{"id":3557,"date":"2013-05-23T08:28:42","date_gmt":"2013-05-23T12:28:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/?p=3557"},"modified":"2013-05-29T10:44:33","modified_gmt":"2013-05-29T14:44:33","slug":"sierra-club-goes-to-southern-company-stockholder-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2013\/05\/sierra-club-goes-to-southern-company-stockholder-meeting.html","title":{"rendered":"Sierra Club goes to Southern Company stockholder meeting"},"content":{"rendered":"

\r\n“Almost like a Berkshire-Hathaway meeting,”\r\nremarked SO CEO Tom Fanning after\r\nSierra Club (and other) activists asked questions\r\nat the\r\n\r\nSouthern Company stockholder meeting<\/a> at Callaway Gardens yesterday,\r\nas promised by the numerous news stories the previous day after the press conference organized by Georgia Sierra Club Director Colleen Kiernan.\r\nAs usual Fanning turned in a Class A CEO performance,\r\nalthough he seemed bemused by the diversity and sometimes very positive\r\nslant of the questions,\r\nwhich nonetheless brought up numerous problems with SO’s coal and nuclear\r\nagenda, lackluster renewable energy agenda, and\r\n\r\nthe impending disruption of distributed solar power<\/a>.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nNew rule this year: no unauthorized video or flash photography,\r\nposted on big signs outside the conference room door.\r\n\r\n\"SO<\/a>\r\nI asked Georgia Power CEO Paul Bowers to authorize me,\r\nbut he said it was a shareholder meeting and thus a different level.\r\nThe person in charge of SO’s own videoing promised they’d\r\nbe available on the web soon after the meeting.\r\nI told him I’d been checking since last year’s meeting, and those\r\nstill weren’t on the web.\r\nHe said they had been briefly; then they were taken down.\r\nBut he would make them available.\r\nWe’ll see….\r\nMeanwhile, you only get this one picture of Tom Fanning\r\n(he insists everyone call him Tom) as he compared SO’s stock price to the only more stable company:\r\nHormel.\r\nThat’s right, SO is almost as stable as Spam.\r\nHe looked at me rather pointedly as he announced that new rule.\r\nAnd rather wryly later when I pointed out\r\nthat according to Edison Electric Institute\r\nSO’s business model was due for disruption very soon.\r\nMore on that later,\r\nalong with other reports on Wednesday’s meeting.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nWalter C. Jones wrote for Morris News Service 21 May 2013,\r\n\r\nSouthern Co. expects to face environmental challenges<\/a>,\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n

\r\nA dozen Sierra members who own stock in the giant electricity\r\nproducer are primed to ask pointed questions about company policies,\r\nclub officials told reporters Tuesday.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n“I think tomorrow presents a really good opportunity for\r\ndialog,” said Colleen Kiernan, director of the Georgia Chapter\r\nof Sierra Club.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nShe said Southern’s board chairman and president, Tom Fanning,\r\nwelcomes it.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n“He really is open-minded and likes to hear from\r\nshareholders,” she said, calling the question session a way to\r\n“open executives’ minds to what people are thinking out there\r\nin the real world.”\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nAfter Colleen and Tom’s excellent adventure, some of the Sierra Club crew had lunch.\r\nGeorgia Sierra Club Director Colleen Kiernan is second from\r\nthe near end on the right.\r\nSierra Club has been attending these meetings for years, but this year\r\n\r\nputting out a petition<\/a>\r\nand doing\r\n\r\na news conference<\/a>\r\nbeforehand got some pre-publicity.\r\nThe petition was delivered during the meeting by Seth Gunning,\r\npictured here on the left, third from the near end.\r\nEach signature online was also emailed directly to Tom Fanning,\r\nwhich appeared to get his attention.\r\n<\/p>\r\n\r\n

\r\n\r\n\"Sierra<\/a>\r\n
\r\nPicture by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), Pine Mountain, Georgia, 22 May 2013.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nDave Williams wrote for the Atlanta Business Chronicle,\r\n\r\nActivist shareholders to grill Southern Co. execs on renewables<\/a>,\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nSouthern shareholders from Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi plan to\r\nraise concerns about the extent of the company’s pursuit of wind and\r\nsolar power on Wednesday at its annual shareholder meeting….\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nBut during a telephone news conference Tuesday, Kiernan said Georgia\r\nPower’s decision to spend more than $5 billion on technological\r\nimprovements necessary to reduce pollution at several coal-fired\r\npower plants rather than retire them shows the utility isn’t ready\r\nto abandon an unhealthy source of energy.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n“They’re not putting as much attention on real 21st century\r\nenergy … as to holding on tightly to their traditional sources of\r\nnuclear and coal,” she said.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nSouthern CEO Tom Fanning disputed claims that the utility isn’t\r\nserious about renewable energy last week during a speech to the\r\nAtlanta Press Club. But he said the investments Southern makes in\r\nrenewables must make economic sense for shareholders and ratepayers.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n“If it works for our customers, we’ll do it,” he said.\r\n“But we’ve got to do it the right way.”\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nAt the meeting, Fanning reiterated his position that solar might\r\nbe ready by 2018 or maybe 2023, although he and other SO execs\r\ndid announce some new developments, and (with a little prodding)\r\nthey made it clear they are very aware of the disruptive challenge\r\nof distributed solar power.\r\nMore later.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nOne difference from previous years was questioners from Alabama and Mississippi\r\nin addition to Georgia.\r\nMary Perez wrote for the Biloxi-Gulfport Sun Herald 21 May 2013,\r\n\r\nMississippi Power could be hot topic at Southern Co. stockholders’ meeting:\r\nUtility shareholders must foot bill for cost overruns<\/a>,\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n

\r\nQuestions about the abrupt departure this week of Mississippi Power\r\nPresident Ed Day are likely to be asked during the annual meeting of\r\nSouthern Co. stockholders today in Pine Mountain, Ga.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nThe meeting will start at 9 a.m. It will not be shown live but video\r\nwill be posted later in the day.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nRepresentatives of the Sierra Club said in a conference call Tuesday\r\nthey will use the shareholders’ meeting as an opportunity to ask\r\nabout the cost overruns at the power plant under construction in\r\nKemper County and the leadership changes at Mississippi Power.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nThe meeting actually started as scheduled at 10AM, and I’m still looking\r\n\r\nfor that video<\/a>….\r\nMore reports will follow.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nUpdate 2013-05-29<\/strong>: SO posted the video<\/a>,\r\nalbeit in a form that doesn’t allow linking to specific sections of it. More reports will follow.\r\n

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