Consumers Win! 4-1 Vote

Consumer groups cheer as PSC nixes plan to retool staff

By MARGARET NEWKIRK
The Atlanta Journal-ConstitutionPublished on: 03/22/06

A fast-track push to overhaul the Georgia Public Service Commission staff structure officially ended Tuesday, with the PSC voting to leave it alone.

Public interest advocates, including Common Cause and AARP, called the decision a victory for consumers, who stood to lose a protection against utility rate increases had the overhaul gone forward.

“I think that’s going to be good for the commission and good for the citizens of Georgia,” said Bill Bozarth, the executive director of Common Cause.

AARP spokesman Will Phillips said Tuesday’s decision “will have implications for every utility rate case from this point on.”

“It’s a real victory for consumers,” he said.

The decision was also a defeat for the commission’s chairman, Stan Wise.

Wise launched the push for an overhaul two months ago. By Tuesday, he stood alone in a 4-1 vote.

At issue was the role of the PSC’s so-called adversary staff in contested utility rate increase battles.

That staff prosecutes its own, independent case when utilities like Georgia Power or Atlanta Gas Light ask for more money from consumers.

It typically opposes some or all of what those utilities are asking for, and aggressively makes that case before the commission.

A second group of PSC staff then comes in at the end of a case, after listening to all sides, and makes recommendations directly to the commission. That advisory staff typically splits the difference between the top dollar amount requested by the utility and a lower dollar amount the adversary staff argued the utility needed.

Review started in January

The system came under fire in January, shortly after Wise took over as the PSC’s chairman.

Spurred in part by public comments from two other commissioners, Doug Everett and David Burgess, Wise kicked off an “efficiency review” specifically targeted at the adversary staff.

In public statements and in a white paper, Wise and Everett in particular alleged that the adversary staff had become too extreme and too aggressively pro-consumer, effectively setting the floor in rate debates too low.

Wise floated a number of proposals for reform, including some that would have eliminated the PSC adversary staff altogether, leaving its role to other state agencies like the chronically underfunded Governor’s Office of Consumer Affairs.

Public outcry was fierce.

‘I’ve made my effort’

Wise said Tuesday that he wouldn’t try again.

“It’s very discouraging to me, given the role we play in this state,” Wise said. “Change doesn’t come easily, I suppose. It never has, from the days of the Model T replacing the farm horse.”

He said he still believed the PSC’s staffing needed changing but that another commissioner would have to take it up.

“I’ve made my effort,” he said.

The commission also defeated a proposal by Commissioner Angela Speir on Tuesday that would have banned private conversations between commissioners and utilities or others with official business before the commission.

Georgia is one of two states in the country that doesn’t restrict those conversations in some way.

A second Speir proposal, which would have banned gifts to commissioners from utilities or others with an interest in commission business, didn’t come to a vote. Speir had offered it as an amendment to the staffing issue. Wise ruled it out of order on the grounds that it wasn’t germane.

The staff structure proposal the PSC approved Tuesday includes some minor tweaks to the status quo but nothing approaching an overhaul. It retains the adversary and advisory roles for staff in rate cases, but changes the name of the former to “public interest advocacy staff.”

The name change is intended to eliminate any perception that the staff opposes any and all utility proposals.

Wise suggested four amendments, three of which would have changed the PSC more substantively. Only one passed. It clarifies that commissioners are not supposed to be biased.

Bad timing cited

A key obstacle for both Wise’s proposals and for Speir’s private communications ban turned out to be Burgess.

He said he agreed with both Wise’s and Speir’s intent, but that the timing was bad and the process too speedy.

“We’ve got a $765 million fuel case coming, the consolidation of telecom, these still-skyrocketing fuel prices. This thing has become somewhat of a distraction. We’re spending time trying to figure out the structure in the middle of a fire,” he said.

The commission’s debate over Speir’s proposed “ex parte” rules was Tuesday’s liveliest.

Such rules restrict private communications between commissioners and those with business before the commission, without all parties being present.

Major disagreement

Speir said her proposal would “eliminate the appearance of conflicts of interest or bias.”

Wise said it would restrict information: “I started this whole process because I wanted access to more information, not less,” he said, adding that ex parte rules don’t work and “criminalize free speech.”

Commissioner Robert Baker said he had reservations about some details of Speir’s proposal but that “some ex parte rule is long overdue. The cases we handle are not insignificant.”

“When we consider a case that affects millions of Georgians, it’s important that we all get the same information at the same time.”

Find this article at: http://www.ajc.com/business/content/business/stories/0321psc.html

Got an extra $300 Million?

PSC bill signal of bigger issues in the pipeline

Editorial Story updated at 8:54 PM on Friday, March 17, 2006

If usurping the power of the Georgia Public Service Commission is such a good idea, why did the Republican contingent of a state Senate committee feel it had to engage in parliamentary hijinks to get a vote on a bill to do just that?

In its current form, the legislation in question – House Bill 1325 – would dictate how the PSC is to handle a request from Atlanta Gas Light for a $300 million pipeline project. The utility would fund the project with a fee of approximately $2.50 tacked on to its residential and small-business customers’ monthly bills for the next 30 years.

The bill was in front of the Senate Regulated Industries and Utilities Committee Wednesday.

According to a report on that meeting in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, committee Chairman Mitch Seabaugh, R-Sharpsburg, told a packed meeting room the committee would hear testimony, but wouldn’t vote on the measure. But when testimony concluded and the room began to empty, Seabaugh announced there would be a vote.

The bill passed out of the committee on an 8-0 tally. Two Democratic committee members who were on hand for testimony didn’t get back to cast a vote, while three Republican committee members who didn’t attend were somehow able to make it in time for the vote.

The Public Service Commission is an elected body that regulates the utility companies operating in the state. By attempting to use the legislative process to tell the commission how to do its job, the sponsors and supporters of House Bill 1325 are, in effect, working to subvert an arm of the state’s duly elected government.

That ought to be enough for the full Senate to reject the bill. If it’s not, then senators should remain mindful of the chicanery employed to get the proposal in front of them.Published in the Athens Banner-Herald on 031706

http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/031706/opinion_20060317021.shtml

Where was Stan?

PSC chairman a no-show
Overhaul: Few have anything to say at final public session to discuss proposed
changes in utility oversight panel’s staff.

Margaret Newkirk – AJC Staff
Friday, March 17, 2006

A final public hearing on the wisdom of changing the state Public Service Commission’s staff structure came and went with barely a whimper Thursday.

Even Commission Chairman Stan Wise, who requested the hearing, didn’t show up.

It was Wise who launched a staff review in January, after circulating a document suggesting that the PSC’s adversary staff — which represents the public in utility rate battles — had become too extreme. There was no immediate explanation of Wise’s absence; he was out of town earlier this week. His office did not return phone calls Thursday.

At the hearing, Common Cause, AARP and the Governor’s Office of Consumer Affairs all endorsed recommendations of a staff report suggesting only minor tweaks to the staff’s structure.

Utility and industry representatives at the meeting said nothing.

Commissioner Angela Speir, who wants to add restrictions on private conversations and gifts for PSC members to any reform, was mum, too.

The commission will take up staff reforms officially on Tuesday.

The ideas likely to be on the table include the modest changes proposed by the staff itself, a revised proposal by Wise, and Speir’s restrictions on private conversations and gifts.

Wise’s new proposal would keep the adversary staff intact but dispense with a second staff role — the advisory role — now used at the end of utility rate cases.

Advisory staff make final recommendations to the commission.

Wise has suggested that each commissioner get a personal adviser instead, and that the new positions be funded by an assessment on utilities.

Speir proposes that private conversations about commission business be banned beginning 90 days before a case begins, unless all parties in a case are invited to participate and the public is notified. Only Georgia and Louisiana don’t restrict those conversations at all, according to an informal Atlanta Journal-Constitution survey last month of utility regulators across the country.

Speir is also calling for a ban against most gifts to commissioners — including nonworking meals and tickets to sporting events — from those with an interest in commission business. Those gifts are legal now, but lobbyists are required to disclose them.

Some industry officials have said limits on conversation could chill their ability to inform commissioners about complex issues, but a number of consumer advocates welcomed the idea.

“Any effort to implement ex parte rules or gift rules would certainly be applauded,” Will Phillips, associate state director for advocacy of AARP, said at the hearing Thursday.

The Heat is On!

PSC chief softens plans for changes “Adversary staff” may stay, but more proposals ahead
By MARGARET NEWKIRK
The Atlanta Journal-ConstitutionPublished on: 03/15/06

State Public Service Commission Chairman Stan Wise is backing off his pointed scrutiny of the PSC staff that fights utility price hike requests on behalf of consumers.

The change comes after weeks of consumer outcry, a public hearing and a stay-the-course assessment from a staff committee. All were reacting to Wise’s publicly expressed notion that the so-called adversary staff was biased against the interests of electric and gas utilities and perhaps a factor in an inefficient system for setting rates.

Wise is still proposing some internal changes at the PSC, which will be discussed at a meeting Thursday morning. But they fall far short of options he outlined in a paper circulated two months ago, when he launched what he called his “efficiency review” of the PSC’s adversary staff.

Wise’s new ideas for change were circulated in a three-page document late last week. He did not return a call Tuesday seeking comment.

Furthermore, the reform process Wise unleashed is promising to serve up some embarrassment for the commission majority.

Commissioner Angela Speir announced this week that she planned to file a motion regulating the commissioners’ own behavior. She’s asking for strict limits on private conversations — so-called ex parte communications — between regulators and regulated utilities or other parties that have business before the commission.

Speir also is seeking a ban on gifts to commissioners from parties who do business before the PSC.

The fight over the commission’s in-house workings began shortly after Wise took over the chairmanship from Speir in January. That’s when Wise put out a paper suggesting that the PSC’s use of an adversary staff in contested utility battles had no support in state law and had led to “extreme litigation positions” characterized by anti-utility bias.

He launched a fast-tracked efficiency review focused solely on the role of that adversary staff and whether it should be continued, reformed or moved outside of the commission altogether.

The adversary role is assigned to members of the staff on a case-by-case basis. The adversary staff mounts a case on behalf of consumers and is usually opposed to some of what a utility requests.

A second group of staff members, also assigned on a case-by-case basis, weighs in with recommendations at the end of a rate fight. That “advisory staff” usually proposes a middle ground between what the utility has requested and what the adversary staff says the utility deserves.

Wise appointed a committee of staff members to study how other commissions work and whether the PSC’s current structure created either a bias against or a perception of bias against utilities. Its 400-page report recommended minor tweaks but essentially said the system worked well.

The review also included a public meeting last month, with utilities and public interest groups arguing for a much wider range of reforms.

Commissioners also received scores of calls and e-mails from constituents in defense of the adversary staff.

Wise’s new proposal calls for the adversary staff to remain in place but be renamed the “trial staff,” with its recommendations going straight to the commission. There would be no advisory staff as a second step.

The move would address one criticism of the current structure — that advisory staff members were inherently biased toward the arguments by their colleagues on the adversary staff.

The proposal also calls for each commissioner to get his or her own separate technical adviser, and calls for the commission’s regulated utilities to pay for that through a special assessment.

Wise’s proposal also would eliminate some of the utility-specific divisions of staff. There would no longer be a section of staff specifically devoted to studying electric issues, for instance, or a staff specifically devoted to studying natural gas.

Speir’s ideas for change were drawn from public comments, but they may face resistance. She often is on the losing end of the commission’s votes.

But she has the backing of several public interest groups that are concerned about the ex parte communications. Only Georgia and Louisiana don’t restrict those conversations at all, according to an informal Atlanta Journal-Constitution survey last month of utility regulators across the country.

Speir proposes that private conversations be banned beginning 90 days before a case begins at the commission, unless all parties in a case are invited to participate and the public is notified.

“I think it’s needed,” she said. “I think it’s important for the public to have confidence in us as public servants, and I think it’s important that the process be transparent.”

Among opponents to ex parte restrictions is the state’s largest and most powerful utility company.

“The PSC deals with a multitude of incredibly complex issues in our business,” said Georgia Power spokesman John Sell.

“And we think the commission can make better-informed decisions by maintaining an environment where representatives of the state’s regulated businesses can answer questions, provide information to, and receive input from the commissioners and commission staff.”

Speir is also calling on a ban against most gifts to commissioners — including non-working meals and tickets to sporting events — from those with an interest in commission business.

Those gifts are legal now, although lobbyists are required to disclose them.

Find this article at: http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories/0315psc.html

Wise backs down…sort of

PSC Chairman backs down from proposal

AP – ATLANTA

The chair of the state’s Public Service Commission is backing away from proposed changes that critics said could have stifled the voice of consumers in utility rate hike cases.

Stan Wise said Friday his plans to shake up the agency will leave the so-called adversary staff alone. But he supports a plan to dissolve an advisory committee and assign each commissioner an adviser.

“We need to acknowledge we need to be a better agency to respond to the needs of the people,” he said.

Shortly after becoming chairman in January, Wise raised concerns when he called for a staff review and circulated a policy paper arguing that the adversary staff had the appearance of anti-utility bias.

Wise argued the adversary staff, which typically opposes at least part of a utility’s rate increase request, leads to inefficiency, and that commissioners are not receiving the “professional, independent and unbiased” guidance they need.

But an internal review released earlier this month cautioned commissioners against making major changes to the current system. And critics contend that the adversary staff plays an invaluable role.

“They are the ones who have the technical expertise to do the analysis,” said Commissioner Bobby Baker. “And most of the time, they’re the only party with the institutional memory to know what to look for.”

The proposed changes come after a winter that sent natural gas prices soaring. Some homeowners were slapped with heating bills four times higher than last year’s fees.

Wise said his proposal to dissolve the advisory committee will help the commission run more efficiently.

But Baker said the array of experts on the advisory staff should be available to all the commissioners.

“Those kinds of cases are the most difficult, issue-packed that we deal with,” he said. “If you only limited each commissioner to having access to one, it could put us at a significant disadvantage.”

The proposal could reach a vote during the March 21 meeting and Wise said he expects a tough crowd.

“Many times when we propose significant changes, regardless of the benefits, they aren’t easily accepted,” Wise said.

http://www.accessnorthga.com/news/ap_newfullstory.asp?ID=72458

Court Records of Corruption

Wise Campaign Contributor’s Court Records

Read Keith Bissell’s court case here:
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=6th&navby=case&no=00a0131p

Birds of a Feather

“Wise’s Campaign Contributor, Keith Bissell, Chairman of Corruption?”

Judge says PSC’s Bissell must pay OOIDA $600,000 in legal costs
September 1998

In a recent ruling, a federal judge has ruled that Keith Bissell, former Chairman of the Tennessee Public Service Commission owes nearly $600,000 to OOIDA as partial payment for legal costs the association incurred in the lawsuit against the PSC. The payment was first ordered four yeas ago when OOIDA emerged the winner in a full scale legal battle over the state’s scandalous treatment of truckers.

After a lengthy trial in 1994, U.S. District Court Judge Robert Echols ruled that PSC officials illegally discriminated against truck drivers who refused to pay a political contribution to the PSC’s campaign warchest.

Evidence presented by OOIDA during the trial prompted the Federal Highway Administration to withhold federal funding and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to launch their own fact-finding mission. Shocked by the corruption found, the state legislature went on to completely abolish the PSC in 1995.

In 1997, the 6th U.S. District Court of Appeals called the injunction won by OOIDA “invalid” as the PSC no longer existed. The case was then returned to Echols for reconsideration. Echols, in a new ruling announced the first week in July, agreed with the 6th Circuit that the injunction was “pointless” but declared that OOIDA was still the “prevailing party” or winner in the case and deserved to be awarded the payment of reasonable attorney fees plus court costs.

Copyright © 2005 by OOIDAAll Rights Reserved1 NW OOIDA DriveGrain Valley, Missouri 640291-800-444-5791 or816-229-5791

Stan Wise Contributor Tied to Corruption in TN

Contibution to Stand Wise 05/25/05
Bissell , Keith 5516 Cherrywood Dr. Brentwood, TN 37027-4211
Attorney – Keith Bissell, Attorney (previously TN PSC Commissioner) $500

Monday, July 6, 1998
Judge rules against Bissell in PSC case
Last modified at 12:37 p.m.on Monday, July 6, 1998

The Associated Press
KNOXVILLE — The former head of a state agency shut down over corruption charges has been ordered to pay $600,000 in court costs and attorney fees to a group that sued him.

Keith Bissell, an Oak Ridger and once chairman of the Public Service Commission, must pay the money to a truckers’ association that sued eight years ago claiming the commission discriminated against drivers who didn’t contribute to Bissell’s campaign, U.S. District Judge Robert Echols ruled last week.

TheOwner-Operators Independent Drivers Association fits the legal definition of a winner or ”prevailing party” in the lawsuit and therefore is owed the money, Echols said.

The truckers had asked for $1.3 million, but Echols felt the amount was too high.

It is unclear whether taxpayers or Bissell must pay the judgment. At the original trial, the state paid for a lawyer for Bissell. The attorney general’s office is reviewing the ruling, spokeswoman Sharon Curtis Flair said.

The ruling is the latest twist in the lengthy battle over the commission, which was accused of corruption ranging from ticket-fixing for political contributors to persecution of those who didn’t give.

The commission regulated truck safety, telecommunications and some gas and water utilities until the Legislature shut it down in 1995.

Echols ruled in 1994 out-of-state independent truckers who refused to contribute to commissioners’ campaigns were discriminated against and in-state truckers who contributed were shown favoritism.

The Federal Highway Administration withheld federal funds because of the corruption charges.

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sent the 1994 ruling back to Echols, saying his injunction against the commission and Bissell was invalid since the agency had been abolished and Bissell no longer was a commissioner.

Copyright 1998 The Oak Ridger

Guess Who Supports Wise’s Campaign?

Example of Contributions to Stan Wise, Chairman Public Service Commission Source: Georgia Ethics Commission (filing 01/06) (note: AGL = Atlanta Gas Light)

1 Bill Barta 7170 Meodow Brook Court Cumming GA 3004
Consultant – Henderson Ridge Consulting, Inc. Primary $500.00

2 Bryan Batson 1162 Rising Moontrail Snellville GA 30078
External Affairs – AGL Resources Primary $250.00

3 Dwight Brown 3832 Wesley Chapel Rd. Marietta GA 30062
COO – Cobb Energy/Cobb EMC Primary $300.00

4 Robert James Budd 1979 Woodsdale Rd. Atlanta GA 30324
Food services – Atlanta Brewing Co. Primary $500.00

5 CARD of Georgia P.O. Box 725154 Atlanta GA 31139
Committee of Automobile Retail Deal – Primary $250.05

6 Scott Carter 2150 Michael Ct. Monroe GA 30655
Regulatory Affairs – AGL Resources Primary $200.00

7 CBV-Middle Georgia Security P.O. Box 409 Marietta GA 30061
Primary $500.00

8 Michael Degnan 130 Terrace Glen Circle Alpharetta GA 30004
Finance – Evertech Environmental Primary $500.00

9 George Devlin III 840 Garden Gate Path Roswell GA 30075
Executive – SCANA Energy Primary $250.00

10 Craig Dowdy 2612 Canopy Lane Marietta GA 30066
Patner – McKenna Long & Aldridge, LLP Primary $500.00

11 Mark Droege 4504 Monet Drive Roswell GA 30075
Treasurer – Bellsouth Primary $250.00

12 Matthew Feil 970 Paces Cir. Apopka FL 32703
Attorney – FDN Communications Primary $250.00

13 Bryan Fiveash 2835 Mornington Dr. Atlanta GA 30327
Principal – Fiveash-Stanley, Inc. Primary $250.00

14 R.E. Frieson 185 Milano Dr. Atlanta GA 30331
Executive – Bellsouth Telecommunications, Inc. Primary $500.00

15 Newton Galloway 615 Terrace St Griffin GA 30224
Attorney – Smith, Lyndall and Galloway Primary

16 Arthur Gigniliiat 9 Mulberry Bluff Drive Savannah GA 31406
Retired – Primary $300.00

17 Matt Gignilliat 121 Radick Dr. Savannah GA 31406
Director – Savannah Electric Primary $500.00

18 Guy Griswold 1812 Wynthrop Manor Marietta GA 30064
Principal – Griswold Lesser Public Affairs Primary $750.00

19 Jaimie Hardin 4606 Traywick Dr. Marietta GA 30062
Partner – Griswold Lesser Public Affairs Primary $750.00

20 John Harrison PO Box O Ellijay GA 30540
Executive – Ellijay Telephone Co. Primary $500.00

21 Ruth Hobbs 17883 Front Beach Rd. Panama City FL 32413-1926
Retired – Primary $500.00

22 Terry Hobbs 215 Piedmont Ave. Apt 1209 Atlanta GA 30308
Consultant – Hobbs & Associates Primary

23 Roger Hutch 5525 Hwy 52 East Ellijay GA 30536
Executive – Ellijay Telephone Co. Primary $500.00

24 Insider Advantage.Com 4401 Northside Parkway Suite 130 Atlanta GA 30327
Primary $500.00

25 Phil Jacobs 8221 Nesbit Ferry Rd. Atlanta GA 30350
Executive – Bellsouth Primary $250.00

26 Lil W. Lasseter 131 Fairview Ave. Decatur GA 30030
Executive – Cobb EMC Primary $150.00

27 Ted Lawrence 1503 Stonebrook Place Roswell GA 30075
Public Affairs – Bellsouth Primary $150.00

28 Terri Lyndall 1938 Huntington Hall Ct. Dunwoody GA 30338
Attorney – Smith, Lyndall, Galloway Primary

29 Kevin Madden Ten Peachtree Place Atlanta GA 30309
Distribution Operations – AGL Resources Primary $250.00

30 Gary Marsh 7615 Wolf Brook Drive Atlanta GA 30350-1185
Partner – McKenna, Long and Aldridge, LLP Primary $250.00

31 Peter Martin 1736 Patriots Way Kennesaw GA 30152
Regulatory and External Affairs – Bellsouth Primary $500.00

32 Fred McCallum 1912 Denton Walk Ct. Marietta GA 30062
Regulatory – Bellsouth Primary $250.00

33 Joseph Monroe 818 Weeping Willow Dr. Powder Springs GA 30127
Executive – Georgia Natural Gas Primary $250.00

34 Richard Moreland 4752 Walkabout Creek Court Acworth GA 30101
Executive – Alltel Primary $250.00

35 Brett Newsom 3760 Highcroft Circle Norcross GA 30092
Director – SCANA Energy Primary $250.00

36 Randall D. Quintrell 999 Peachtree Street Atlanta GA 30309
Attorney – Randall D. Quintrell, P.C. Primary $500.00

37 Robert Remar 1714 Meadowdale Ave. Atlanta GA 30306
Attorney – Rogers & Hardin LLP Primary $250.00

38 Gregg Richey 606 Eagle Creek Point Duluth GA 30097
Executive – Alltel Primary $250.00

39 Jimmy Skipper 1010 S. Lee Street Americus GA 31709-4150
Attorney – Gatewood, Skipper and Rambo, P.C. Primary $500.00

40 Tommy Smith P.O. Box 187 Leslie GA 31764
Executive – Citizens Telephone Co. Primary $500.00

41 Haydon Stanley 29 Woodland Trail Newnan GA 30263
Principal – Fiveash-Stanley, Inc. Primary $250.00

42 Textile Industry PAC 50 Hurt Plaza Suite 985 Atlanta GA 30303
Primary $0.00

43 Lindsay Thomas P.O. Box 4569 Atlanta GA 30302
Sr. VP Governmental Relations – AGL Resources Primary $250.00

44 Unlimited Properties PO Box O Ellijay GA 30540
Primary $500.00

45 VCP Consulting 21 Hillside Dr. Cartersville GA 30120
Primary $250.00

46 Melvin Williams 1876 Greystone Oaks Way Atlanta GA 30345
Executive – AGL Resources Primary $200.00

47 Pat Wingo 8015 Sweet Creek Rd. Duluth GA 30097
State VP, Govt Affairs – AT&T, Law & Govt Affairs Primary $150.00

Applauding Nukes

Georgia Power seeks nuke fee Utility wants to charge users for plant it may build
By MARGARET NEWKIRK
The Atlanta Journal-ConstitutionPublished on: 02/21/06

The push is on.

Georgia Power asked the state Public Service Commission on Monday for permission to bill its customers about $51 million in planning and licensing costs for a new nuclear plant in Georgia — even though the company says it still has not decided to build one.

The request comes as state lawmakers also are pressuring the PSC. Resolutions urging the commission’s support for a new nuke were filed in both the House and the Senate late last week.

And PSC chairman Stan Wise weighed in, too, issuing a statement Monday applauding Georgia Power’s request: “This measure will diversify Georgia’s energy mix by expanding nuclear generation at existing plants in our state. … We all are aware of natural gas price volatility and what it means to Georgians.”

Nuclear opponents appeared blindsided by the request.

Steve Smith, director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, said Georgia Power is asking its regulators to “develop amnesia” about the state’s nuclear history, including controversial cost overruns at Plant Vogtle in Waynesboro — where any new nuke also would go.

Plant Vogtle’s estimated $660 million price tag ballooned to nearly $9 billion by the late 1980s, when the two existing units were complete, according to the Energy Information Administration, a division of the U.S. Department of Energy.

Smith, whose public interest group argues for conservation and renewable energy, said Georgia Power’s proposal would transfer the risk of nuclear investment from stockholders to customers.
The company said its request should be seen as a way of keeping the nuclear option open in Georgia, and possibly stabilizing energy costs in the future.

“Not having nuclear as an option is a bigger risk to our ratepayers than having that option,” said spokesman John Sell, noting recent price spikes in coal and natural gas, the other major fuels for power plants.

Customer charge unclear

Georgia Power’s request asks that it be allowed to recoup its planning costs from customers, even if it doesn’t build a nuclear plant. The company predicts it is about nine years away from bringing a new plant online, if it in fact does so.

If the company does build a new nuke, customers will pay for the planning and other costs when it begins producing power. Georgia Power had no estimate of the total cost but said it would be less than the cost of the initial Vogtle unit.

Either way, it’s unclear how much extra customers would have to pay each month.

The $51 million is Georgia Power’s estimate of its own 47 percent share of planning costs for a new nuclear unit at Plant Vogtle. The state’s electric membership cooperatives are responsible for the rest. They, too, are pushing for a new nuke.

Georgia Power’s request is the latest in a series of steps the company has been taking over the last two years toward building a nuclear plant, while saying it’s not committed to actually doing so.

The latest move is a serious one, according to one energy expert, Paul Plath of Denver-based E3 Consulting, which tracks the energy industry.

Race to build first

The federal energy bill signed by President Bush last year gave strong enticements to any company that not only builds a new nuke, but also builds it first, he said. It has been almost 30 years since the Three Mile Island nuclear plant accident in Pennsylvania and a new nuclear power plant was licensed in the United States.

Plath said PSC approval of the proposed order would put Georgia Power and its parent company, Southern Co., “at the forefront” of a handful of companies, including North Carolina’s Duke Power, Virginia’s Dominion and New Orleans-based Entergy, that are now moving forward with plans for new nukes.

Others may be further along in the federal process, he said, “but I don’t believe any other utility has gone to their PSC [regulatory board] for approval of starting costs.”

Only the first two nuclear plants in the country will be able to take full advantage of the energy bill enticements, which include a production tax credit once the nuke is online, up to $500 million in guaranteed protection against litigation and regulatory delays, and federal guarantees on loans.

Plath, who said he believes in nuclear energy expansion, said he had no real estimate of what a new nuclear unit would cost.

“It’s been 25 years since a new nuclear plant has been built in this country,” he said. “Nobody really knows what its going to cost to build a new one.”