If Georgia Power stonewalls on cost overruns, will it lose
at least one Commissioner this time?
Long-time nuclear supporter Tim Echols suggested at
the hearings this morning
that cost overruns at nuclear Plant Vogtle should be capped like Southern Company
was forced to do for Kemper Coal by the Mississippi PSC.
Standard & Poor’s already
downgraded SO because of Kemper Coal
and two analysts have
downgraded SO for sticking to coal and nukes instead of doing more solar and wind.
If SO’s majority part Georgia Power loses the GA PSC, it could be curtains
for Plant Vogtle’s new nukes.
Ray Henry wrote for AP this morning, Southern Co. challenged on nuclear plant costs,
Southern Co. subsidiary Georgia Power has asked to raise the budget for its share of massive project by $737 million to roughly $6.85 billion.
Public Service Commission Tim Echols asked whether the firm has considered offering a deal like one it reached in Mississippi over a separate plant that also proved expensive to build. The company has absorbed $540 million in losses in Mississippi and could face more.
Remember, Tim Echols has for two years now been Continue reading