{"id":3641,"date":"2013-05-29T10:40:09","date_gmt":"2013-05-29T14:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/?p=3641"},"modified":"2013-05-29T10:42:05","modified_gmt":"2013-05-29T14:42:05","slug":"kemper-coal-crashes-southern-company-rating-and-stock-price","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2013\/05\/kemper-coal-crashes-southern-company-rating-and-stock-price.html","title":{"rendered":"Kemper Coal Crashes Southern Company Rating and Stock Price"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n
\n<\/a>
\nStandard & Poor’s lowered Southern Company’s rating from stable to negative
\nbecause of the risks of Kemper Coal in Mississippi, and SO’s stock price plummetted.
\nThis was immediately after
\n
\nactivists grilled SO on that and other topics<\/a>
\nat the
\n
\nSO stockholder meeting<\/a>.
\nWait ’till S&P catches on to the risks of SO’s
\n
\n19-months-late and $1 billion-over-budget nukes<\/a> at Plant Vogtle in Georgia!
\nOr SO’s non-action so far on
\n
\nthe challenge of distributed solar<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

\nKristin Jones wrote for WSJ 24 May 2013,
\n
\nS&P Lowers Outlook on Southern Co., Noting Project Risks<\/a>,\n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

\nStandard & Poor’s lowered its outlook on Southern Co. (SO), noting
\nrisks associated with a problematic power plant construction
\nproject.\n<\/p>\n

\nS&P affirmed its rating on the Atlanta-based electric-power company
\nat A, five notches into investment grade. The outlook was revised to
\nnegative, from stable.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe ratings firm said its outlook reflected a series of regulatory,
\noperational and risk-management issues that have affected the
\nMississippi Power business in the last 12 months, including problems
\nwith financial reporting and increased project costs in the
\nconstruction of a power plant.\n<\/p>\n

\nS&P said the issues raised “broader concerns about effective project
\noversight, handling of regulatory risk, and overall risk management
\nwithin Southern Co.”\n<\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/a>
\nIf the company isn’t able to resolve the challenges at Mississippi
\nPower or if similar issues arise at Georgia Power, the company’s
\nrating could be downgraded. If on the other hand, Southern can
\naddress the challenges in a timely manner, the outlook could return
\nto stable.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n“Or if similar issues arise at Georgia Power”: linking Kemper Coal
\nand Plant Vogtle isn’t just for
\n
\nBloomberg’s Betty Liu<\/a> anymore.
\nNow Standard and Poor’s and the WSJ are piling on.
\nAnd look at
\n
\nSO’s stock price<\/a>:\n<\/p>\n

\n
\n\"Southern<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\nThat’s an 8.5% drop in one month, with the biggest drop starting
\non 22 May 2013, the day of the
\n
\nSO stockholder meeting<\/a>.
\nMaybe
\n
\nRay Henry’s AP coverage<\/a>
\nof
\nLinda St. Martin’s criticism of Kemper Coal had some effect on this
\nSO stock drop and S&P downgrade….\n<\/p>\n

\nGeorgia Power can
\n
\ncharge customers for Plant Vogtle cost overruns even if it’s cancelled<\/a>.
\nLast time SO built nukes there, the costs were
\n26 times the original per-unit projections<\/a>.
\nPublic opposition in Mississippi to
\n
\nthat kind of overcharge to the public or Mississippi Power customers<\/a>
\ngot SO to back off and
\neat some of the costs<\/a>
\nwhich is what led to the S&P downgrade.
\nWhat if the Georgia legislature passed
\nHB 267<\/a>
\nto cap costs at Plant Vogtle?
\nWhat would S&P and SO’s stock price do then?\n<\/p>\n

\nDear Tom Fanning: Time to get on with
\n
\nswitching to distributed solar<\/a>.
\nIf SO gets out in front, it can lead the region, the country, and the world.
\nIf SO stays behind, pushing
\n
\nbig baseload boondoggles like Kemper Coal and new nukes at Plant Vogtle<\/a>,
\nSO’s rating and stock will suffer.
\nHow long will SO’s stockholders tolerate that?
\nCobb EMC’s stakeholders
\nstaged a revolt and replaced a majority of the board<\/a>,
\nafter which Cobb’s new CEO said “we’re just ripe for solar power”
\nand
\n
\ncancelled all proposed coal plants and started building solar<\/a>.
\nTom Fanning, you can do that before your successor does.\n<\/p>\n

\n -jsq<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Standard & Poor’s lowered Southern Company’s rating from stable to negative because of the risks of Kemper Coal in Mississippi, and SO’s stock price plummetted. This was immediately after activists grilled SO on that and other topics at the SO stockholder meeting. Wait ’till S&P catches on to the risks of SO’s 19-months-late and $1 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[97,216,14,8,18,104,23,24],"tags":[8736,8753,8818,8704,8701,8708,171,8702,12,7,217,2923,8737,6335,6338,8713,8714,108,6337,2532,6339,6,6336],"class_list":["post-3641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-coal","category-economy","category-georgia","category-georgia-power","category-nuclear","category-renewable-energy","category-solar","tag-activism","tag-coal","tag-cobb-emc","tag-economy","tag-georgia","tag-georgia-power","tag-kemper-coal","tag-lake","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-mississippi","tag-negative","tag-nuclear","tag-plant-ratliffe","tag-rating","tag-renewable-energy","tag-solar","tag-southern-company","tag-standard-and-poors","tag-stock","tag-tom-fanning","tag-valdosta","tag-wsj"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3641"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3641\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3643,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3641\/revisions\/3643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}