Our new report documents Southern Company's nearly 60-year history on climate change, from early warnings in the 1960's through Southern's later funding of disinformation campaigns against climate science + action #UtilitiesKnew
energyandpolicy.org/reports/southe…
The president of Southern Services served as a technical reviewer for a 1964 White House report that highlighted concerns about the “possible effects” of “increased carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere by the year 2000” documentcloud.org/documents/3718…
Several Southern Company subsidiaries contributed to a 1971 Electric Research Council report that laid out a budget for the utility industry’s future research into the climatological effects of CO2 emissions from power plants s3.documentcloud.org/documents/3672…
In 1980, a subcontractor that worked with Southern Company on DOE-funded “clean coal” research warned of the “projected effects” of global warming in a report distributed to officials at Southern, Exxon, DOE, and the Electric Power Research Institute documentcloud.org/documents/2111…
The 1980 subcontractor’s report sent to Southern Company also said the evidence of increasing CO2 levels in the atmosphere was already “well-established” - and fossil fuel combustion was the “major man-made source” of CO2 emissions documentcloud.org/documents/2111…
In 1985, officials from Southern Company and the Electric Power Research Institute co-chaired an air pollution conference session where experts warned “effective control” of carbon emissions “must begin with planning and action in the near future” energyandpolicy.org/reports/southe…
In 1988, Southern Company’s VP of research and environmental affairs served on the editorial board of a TVA journal that published a paper by climate scientists, which described climate change as “our most serious environmental issue” energyandpolicy.org/reports/southe…
After 1988, Southern Company responded to growing calls for action to prevent catastrophic climate change by establishing itself as a driving force behind disinformation campaigns against climate science and action energyandpolicy.org/reports/southe…
Southern Company paid $62+ million to special interest groups and firms involved in campaigns against climate science and policies between 1993 and 2004, a review of annual reports Southern filed with SEC found energyandpolicy.org/reports/southe…
Southern Company and the Edison Electric Institute spearheaded a 1991 PR campaign that featured newspaper ads that asked, “Who told you the earth was warming… Chicken Little?” energyandpolicy.org/reports/southe…
Southern Company paid $20 million to the Edison Electric Institute from 1993-2004. Internal documents from 1996 connect EEI’s president Tom Kuhn to a set of “GRASSROOTS INSTRUCTIONS” that claimed "controversy continues" over man-made global warming
documentcloud.org/documents/2167…
In 1994 and 1995, Southern Company sponsored live satellite communications programs that targeted teachers and public officials in multiple states with coal industry talking points about electricity, climate change, and the environment energyandpolicy.org/reports/southe…
Today, Southern Company continues to generate most of its power from methane gas and coal. Southern Company utilities reported over $150 million in political influence spending in annual reports filed with FERC between 2015 and 2019 energyandpolicy.org/reports/southe…

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More from @EnergyandPolicy

Jun 6
@SWGas and front group, Nevadans for Economic Opportunity (plus its financial backers), are funding an effort to oust Democratic Assemblywoman Lesley Cohen, who introduced climate legislation last year to set NV up for a transition away from fossil gas. energyandpolicy.org/southwest-gas-…
@SWGas @Cohen4AD29 bill would have required @SWGas to show future spending on gas infrastructure would help NV meet @GovSisolak's climate goals. Southwest Gas retaliated, organizing a coalition that included the Retail Association of Nevada (RAN) to defeat the bill.
@SWGas @Cohen4AD29 @GovSisolak @SWGas is the largest funder of @JosephDalia campaign, Cohen's Democratic challenger in NV's primary. RAN is @JosephDalia's 2nd largest funder and financially backs the front group, Nevadans for Economic Opportunity, who paid for mailers smearing @Cohen4AD29 Image
Read 6 tweets
Dec 2, 2020
NEW: Utilities have committed to a flurry of net-zero carbon goals. But which are actually decarbonizing quickly and which are stalling? Are any on pace to meet President-elect Biden’s goal of zero-carbon electricity by 2035?

We dug in! Thread...
energyandpolicy.org/utilities-carb…
First, some background: Why all the net-zero goals? Utilities are responding to pressure from investors who see carbon as a risk, and low-cost clean energy as an opportunity. Many of the country’s biggest utilities have set goals of reducing their carbon pollution to “net-zero.”
Those goals are good, at least on the surface! Climate action depends on having clean electricity to power almost everything. Doing that means America’s electric utilities have to stop emitting carbon. The sooner, the better.
Read 20 tweets
Dec 10, 2019
NEW: In a first-of-its-kind report, we looked at how utilities use charitable giving as a means of gaining undue influence over regulatory policy and politics.

Thread with some key findings...🧵 1/11

energyandpolicy.org/strings-attach…
Drawing from tax forms and regulatory filings, we looked at the charitable giving of 10 large utilities in a five-year span from 2013 - 2017. Between them, those utilities gave away *over $1 billion* during that stretch. 2/11
This level of giving is *massive*. That $1 billion, from just 10 companies, is 13 times greater than the $78 million that the entire utility sector (including PACs and employees) contributed to federal elections in the '14, '16, and '18 cycles. 3/11
Read 11 tweets
Jun 26, 2019
🚨🚨🚨 NEW (and troubling) analysis: Even though clean energy is cheaper than ever, and the climate emergency is more urgent than ever, the nation's largest electric utilities are planning to *slow down* their decarbonization pace. Thread! energyandpolicy.org/utility-carbon… 1/8
All of the data we used in our analysis are from the utilities' own climate goals. While some utilities, like @NIPSCO, @xcelenergy and @ConsumersEnergy are planning to speed up their decarbonization, others like @DukeEnergy, @DomEnergyNews and @AEPnews are slowing down. 2/8
Why the split? @bradplumer correctly identifies the answer in this great @nytclimate story: GAS. Companies like Duke and Dominion want to build new fracked gas plants (and pipelines!). That would be a disaster for customers and for the climate. energyandpolicy.org/utility-carbon… 3/8
Read 10 tweets

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