TODAY’S STUDY: THE DIRTIEST OF THE DIRTY ENERGY COMPANIES

The wonderful thing about freedom is it allows the free expression of opinions.

The problem: Everybody has an opinion and most of them stink.

While NewEnergyNews is a strong advocate for the free expression of opinions, it prefers sticking to facts. That’s why most days start off with a solid study filled with cold, cruel numbers.

Take the numbers on New Energy: Those who see only business-as-usual always find it hard to believe that the dirty Old Energies like coal and nuclear can be replaced. There just isn’t enough of it, is the general opinion of those wed to the old ways. And the sun doesn’t always shine and the wind doesn’t always blow.

Those are opinions. The facts are these: Serious studies show the world is ready to transition away from toxic spew. A recent International Panel on Climate Change study concluded the world will, by the middle of this century, be ready to rely on New Energy for 80 percent of its power.

Cost? A recent study from the United Nations Environment Program found it would only cost 2 percent of world GDP to build adequate New Energy and Energy Efficiency for a New Energy economy.

But, as the study highlighted below reports, the vested interests continue to dig in the earth for things to burn that generate spew and toxic waste. Is that an opinion? No. The recent events at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan leave little doubt about the dangers of the toxic waste produced from using nuclear energy to boil water. And a recent study from the New York Academies of Science verified all the claims in the report below about how dirty coal is.

Likewise, repeated studies from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy and studies from other academics show that this good earth’s sun, wind, deep heat and flowing waters are more than adequate to start moving into a dominant role in the nation’s power supply.

The only thing lacking is the political will to commit to the future. That’s an opinion. But the future is coming, ready or not. That’s a fact.

Leadership We Can Live Without; The Real Corporate Social Responsibility Report for Southern Company
Joseph Edwards and Todd Larsen, May 24, 2011 (Green America)

Executive Summary

Southern Company is one of the nation’s largest utilities, with 4.4 million customers in the American Southeast. Southern Company prides itself on its relatively low rates and its consistent payment of dividends to shareholders. But while some ratepayers and shareholders may appreciate these limited economic benefits, they come at a high price: the extraordinary pollution produced by Southern Company, which harms the communities in which it operates and fuels global warming. In addition, Southern Company creates enormous environmental and health risks through its increasing use of nuclear power and growing coal ash ponds.

The real price of Southern Company’s strategy include: asthma, heart disease, lung disease, air and water pollution, global warming, and the potential for catastrophic accidents. Clean Air Task Force data indicates that the cost of death and disease caused by Southern Company’s non-climate-change pollution alone is over $9 billion.1 While the electricity costs for Southern Company’s ratepayers may appear to be low, they are paying the price in health care costs…While Southern Company’s shareholders may be getting dividends today, they risk the future value of their shares if Southern Company’s policies continue.

Southern Company has some stiff competition for the title of Worst Utility, from coal-fired giant American Electric Power (AEP) to nuclear leader Exelon. The seven large utilities in Table 1...have all distinguished themselves through their air and water pollution, reliance on nuclear power, and/or anti-environmental lobbying. Each can act as a clear example of what is currently wrong with US electric generation in terms of human health, the environment, and catastrophic risks.

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Within this competitive race to the bottom, Southern Company stands out as a leader overall — a leader we can live without. A partial list of the company’s most irresponsible practices includes the following:

oo According to CARMA (Carbon Monitoring for Action), Southern Company is one of the top five utility emitters of carbon in the world…

oo Southern Company’s Scherer plant emits an astonishing 26 million tons of carbon dioxide every year, making it the biggest power plant emitter of CO2 in the country…

oo Three of Southern Company’s coal plants made Environmental Integrity Project’s top ten list of most polluting plants in the country for their emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), mercury, and CO2…

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oo Southern Company creates enormous demand for coal, which endangers the lives of miners and puts entire communities at risk from mountain top removal mining.

oo All those coal plants produce vast quantities of toxic waste. Southern Company currently has at least 22 plants that utilize “wet” storage facilities for coal combustion waste — including at least one site that the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found has polluted ground and surface waters…

oo Southern Company is taking the lead in building new nuclear power plants in the United States, and the nuclear plants it is planning to use have raised serious safety concerns from an expert at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission…

oo Southern Company is the leader among highly polluting utilities in spending millions of dollars every year on anti-environment lobbyists to maintain the status quo…

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For all of the above reasons, which are described in greater detail throughout this report, Southern Company has earned the title of the United States’ most irresponsible utility.

Southern Company has issued its own corporate social responsibility report…The information provided by Southern Company, of course, presents its responsibility efforts in a much more favorable light, but much of the language is aspirational and vague. Green America’s report acts as a counterbalance to the company’s own report, and presents the facts regarding Southern Company’s overwhelming environmental impacts, which directly and negatively impact people’s health and the environment every day.

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Introduction

The United States obtains approximately half of its electricity from coal.8 As a result of our reliance on coal, as well as our extensive use of fossil fuels overall, the US is the second largest carbon emitter in the world, following China, which only superseded the US in 2007.9 In addition to causing climate change, US coal-burning utilities are a major cause of health issues ranging from asthma to lung cancer to heart disease. A recent Harvard University study found that coal costs the US up to $500 billion per year in health, environmental, and economic impacts…Mercury from coal-fired power plants is a dangerous neurotoxin, and children are particularly vulnerable to its effects. Mercury also has a devastating impact on waterways and wildlife. As the effects of climate change mount, overall costs will only grow.

The only practical solution to addressing these enormous costs, and slowing the ensuing destruction that imperils future generations, is to phase out our use of coal in the US, while not trading coal for new and dangerous fuel sources. Within the US, some utilities are taking steps to reduce their reliance on coal and are increasing their use of renewables and energy efficiency measures. Others are digging in their heels and using lobbying to maintain a status quo of burning the most polluting fuels and/or encouraging a greater reliance on nuclear power, the dangers of which were most recently demonstrated in Fukushima, Japan.

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Southern Company is a company that both maintains its reliance on fossil fuels while gambling with new nuclear power plants. It continues to run several of the most polluting power plants in the country, including the number-one polluter: Plant Scherer…According to Clean Air Task Force data, pollution from these plants has a very real cost on human health: two states where Southern Company runs coal-fired power plants rank amongst the top fifteen for per capita deaths from power-plant pollution…At the same time, Southern Company is not only planning to continue running its existing, aging nuclear reactors, one of which unexpectedly shut itself down in April 2011 (Southern Company attributed the shutdown to a failed breaker), but is pursuing new reactors, using Westinghouse AP1000 technology, that employ a controversial new design that has been criticized by one of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s own experts (see p. 19).13 While forging ahead with these risky reactors and failing to close its polluting plants, Southern is simultaneously failing to develop wind capacity (which is abundantly available off the Georgia Coast) and is only making limited investment in solar energy. All the while, Southern Company spends exorbitant amounts of money on lobbying, with expenditures of over $13 million per year, to protect the status quo…

The failure to invest in clean technologies is evidenced by the fact that, as of 2009 (the most current data available), Southern Company generates electricity from the following sources: coal (57%), hydro (4%), natural gas (23%), nuclear (16%)…Southern Company’s heavy reliance on coal and natural gas explains its enormous climate-change and other pollution emissions.

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Conclusion…How Southern Company Could Demonstrate Real Leadership

Through its continued reliance on fossil fuels, its lobbying to maintain the status quo, and its plans to increase nuclear power, Southern Company is cementing its position as a climate-change and pollution laggard. However, with annual profits hitting nearly $2 billion in 2010, Southern Company could easily move towards true leadership in the industry by producing electricity from safer and cleaner sources.

Southern Company could take a leadership position in developing solar power, but currently the company only has one joint facility with Turner Renewable Energy in Cimarron, New Mexico, that provides 30 MW of electricity.41 While 30 MW is significant for a single solar facility, compared to Southern Company’s overall electric generating capacity of 43,000 MW, it is a drop in the bucket. As discussed previously, Southern Company has also successfully lobbied regulators to inhibit its customers from installing solar panels on their own homes or businesses.

Southern Company could also take a leadership role in developing offshore wind. A report, commissioned by Southern Company and produced by Georgia Tech found wind speeds of 16-17 miles per hour off the coast of Georgia, which are ideal for offshore wind development…Yet, Southern Company is moving slowly to develop this resource, and instead, is currently planning to conduct further research into offshore wind…

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Southern Company could also do more to increase energy efficiency in the regions it serves.

It has created programs for promoting new technologies such as smart meters, energy- efficient lighting, and energy-efficient construction. As the company notes on its website, it has even won a number of awards from ENERGY STAR. Southern Company also has a number of programs it is developing under its EarthCents moniker. These include programs that: promote energy-efficient home improvements, weatherization for low-income homes, solar water heating, direct load controls, and promoting smart-grid and smart-meter upgrades…

However, while it appears as though Southern Company has several energy-efficiency programs consumers can take advantage of, the states in which the company operates do not score well in energy efficiency based on measures produced by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE). The states in which Southern Company operates (Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida) all rank in the bottom 40 percent of states based on the Utility and Public Benefits Programs and Policy Score from the ACEEE. In this measure, Georgia was tied for 36th, Alabama and Mississippi were tied for 47th (last place in this measure), and Florida (a state where Southern Company has a smaller share of power generation) was tied for 30th…While this score also measures the impact of state government programs, it shows that energy-efficiency programs are not performing at a high level in the areas that Southern Company serves, and that Southern Company could do far more to increase energy efficiency in the states where it operates. Increasing energy efficiency could save ratepayers money as the company moves to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels and nuclear power while increasing its investment in renewable energy.

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Another measure of Southern Company’s weak record on the environment and steps to reduce its impacts, is the company’s low score on the Newsweek 2010 Green Rankings list, which ranks the Fortune 500 based on environmental performance. Southern Company ranks 494 out of 500 on the Green Rankings list. Out of the 32 utility companies included in the rankings, Southern Company ranked 30th in overall Green Rankings. It was also ranked 30th in the Environmental Impact Score (496th overall)…It is 32nd amongst utilities on the survey reputation score (486 overall).

Compare Southern Company to PG&E, the utility that gets the highest ranking on Newsweek’s Green Score list. Of the 500 companies ranked, PG&E is ranked 20th…While PG&E is far from a perfect company, it obtained its much higher ranking in part due to the fact that its power mix consists of only one percent coal and over 14 percent renewables.48 PG&E is also developing a 500 MW solar photovoltaic facility…as well as entering into an agreement with BrightSource for a 1,300 MW solar thermal facility.50 It is also developing a 246 MW wind facility.51 All of this dwarfs Southern Company’s efforts.

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At a time when Americans are increasingly interested in creating green jobs, there is rising concern about our nation falling behind China and Germany in the race to produce clean-energy technologies. As we are already feeling the impacts of climate change, Southern Company should be pursuing renewable energy and energy efficiency aggressively. However, Tom Fanning, Southern Company’s latest CEO, is making it clear that he is not breaking with tradition. At a recent address to the US Chamber of Commerce, Fanning paid lip service to renewables, while promoting “21st Century Coal” and nuclear, and opposing the EPA’s efforts to create cleaner air and curb climate change…

With its terrible record on pollution, health impacts, reliance on fossil fuels and nuclear power, it is time for Southern Company to give up its position as the nation’s most irresponsible utility and start down a path of true leadership.