Tag: Southern Company

Coal and utility interests ask for, receive, bailouts to help failing power plants

"You can’t see the gas lines. You can’t see wind. You can’t see solar. So maybe we need to talk about having a requirement for power plants in order to...

/ October 2, 2017

Governor Rick Scott Appoints Former Legislator That Was Critical of Solar to Public Service Commission

Update: On December 4, 2017, Ritch Workman resigned after Sen. Lizbeth Benacquisto issued a statement in which she said Workman approached her from behind and “pushed his body up against me and made vulgar...

/ September 28, 2017

Decades before Harvey and Irma, electric utilities knew climate change could fuel more powerful storms and still funded denial

A 1987 study sponsored by the electric utility industry warned that climate change could one day fuel more powerful storms, some thirty years before hurricanes Harvey and Irma. Despite this...

/ September 14, 2017

After Irma will the Southeast copy post-Sandy rebuild plans?

"This is going to be a very, very lengthy restoration ... what we think we’ll see on the west coast is a wholesale rebuild of our electric grid."

/ September 14, 2017
Dalton Utilities Vogtle Nuclear Plant

Despite Spiraling Costs and Its Own Bungling, Southern Company Wants to Complete Vogtle Plant

This guest post about the Vogtle plant was authored by Dan Zegart and cross-posted from the Climate Investigations Center. With Southern Company’s board voting today to green light the completion of the...

/ August 30, 2017
Tom Fanning appears on CNBC on August 16, 2017.

Unlike CEO peers, Southern’s Tom Fanning declines to denounce Trump after Charlottesville

Unlike his CEO peers, Tom Fanning of Southern Co. declined to denounce Trump's response to white supremacy in the wake of Charlottesville.

/ August 21, 2017

Utility Companies Quick To Fund Republican Governors and Attorneys General in 2017

The nation’s investor-owned utilities have been quick to help Republican governors and attorneys general maintain and expand their control of state capitals, according to a review of mid-year campaign finance...

/ August 8, 2017

Utilities Knew: Documenting Electric Utilities’ Early Knowledge and Ongoing Deception on Climate Change From 1968-2017

Scientists had begun to warn electric utilities about climate change by 1968, and by 1988 the industry’s official research and development organization had acknowledged that, “There is growing consensus in...

/ July 25, 2017

Utility Industry Set To Get Another Ally Inside The Trump Administration

Mark Menezes has spent decades working in the electric utility industry, mostly alongside corporate lobbying teams.

/ July 19, 2017
The Kemper "clean coal" power plant.

Mississippi Regulators Veto Any More Money for Southern Company’s Kemper Plant in Stunning Vote

Mississippi regulators slammed brakes on the Kemper plant, saying customers should not pay for Kemper's non-functional "clean coal" gasification technology.

/ June 21, 2017