Jackson Jambalaya

Former Mississippi PS Commissioner Lennie Benz is a man that knows too much. The last person to know too muchof the the criminal machinations of the Southern Company was Jake Horton.

Ride AMTRAK's rails, Lennie.

Interesting article. Personally, would have left the Viet Nam section out. Wasn't needed and shifts focus from Kemper.

With global warming converting coal into gas is the only hope for the coal industry. Hope it is successful.

"Lost Cause" is an interesting description used by some old guys in Jackson that can't let go of a lost political argument. That ship sailed, and to keep pestering Southern Company to change course should be up to Southern company shareholders.....or somebody that has some political or financial gain to be had if they win the argument. What's in it for BFP?

I agree with the point of Williams’ article. Southern Company should absorb the cost of the Kemper boondoggle - not Mississippi rate payers. However, besides the confusing Vietnam analogy, the article is deficient for leaving out a very important point. Utility companies are paid based on a “reasonable” rate of return for their investment. Thus, there is a perverse incentive for them to spend more on construction projects, not less. The more a utility spends, the higher its “reasonable” rate of return will be.

Southern Company did not care how much this project would cost because, once the project along with its projected costs were approved by the Public Service Commission, Southern contends it had a right to expect a reasonable rate of return on that investment even if a traditional electrical generating plant would cost a lot less. Thus, Southern is now claiming the PSC should set rates based on that projected costs plus a significant portion of the cost overruns. Meanwhile, Mr. Williams thinks that at most, rates should be set based on the original projected costs and probably even less since it is so clear that a traditional natural gas plant would have cost a fraction of even the projected cost of this one.

Mr. Williams spoke to about 200 people at the Jackson Rotary Club Monday, May 5 on this very subject. He was once a remarkable business leader but his years are beginning to affect his delivery. He was hard to hear, rambling, often off topic, and he missed the essential point. That essential point is: how much of the cost of the Kemper plant will the PSC consider when it sets electrical rates for Southern Company’s Mississippi service area? The more of those costs it allows, the higher the rates for Southern Company’s Mississippi customers. The less it allows, the more Southern Company must itself absorb Kemper’s astronomical cost.

What if the technology works? Is the investment worth it then?

"What if the technology works? Is the investment worth it then?"

That is always a fantastic question. It is the key question investors, stockholders, or venture capitalists must ponder before VOLUNTARILY investing THEIR OWN MONEY.

Forcing electricity customers to gamble on this, or go without electricity, is just plain extortion.

Dear dumbass at 2:08,

The taxpayers do not (read that slowly if you need to) have any interest in subsidizing a high risk venture. None. Southern Company should assume the risk.

Here's a better question: What if the technology DOES NOT work?

Guess we'll just add the PSC commissioners to the watch list come election time. No biggie.

to answer 2:08pm, no, its not worth it to the ratepayers. They didn't choose to invest - they're just stuck paying astronomical rates for electricity because they had the bad luck to live where they live.

The technology already works just on a much smaller scale than what is being built by MS Power. I can't fault them for considering coal degasification with CO2 capture as feedstock for the power plant I just believe they made the same mistake as others before them in attempting to forecast long term commodity pricing as they felt the nat gas price deck would make the coal degasification project more viable while in actuality current gas pricing would make that the economical fuel for the foreseeable future. Probably the smart thing to do would have been design the plant to run on multiple fuel sources.

I agree 3:54. Southern Co. made a decision within their service area as to "what would be the friendliest jurisdiction legislatively to build a plant with questionable lignite technology"? That would be Mississippi. MS Power has plenty of in house lobbyists, You see their own army of in house lobbyists plus over 30+ for-hire lobbyists working the legislators at Tico's , Shapleys, Parlor Mkt, and the hunting and fishing hot spots. The real culprit is not MS Power. It is SOUTHERN CO SERVICES of Birmingham. They run the capital construction projects for all of Southern Co. This is way above MS Power's control. The legislative relationships were used for a bigger picture here and KBR is laughing all the way to China or India. Who's gonna hit the choke when you pull the cord to start the mower on Kemper?. Will be interesting MS Power. Wall St is already noticing.

It is not capitalism or free enterprise when any business of any kind and it's shareholders are guaranteed a profit for failed business plans.

All of you who claim to fans of capitalism ought to be incensed.