Press Mention Atlanta Journal-Constitution November 19, 2003
SACE Quoted
Red flags are raised on Green Power deal
In this mention
Georgia Power's proposed "Green Power" program faces criticism from environmentalists, including Steve Smith of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, who argue the utility is repackaging old renewable energy from a Waste Management landfill as new green power while charging premium rates. The dispute centers on whether the 1993-era methane facility meets state accreditation standards for clean energy, with SACE contending the company is not showing good faith in its green energy commitment.
The company is not showing good faith
Stephen A. Smith
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Full transcript
Red flags are raised
on Green Power deal
By MARGARET NEWKIRK
mnewkirk@ajc.com
After months of delay, Georgia Power Co. is all set to kick off a "Green Power" program for customers willing to pay extra for it. But there's a catch.
The company is ready to begin collecting a premium price — 12.5 cents per kilowatt instead of the normal rate of 7 cents — in exchange for putting a new source of environmentally friendly, renewable energy out on its lines.
The problem? The energy source isn't new. It has been available from other electricity providers for a decade — at no extra cost to ratepayers.
It also may not be all that clean, according to environmentalists who worked with Georgia Power to develop the program — and who are now livid with the state's dominant utility.
Those contentions are at the heart of a dispute before the state Public Service Commission today on whether to sign off on Georgia's inaugural green power contract. The two-year Georgia Power contract would be with a Waste Management landfill in Norcross
that has been pumping out methane-produced kilowatts since 1993.
While the public service commissioners so far were reserving judgment, the PSC staff and an environmental group that worked for two years on the deal say the company's proposal doesn't meet the standards for green power.
Sources of power
Georgia Power's green premium — among the highest in the nation — is intended to bring new sources of clean power into the market, said Steve Smith, director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.
It's not intended to allow Georgia Power to repackage old sources as green and charge a jacked-up rate for kilowatts because of it, he said.
"The company is not showing good faith," Smith said.
The Waste Management facility is too old, he said, to qualify for a key national accreditation certificate, a seal of approval for clean energy.
The facility's age may affect its ability to burn landfill gas as cleanly as Georgia's green power standards require, Smith said.
Both Waste Management and Georgia Power say the facility will have no problem meeting those limits.
Georgia Power says critics' concern over the age of the Waste Management operation is petty, and the utility intends to hold its new supplier to the green power program's most important standard — its strict pollution limits.
The company also said its green power allies are exaggerating Georgia Power's commitment to meeting accreditation standards.
"We said that 'if at all possible,' we would meet them," said Jonathan Kubler, director of price and rates for Georgia Power. "And it seems we will."