{"id":3563,"date":"2013-05-23T09:32:12","date_gmt":"2013-05-23T13:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/?p=3563"},"modified":"2013-05-23T09:36:14","modified_gmt":"2013-05-23T13:36:14","slug":"kemper-coal-sos-bitter-pill-so-2013-05-22","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2013\/05\/kemper-coal-sos-bitter-pill-so-2013-05-22.html","title":{"rendered":"Kemper Coal: SO’s bitter pill @ SO 2013-05-22"},"content":{"rendered":"

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\n“Corporate responsiblity,” answered Southern Company CEO Thomas A. Fanning\r\nto questions about Kemper Coal from Linda St. Martin of Mississippians\r\nFor Affordable Energy.\r\nI don’t think that word means what he thinks it means.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nRay Henry wrote for AP yesterday,\r\n\r\nSouthern Co. CEO defends Miss. power project<\/a>,\r\n<\/p>\r\n

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\r\nThe head of Southern Co. called the decision to write off $540\r\nmillion in extra costs on a Mississippi power plant “a bitter pill\r\nfor us to swallow,” but he defended the project Wednesday as a\r\nlong-term investment for the large utility.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nSouthern Co. has absorbed the unexpected charges of building Plant\r\nRatcliffe in Mississippi’s Kemper County, a showcase facility\r\ndesigned to capture much of the carbon dioxide produced while\r\nburning local coal to make electricity. The carbon dioxide will then\r\nbe sold to companies that use it to extract oil. If successful,\r\nsupporters say the plant would prove the United States can still\r\nrely on coal as a fuel even if it moves to trim carbon dioxide\r\nemissions, a gas blamed for global warming.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nLosses from the plant, a project of Southern Co. subsidiary\r\nMississippi Power, proved a drag on the parent company’s net income,\r\nwhich fell 78 percent to $81 million during the first three months\r\nof the year compared to $368 million during the same period last\r\nyear. Mississippi Power said it will not pass the extra costs on to\r\nits customers.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n“That was a bitter pill for us to swallow,” CEO Thomas Fanning said,\r\nresponding to a question during an annual meeting of shareholders in\r\nGeorgia. “But it was appropriate. It shows, I think, appropriate\r\ncorporate responsibility in this issue.”\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nSO’s sudden attack of corporate responsibility coincided with\r\nthe MS Public Service Commission capping the costs MS Power could\r\npass on to its ratepayers.\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nFanning didn’t mention (but\r\n\r\nMS Sierra Club has<\/a>\r\nthat the MS legislature in February approved letting MS Power issue\r\nup to $1 billion in bonds to cover further cost overruns.\r\nIf MS Power and SO are so responsible, why did they lobby for those bonds?\r\nAnd if SO is so responsible, how about\r\neat the cost overruns for Plant Vogtle, as well?\r\nBetty Liu of Bloomberg, among others,\r\n\r\nlinked those two projects<\/a>.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

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\r\nOne project critic, Linda St. Martin, representing Mississippians\r\nFor Affordable Energy, challenged Fanning on whether the company has\r\naccounted for all costs.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n“What is going to be the next shoe that falls?” she said.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nFanning claimed not building Kemper Coal would make the citizens\r\nof Mississippi more dependent on natural gas (I heard him say that).\r\nCorporate responsibility would include building solar power in MS\r\nand across the southeast instead.\r\n<\/P>\r\n

\r\nFanning’s new rule\r\n\r\nprohibited videoing not authorized by SO<\/a>,\r\nbut\r\n\r\nLinda St. Martin made her own video back in March:<\/a>\r\n<\/p>\r\n

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