TAKE A STAND AGAINST VOGTLE COST OVERRUNS! Monday, 12/4/23, 9:30AM Public Service Commission
Hi y'all,
A glimpse behind the scenes in Georgia. This isn't all of the story. One particularly wicked aspect is that the PSC staff which is supposed to advocate for the public and balance against Georgia Power's self-interest filed a stipulated agreement at the same time as Georgia Power filed for $7.56 billion in cost overruns for Vogtle 4. To add to the pain, several public interest groups also signed on to the stipulation. It is absolutely unprecedented for a stipulated agreement to be formed before any public hearings or presentation of evidence. Further, the 180-day hearing process was slashed to 90 days with a vote scheduled for December 19, effectively cutting the Georgia legislature out of the process. We were really blind-sided and unsure how to proceed. Nuclear Watch South and Georgia WAND's Petition to Hold in Abeyance is well timed as PSC elections wend through the courts. The Open Letter process has engaged an ever-widening circle and ads placed around the state is helping build awareness of all of it. PSC reform is sorely needed in Georgia!!!
Wish us well! May Vogtle be the last reactor ever built!
Cheers,
Glenn
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CALL FOR PUBLIC WITNESSES
VOGTLE 4 PRUDENCY HEARINGS ON $7.56 BILLION IN COST OVERRUNS
MONDAY, DECEMBER 4, 9:30AM
GEORGIA PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION
244 WASHINGTON STREET SW, ATLANTA
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Dear Faithful Vogtle Watchers,
Thank you so much to all who endorsed Nuclear Watch South and Georgia WAND's open letter to PSC Chair Jason Shaw and Georgia Power CEO Kim Greene. Please see the sample full-page ad attached.
The letter calls for postponing upcoming hearings (December 4-6) on $7.56 billion in cost overruns for still-unfinished Vogtle 4 until after PSC elections for two expired terms can be held. Just this past Friday, the 11th circuit ruled that Georgia could continue its previous practice of holding statewide elections for district seats. At this time, no elections have been scheduled. News reports say there could be a special election in March. The original plaintiffs who brought the Voting Rights Act of 1965 challenge to Georgia's practice may still file an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court.
Who knows when Vogtle will be finished? Who knows when there will be a PSC election? WHAT'S THE RUSH??
To ramp up the pressure, we placed full-page ads showcasing the Open Letter in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Valdosta Daily Times, Northeast Georgian (Cornelia), Marietta Daily Journal, Athens Banner-Herald and Waynesboro (Burke County) True Citizen. Additionally we have digital banner ads running on ajc.com, Athens Banner-Herald, Valdosta Daily Times and a dozen small town papers affiliated with Marietta Daily Journal which are continuing to garner sign-ons. Deep gratitude to special donors who helped make this strong effort possible! And it is not too late to sign the letter! SIGN HERE
Significantly, AJC's stringent fact-checking approval process accepted our assertion that Georgia Power made $17 billion in profit during Vogtle construction years!!
This is the key point to make in your testimony on Monday morning.
LET GEORGIA POWER PAY FOR ITS OWN CONSTRUCTION MISTAKES, DELAYS AND COST OVERRUNS!!
Other points you may want to make can be garnered from the Open Letter such as highlighting that two of the five commissioners' terms expired over one year ago. One of the commissioners, Johnson, is serving out an appointment and has not ever been elected. The other, Echols, is a shameless nuclear advocate gallivanting around the globe trying to get anyone else to join Georgia in building bloated, antiquated and incredibly expensive, dangerous and unneeded nuclear technology.
Vogtle 4 is having to replace a reactor coolant pump and is far from finished. This most recent of delays was announced shortly after Georgia Power filed its rate request which launched this hearing process. The same problem happened in China and it took a year to replace the pump. WHAT'S THE RUSH?
You are a very savvy group and you can name any of the gross errors that were made during 14 years of the Vogtle construction fiasco. You may find inspiration at nonukesyall.org Scroll down. There's a whole lot there!!! You may wish to sing a couple of verses of Georgia Power Choo Choo :)
You may testify that green, renewable technology is mature and cheap and we never need to use poison power again!! Google Mark Z. Jacobson with Stanford University and study up on NO MIRACLES NEEDED. Let it be known!
We are putting out this call for public witnesses on Monday because we have not yet heard from the PSC on Nuclear Watch South and Georgia WAND's formal Petition to Hold in Abeyance filed in October. Chairman Shaw did respond to our Open Letter dated 11/14/23 prior to Thanksgiving in a zoom meeting with Georgia WAND's Kim Scott, PSC staff attorney Preston Thomas and me. Thomas re-presented his opposition to our Petition and Shaw informed us that the staff would formally docket its response to our Petition before the holidays. I asked whether he was deferring to staff's opinion and he said he was not so we do expect to hear a final decision from him. In the meeting, we presented Chairman Shaw, who has sole discretion to honor our petition, with a precedent from 2017, the year before he was first appointed. In 2017 an instant order by then-chairman Stan Wise radically changed the hearing calendar with one week's notice and AFTER four days of public hearings had gone down. It resulted in a unanimous vote for Vogtle construction to go forward despite the bankruptcy of the main contractor and multiple experts, including PSC staff, saying Vogtle should not be finished. Our Petition to Hold in Abeyance is far less drastic and would provide a remedy to an unfortunate situation instead of 2017's example which was an abomination to public process.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR WITNESS!! THIS MIGHT BE YOUR LAST CHANCE TO STAND UP AGAINST PLANT VOGTLE!!
See you Monday morning, December 4 at 9:30AM unless, of course, WE WIN!! IT COULD HAPPEN!
Keeping the faith!
Glenn
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Glenn Carroll
Coordinator
Nuclear Watch South
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