{"id":549,"date":"2012-08-23T12:40:17","date_gmt":"2012-08-23T16:40:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2012\/08\/psc-rubberstamps-vogtle-cost-overruns-next-day-fitch-affirms-southern-company-ratings.html"},"modified":"2012-08-23T12:40:17","modified_gmt":"2012-08-23T16:40:17","slug":"psc-rubberstamps-vogtle-cost-overruns-next-day-fitch-affirms-southern-company-ratings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2012\/08\/psc-rubberstamps-vogtle-cost-overruns-next-day-fitch-affirms-southern-company-ratings.html","title":{"rendered":"PSC rubberstamps Vogtle costs; next day Fitch affirms Southern Company ratings"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nNeed any more proof that Southern Company’s nuclear boondoggle\nonly works with Georgia Power customer and taxpayer subsidy?\nPSC rubberstamps one day and Fitch affirms ratings the next day.\nMaybe we should elect Public Service Commissioners who will\nserve the public.\n<\/p>\n

\nGeorgia Power PR 21 August 2012,\n\nGeorgia PSC approves Vogtle construction costs<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n

\n\n<\/a>\nThe Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) today in a 5-0 vote\napproved Georgia Power’s spending on Plant Vogtle units 3 and 4 for\nthe period including July 1, 2011 through Dec. 31, 2011.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nThe next day, Fitch PR 23 August 2012,\n\nFitch Affirms Ratings for Southern Company and Subsidiaries<\/a>,\n<\/p>\n\n\n

\n

\n\n<\/a>\nFitch Ratings has affirmed the Issuer Default Rating (IDR) and\nsecurity ratings for Southern Company. In addition, Fitch has\naffirmed the IDRs and debt ratings of Southern Company’s\nsubsidiaries, Alabama Power Company (Alabama Power), Georgia Power\nCompany (Georgia Power), Gulf Power Company (Gulf Power),\nMississippi Power Company (Mississippi Power) and Southern Power\nCompany (Southern Power). The Rating Outlook for all of the\nsubsidiaries is Stable except for Mississippi Power, which remains\nNegative. Approximately $22 billion of long-term debt is affected by\nthese rating actions. A complete list of rating actions is provided\nat the end of this release.\n<\/p>\n

Southern Company<\/h4>\n

\nSouthern Company’s ratings recognize the financial support that the\n\n<\/a>\ncompany gets from its operating subsidiaries in the form of\ndividends for the payment of corporate expenses, debt-service,\ndividends to common stockholders, and for other business matters.\nSouthern Company provides equity funding to its subsidiaries for\ntheir long-term growth while optimizing their capital mix. Southern\nCompany’s regulated utility subsidiaries derive predictable cash\nflows from low-risk utility businesses, enjoy relatively favorable\nregulatory framework in their service territories, and exhibit\nlimited commodity price risks due to the ability to recover fuel and\npurchased power through separate cost trackers.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n\n<\/a>\nSouthern Company’s subsidiaries, including its biggest one, Georgia Power,\n“derive predictable cash\nflows from low-risk utility businesses, enjoy relatively favorable\nregulatory framework in their service territories….”\nYep, the Georgia PSC is a favorable regulatory framework all right.\nSuch regulatory capture is why Georgia Power enjoys a “low-risk utlity business”.\nWouldn’t you like to have all your risks underwritten by GA PSC\n(and the Georgia legislature, and federal loan guarantees)?\nOh, sorry: you’re not a state-sponsored monopoly, and Georgia Power is.\n<\/p>\n

\nGeorgia Power’s PR doesn’t mention cost overruns; for them, see\n\nGA PSC’s PR of the same day<\/a>,\n<\/p>\n

\n

\n\n<\/a>\n\u201cFor this reporting period, Georgia Power is not seeking any\nchanges to the schedule or certified budget amount of $6.113\nbillion,\u201dsaid Commissioner Tim Echols.\u201dIf and when they\ndo bring changes in future periods, I’ll scrutinize it\nclosely.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\nIn this Report, the Company acknowledges potential cost increases\nassociated with certain design changes made by the Consortium during\nthe Design Control Document review process. However, the Company\ncontinues to state that the project is more favorable for customers\nthan originally anticipated at the time of the Certification given\nthe impact of cost savings from the Department of Energy’s Loan\nGuarantee, Production Tax Credits and the Construction Work in\nProgress in rate base. The Company will file its Seventh Semi-annual\nVogtle Construction Monitoring Report on August 31, 2012 for the\nperiod ending June 30, 2012.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nSo Georgia Power hasn’t yet asked the PSC to approve its\n\n$425 million (and climbing) cost overruns.<\/a>\nI wonder what Fitch’s plan is for when that happens 6-12 months from now?\n<\/p>\n

\nEchols is the best of the utility-sponsored Public Service Commissioners,\nin that while the rest\n\napparently took 70+% of their campaign contributions from people or companies\npotentially affected by PSC decisions,<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\nnearly one in five dollars in Echols’ contributions came from people or\ncompanies whose business is affected by PSC decisions, the review found.\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n\n<\/a>\nHey, what if we elect some commissioners not beholden to the power utilities?\n<\/p>\n

\n-jsq\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Need any more proof that Southern Company’s nuclear boondoggle only works with Georgia Power customer and taxpayer subsidy? PSC rubberstamps one day and Fitch affirms ratings the next day. Maybe we should elect Public Service Commissioners who will serve the public. Georgia Power PR 21 August 2012, Georgia PSC approves Vogtle construction costs The Georgia […]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[14,49,70,17,8,18,2,104,21,22],"tags":[712,1847,8704,8721,8728,1845,1846,8707,8701,8708,8699,8702,12,7,8737,8711,8712,220,108,1088,6,626],"class_list":["post-549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economy","category-elections","category-ethics","category-ga-psc","category-georgia","category-georgia-power","category-government","category-nuclear","category-planning","category-politics","tag-boondoggle","tag-campaign-contributions","tag-economy","tag-elections","tag-ethics","tag-favorable-regulatory-framework","tag-fitch","tag-ga-psc","tag-georgia","tag-georgia-power","tag-government","tag-lake","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-nuclear","tag-planning","tag-politics","tag-regulatory-capture","tag-southern-company","tag-tim-echols","tag-valdosta","tag-vogtle"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-8R","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=549"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}