Southern CEO taking wait and see approach on climate change bill

By David Markiewicz

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Southern Co. CEO David Ratcliffe has two views of the potential impact of climate change legislation now making its way through the U.S. Senate after the House passed a version last summer.

"It could be awful," he said Monday during a speech at the Rotary Club of Atlanta.

Or, "It could be more reasonable."

For Ratcliffe, who runs the Atlanta-based parent of Georgia Power, "reasonable" means government granting more time to the electric power industry to develop and deploy the technologies necessary to reduce its carbon emissions.

That might mean requiring a 14 percent reduction in emissions by 2020 instead of the 17 or 20 percent reduction targeted in the House and Senate, respectively. Southern also has backed an 80 percent reduction by 2050.

Requiring anything more or sooner would cost a lot of money,  Ratcliffe said, because it would mean making greater use of  price-volatile natural gas.  It would also lead to a greater reliance on natural gas.

"I don't think that's good energy policy," he said.

Ratcliffe again advocated for cleaner coal technology as well as the development of renewable energy sources, particularly biomass, and nuclear power.

Southern gets 70 percent of its power from coal. Abandoning coal, he said, would be the "worst mistake" the nation could make.

Ratcliffe said Southern would produce more nuclear power with the completion of two new reactors under way at its Plant Vogtle facility near Augusta. The project will not increase nuclear's percentage of the company's power source mix because of increased demands for electricity in the future, he said.