of SO’s pipeline and LNG buying spree,\r\nsomebody explain how SO’s low-carbon goals match its actual corporate behavior?\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\nOnly a few years ago, SO made Georgia jump to the top of fastest-growing\r\nsolar states, for a several reasons discussed in this blog before.\r\nThat’s the main reason why SO went from 1% renewable energy in 2007 to 11% in 2018.\r\nThat’s an increase of 110 times.\r\nNo other power source grows like that, except wind power, and\r\nwind isn’t even as fast as solar.\r\nThen SO took its foot off the accellerator,\r\nwith few if any solar purchases in the past year, and only\r\na few of wind.\r\n \r\nInstead, SO shoveled more dollars into the natural gas pipeline money pit.\r\n \r\nIncluding into buying AGL Resources, parent of Pivotal LNG with its JAX LNG.\r\nAnd AGL owns the pipeline that goes to Homerville, Georgia,\r\nwhere its gas in September 2018 resulted in an explosion\r\nthat blew up a coffee shop and sent three women to hospital\r\nwith third-degree burns.\r\nGeorgia PSC staff propose\r\n\r\nto fine AGL more than $2 million for that incident<\/a>.\r\nPSC Staff also allege at least one statement AGL reported to the\r\nPipeline & Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) had\r\n\r\n“no basis in fact”<\/a>.\r\n \r\nSuch pipelines seem like bigger risks to future dividends than solar panels,\r\nwhich do not leak or explode.\r\n \r\n -jsq\r\n<\/p>\r\n
4500 Southern Pine Drive, Pine Mountain, Georgia 31822\r\n![\"Microgrids](\"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/b724d9c3a9dc972caacaae1a36573f38.jpg\")
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<\/a>\r\nSo does this comparison of energy mixes in 2007 and 2018,\r\nat least as far as “Hydro, Wind, Solar” going from 1 to 11%.\r\nHowever, quite lacking is\r\n\r\n any report of major solar power increases in 2018.\r\nPivotal JAX LNG<\/a><\/H4>\r\n
![\"Facilities,](\"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/09eae785a415937719b5c43558513e57.jpg\")
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Low-Carbon Future and CEO Compensation<\/a><\/H4>\r\n
![\"Greenhouse](\"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/806c6a0eccfa7f4fb45e315b174ab6d6.jpg\")
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![\"Dividends,](\"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/b6c51f7b82f59901b3415bdae74be55e.jpg\")
<\/a>\r\nMany stockholders are attracted to Southern Company stock by\r\nits ever-increasing dividends.\r\nEach year, Southern Company ramps up the dividend another notch.\r\nHow long can SO contiue doing that, while wasting money\r\non natural gas stranded investments?\r\n