Is Washington EMC "winging it" on Plant Washington finances?

My electric co-op requires that owner members fill out a form to ask permission to attend part of the Washington EMC's (WEMC) monthly board meeting. Yes, owner members must fill out a form, have it reviewed, and be approved to attend the board meeting for the co-op we own. We are allowed in just long enough to raise whatever concerns we have specified in our request, and absolutely nothing more than that. Earlier today fellow co-op owners Larry Warthen  and Lyle Lansdell joined me and Mark Hackett, a Cobb EMC member and electric energy expert, for a presentation on pro forma estimates and how that pertains to Plant Washington (because we learned two weeks ago today that there never has been a pro forma estimate for the $2.1B Plant Washington.

Hackett did a good job of explaining in layman's terms what a pro forma estimate is, why it is important, and how it can be used for making good decisions. His Power Point not only explains why a pro forma estimate is critical for a project as large and expensive as Plant Washington, but he also included charts which demonstrate that there is, and will be, sufficient power available for my EMC without this plant.

Following the presentation only one board member, Billy Helton (who happens to be my district rep) asked a question about power generation and supply which showed he was really thinking through the information that was presented. When CEO Frank Askew asked if any of us had a question, I asked how much the co-op has budgeted for 2012 expenses for this $2.1+B project which has no pro forma estimate and just lost the funding from the largest co-op in the project. It seemed germane to the the discussion.

Askew said that my question wasn't specific to the form I had filled out 10 days ago. Since we were talking about budgeting and decisions relying on owner member dollars, I thought it was appropriate. Call me crazy. The money comes from the members so I feel like I have a vested interest in what they decide.

As the board left the building I approached Mike McCoy, the Chair. He said that WEMC doesn't even have a P4G budget for 2012 and in fact the four remaining co-ops will meet soon to discuss that. It made my head swim. We are almost one month into the year on a project which even by conservative figures is well over the announced $2.1B dollars to build, and still lacks a pro forma estimate.

Since the money decisions seem to be made by moving some numbers around on the back of an envelope, maybe they ought to consider this: when Plant Washington was announced four years ago, the customer base among the nine Power4Georgians co-op participants was 741,000. Four years later, with just four co-ops clinging to this project, the customer base is 167,000. That's a reduction of 77 percent in customer load. In a state where there is a surplus of readily available and affordable power.  

Hmmm. They have spent $1M of our money, have no budget for 2012, and the largest co-op just took their marbles and left based on the fact that Plant Washington isn't a sound financial project to continue pursuing.

So, although I am repeating a question that has been asked often in the last four years, "What does the WEMC Board and senior staff know about new coal plants that companies abandoning coal don't know?" Owner members deserve an answer. Now.

Longleaf fight brought tears to my eyes this morning

The longest active fight to stop a proposed coal plant came to a close today with a huge victory for the health of Georgia's citizens and our fragile natural resources. As soon as I realized what the call was about (we had no idea why we were asked to participate) my eyes welled with tears. Stopping this 1200MW proposed coal plant is a HUGE VICTORY for grassroots organizers across the country.

Bobby and Jane McClendon have taken lots of grief from their neighbors in Early County while opposing Longleaf, but they remained steadfast in their determination to stop a coal plant that would ruin the air they breathe, the water they drink, the fish swimming nearby, and the health of their friends and family (now and future generations). With the help of Colleen Kiernan at the Sierra Club, Erin Glynn with the Beyond Coal Campaign, Justine Thompson at GreenLaw, and a very long list of other organizations, individual citizens, attorneys, experts, and funders (remember, no one on the coal plant opposition side of the equation is billing $750+ per hour for legal work to stop these nightmare plants, philanthropic groups play a vital role in this work).

What does this mean for Plant Washington? It should serve as notice to the leaders of P4G, my local EMC Board, co-op members, AND the citizens who are fighting Plant Washington that in fact coal can be stopped in Georgia, despite the high priced lawyers and experts, and millions of shareholder dollars that are sunk into a project like this.

In one day's work this summer individuals shut down the phone system at LS Energy, the developer of Longleaf, with calls opposing the plant. That day was one of many spent during the past 11 years developing opposition to this pollution spewing plant. The grit and determination, skilled work and strategy, and long hours (and funding) have resulted in a victory that serves as a model for work against Plant Washington. I hope it is the last proposed coal plant that must be defeated in our country.

That sounds ambitious, but with Georgia being one of the few states still issuing new coal plant permits (never mind that our rivers are already full of mercury, we don't have enough water to power new plants, our air quality is declining, and the health of our state's citizens is impacted negatively in both the long term and short term pictures), we still have work to do.

With the news today about  Longleaf, I've rolled my sleeves up a little more. If you want to make a difference right now in the work that I am doing via FACE, please consider joining or making a contribution here. I love a good fight, and I am in this one to win.

Let's call the EPD what it really is

When I started learning about coal and the impact a coal plant would have on my community, someone with many years of experience in environmental work referred to the Environmental Protection Division as the "Environmental Permitting Division." As a novice, I thought that was pretty clever. It isn't now, unfortunately.

Almost two months ago in this blog I asked if ANY state agency/department in the state is protecting our health. There are no searchable news releases from the Georgia Department of Community Health concerning the impact of coal plants on the state's citizens (there are from other health organizations such as the American Lung Association). That begs the question of why, with high asthma rates among children, and  high cardiopulmonary disease rates in adults, DCH isn't at the front line on coal plant emissions in the state (both existing and proposed).

It is for sure we can't count on the Environmental "Protection" Division to protect our health by reducing pollutants spewing into the air or dumping into our waterways. Based on his support of adding new coal plants in the state, Gov. Deal isn't an advocate for our health. He allowed Allen Barnes to continue as Director of EPD after the state's largest fish kill occurred on his watch, followed by the EPD's overdue admission that it hadn't properly monitored the company responsible for the dumping that killed the fish. Another fish kill happened on Brier Creek, and another was reported in Commission Creek. And yet Deal was happy to allow the E"P"D leader to continue.

Allen Barnes has left his job at E"P"D and his replacement, Jud Turner, a lobbyist, opened the door for a warm welcome from environmentalists by saying just after his appointment was announced, that he will “adopt the policies of his predecessor in trying to keep economic development coming into the state while regulating its impact on the environment.”

My comments submitted to the E"P"D during the last air permit hearing on Plant Washington included this:

The EPD’s mission is:

protects and restores Georgia’s environment. We take the lead in ensuring clean air, water and land. With our partners, we pursue a sustainable environment that provides a foundation for a vibrant economy and healthy communities.

Your vision statement includes:

Georgia’s environment is healthy and sustainable. Natural resources are protected and managed to meet the needs of current and future generations.


Your principles include:

EPD serves the public by implementing state laws, rules, and policies to protect human health and the environment.

EPD applies and enforces environmental laws and standards in a consistent, fair, and timely manner. 

EPD is proactive and results-oriented, and helps develop new approaches to meet Georgia’s environmental challenges. 

Georgians have a right to and a responsibility for a healthy environment and the conservation of our natural resources. 

Georgia’s environment consists of diverse ecosystems of interrelated and interdependent components, including people, plants, animals and their habitats, as well as air, water, and land. 

Environmental stewardship, protection of human health, and economic vitality are compatible and mutually beneficial goals. 


Several concerned citizens joined me that night and said the E"P"D's job is to protect the natural resources in our state and the health of the people who live here. Economic vitality is mentioned in the last part of the department's vision, but it seems that the Department has narrowed its work to solely focus on the economic vitality of a few private companies and their shareholders.


While I was out of the office earlier this week (and mulling over any number of topics for an update to this blog) the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer was working on an editorial which was quickly picked up and circulated today by the very people (environmentalists) that Turner should be courting. Tom Crawford thought it was worth quoting in full (and I agree):

Jud Turner, Gov. Nathan Deal’s choice to head the Georgia Environmental Protection Division, will officially succeed EPD Director Allen Barnes in the new year. At Wednesday’s meeting of the state Natural Resources Board, Turner pledged, as reported by Morris News Service, to “adopt the policies of his predecessor in trying to keep economic development coming into the state while regulating its impact on the environment.”

The reaction of Georgia’s environmental community was almost certainly less than enthusiastic. And that skepticism might ultimately have less to do with Turner’s qualifications and values (or with those of his predecessor) than with the years-old conflict inherent in the agency he has been tapped to lead.

Barnes, who has led the EPD for slightly more than two years after succeeding Columbus native Carol Couch, acknowledged his conflicts with environmentalists but said part of the office’s responsibility is “to find that balance between a sustainable economy and a sustainable environment.” Turner echoed the observation: “There is a balance, as Allen has talked about, between economic sustainability and environmental sustainability.”

Of course such a balance is essential, in Georgia and everywhere else. So what’s the problem?

The problem is that while both economic development and environmental protection are critical, an agency officially titled the Environmental Protection Division should be primarily — perhaps exclusively — concerned with the latter.
The fact that Georgia’s top-ranking environmental watchdog is expected to concern himself/herself with economics, beyond the obvious responsibility of managing the department’s budget, goes to the chronic structural dysfunction of this part of state government. And that structural problem goes all the way back to the Carter administration. (That’s Jimmy Carter the governor, not Carter the later president.)

As part of a well-intentioned and efficiency-minded reorganization of state government, EPD was placed under the Department of Natural Resources, largely an economic development agency. As the decades have gone by, the tension between industrial and environmental interests — a familiar tension, but in Georgia one that plays out under the same bureaucratic roof — has made the merger look more and more like a shotgun wedding.

Environmental protectors should be protecting the environment … period. Surely there are ample forces in Georgia government to effect that balance to which the current and future EPD directors alluded. (Rest assured that in the Georgia General Assembly, business interests will be devoutly represented.)

Turner, like Barnes before him, would have a tough enough job just protecting Georgia’s precious and beautifully diverse environment. Having to worry about economic growth as well shouldn’t be part of his mission. But until Georgia leaders rethink the role and importance of environmental protection, EPD is destined to remain a second-tier bureaucracy.

In this time of budget crunching and nickel squeezing, will the Governor's next spending reduction suggestion be to simply roll the E"P"D into the state's Department of Economic Development and let them pursue and permit more companies to degrade and poison our environment? At the current pace, it would be in keeping with the state's safeguarding of our natural resources and our health.

    

New Leadership Signals Trouble Ahead for Plant Washington

My friends at SACE have summed up the release of the air permit for Plant Washington and the new direction expected to be chosen by newly elected Cobb EMC directors. Read their blog here.

The glass won't even be half full

The Georgia Water Coalition released a list of the state's 12 dirtiest or threatened rivers over the weekend, and my little community has the embarrassing distinction of being on it (at number 6) due to the foolish pursuit of a coal fired power plant that will suck 16 million gallons of water a day out of either the Oconee River (which is always critically low), or 15 wells in the recharge area of the Ogeechee River. Now home owners and farmers will have to compete with a coal plant for sufficient water for daily use.

Wondering what the Oconee looks like during a stage 4 drought? You could walk across it and not get your feet wet (photo from the state of Georgia, 2007). Since Plant Washington was announced in January 2008, the developers, Power4Georgians, have admitted that the river levels were too low to supply the plant during one summer and they would have relied entirely on the ground water supplies.

Let me make this clear: I know and love many good people in Atlanta and other metropolitan cities in Georgia who have serious water shortage issues. I know they need water for their families and communities just like the rural folks do.

The difference is, when the only source of water you have for your home or farm is a well, you treat it with incredible respect and conservation. Losing your water trumps everything else on your day's agenda. The solution isn't as easy as calling the city utility department and finding out that it is something simple like flushing the lines. Not having water demands immediate attention, and it can also mean considerable costs.

The people who depend on wells in the area around the proposed plant site understand better than anyone else that the threat to our wells is real. If we lose our water permanently due to the draw down (and a USGS  staffer with no skin in the game said it will happen sooner rather than later if the plant is built), everything we have invested in our homes and farms will be dried up, literally.

Even if there was a work around for the water that has sustained families here for hundred of years, P4G hasn't stood behind their promises in writing to make sure we have water if the plant impacts us. That confirms what we have known all along: our water supplies can't sustain the additional demand of 16 million gallons per day from the Oconee or local wells. Period.  


 

Why isn't the Department of Public Health speaking up for us?

As has been evidenced this year, citizens can't count on the state's Environmental Protection Division to lead in protecting our natural resources or health from pollution. In the past few days our state Attorney General has filed two briefs opposing rules which will significantly reduce toxins in the air we breath and the water we count on for so many things.

So, I wonder, why isn't the Department of Public Health (DPH) speaking out in favor of tighter pollution regulations and oversight? The DPH web site says,"DPH is the lead department entrusted by the people of the state of Georgia with the ultimate responsibility for the health of the communities and the entire population."

Even their own data reflect high rates of birth defects (mercury is a neurotoxin), cancer, heart and lung disease, and stroke, all of which can result from exposure to dirty air. Can they not figure out that coal plants are pumping TONS of hazardous pollutants into the air each year? Have they not noticed because the policy makers are in Atlanta at 2 Peachtree Street? They don't see the coal stacks from their back yard or wipe coal ash dust from their front porch rocking chairs each day.

Is there ANY state agency in Georgia that is really invested in protecting our health, our air, and our water, from the pollution and health effects that have been documented for decades?      

Just wondering.

Simple Math

Some people where I live wonder why the "doings" at Cobb EMC are so important to my fellow Washington EMC co-op members and Washington County tax payers. Cobb EMC is the lead partner in a group of EMCs who want to build a coal fired power plant about 8 miles from my house and 8 miles west of my family's timber farm.

Some of the Cobb co-op members have reviewed a just released audit which reveals stunning losses to the co-op. The Cobb EMC Owner's Association (CEOA) site includes the following on the costs of delays in liquidating Allied Utility Network and Allied Energy Services, the company which received a no-bid contract to build Plant Washington in my front yard. The CEO site includes this:

UPDATE: According to the 2011 Audit Report, Allied Utility Network ceased operations in October of last year and was dissolved – apparently with no disposition of assets. The company had never been profitable. Its only earnings had come from services provided within Cobb Energy or its affiliates. From 2002 to 2008, it had earned $20.8 million with operating expenses of $26.5 million. Cobb EMC, of course, subsidized the loss through service fees and other charges billed by Cobb Energy.The report also states that Alford’s Allied Energy Services was sold just one month ago on August 9th, for the whopping sum of $128,256. Quite a bargain for the company selected by Power4Georgians to develop two multi-billion-dollar coal plants. Perhaps that’s because it, like Allied Utility Network, had never been profitable — at least not for Cobb Energy. From its creation in 2004 through the end of 2007, it had spent $5 million to bring in revenues totaling only $704,000 — a loss of $4.3 million.Finally, we are able to see from the report that Rayder’s and the Board’s foot-dragging was costly, because subsidiaries held in the liquidating trust appear to have continued to operate at a loss, cancelling out all the gains from disposition of their assets and costing the co-op an additional three quarters of a million dollars:

2008-09 Report: Net loss of $662,367
2009-10 Report: Net gain of $1,964,044
2010-11 Report: Net loss of $2,061,824
Total: Net loss of $760,147

That's a lot of member dollars for the Board to lose while receiving thousands each year in compensation.
When Dwight Brown announced the creation of Cobb Energy in 1997,  the Atlanta Journal Constitution reported that Brown promised members, “We will not allow Cobb EMC to subsidize this new company,” he said. "We make this pledge that Cobb Electric Membership Corporation will not subsidize this other company, and this other company is created to work for you and to work for Cobb Electric Membership Corporation.”

That promise never held water. The AJC reported that the Cobb EMC Board also loaned Brown $3M, and then forgave the loan. Brown used that money to purchase shares of Cobb Energy (Brown and his wife received close to $2M in six years time until the agreement was legally shut down). Since Cobb Energy was announced, the non-profit co-op's expenses have soared and member dollars have been funneled into subsidiaries which have lost millions. The co-op has also spent an estimated $10M+ in legal costs since Cobb Energy was created. And much of that involves legal fights against the very members they are supposed to serve.

Over 3.5 years ago my EMC got in bed with Cobb EMC (and seven other co-ops, four of whom got out of the bed over 2 years). But now we are beginning to know just how deep the problems at Cobb run. All this dirty laundry should raise some serious questions for me and my fellow co-op members about our business partners.

We may be a little rural community and we really do know where folks are going without using their blinker.  But that doesn't make us stupid. Understanding the management and financial problems surrounding Cobb EMC, their indicted former CEO, and their Board, doesn't require higher math skills, a degree in accounting, or an MBA. A little old fashioned country figurin' makes it pretty clear: we don't do business like Cobb EMC, and we would be better off to get out of that bed now.      

A Civics Lesson

Last night people from across Georgia came together to comment on an air permit for Plant Washington, a proposed coal fired power plant which would be built near Sandersville, my rural home. The opponents of the plant outnumbered the pro-plant speakers, with only 2 of the 24 supporting the plant.

Two doctors ran through a long and scary list of illnesses and diseases resulting from exposure to a coal plant. Many of these include the horribly damaging impact of coal on pregnant women and their developing babies, as well as young children. Dr. Yolanda White said that because the plant toxins settle in the lower layer of the air, children are exposed to more toxins because of their height and because they breathe faster and more often (which makes sense but I had never thought about it).

At the close of what had been a vey polite two hours, someone from Milledgeville spoke. He began by praising everyone for doing their homework and about a project that will have permanent effects on our community's health and natural resources. He thought the community had set a real example of civic engagement.

Then he cautioned us that we are bargaining badly if local leaders continue to support the
plant. Because he lives near Plant Branch he spoke from experience as an educator and
concerned citizen.

I am proud of the way students, friends and neighbors, strangers, and national leaders in protecting rural communities and their natural resources from environmental injustices worked together to make case after case on the reasons the state should not issue the permit. I hope the elected officials, business leaders, and EMC board members took our comments to heart.
It takes courage to stand up and be among the few who are willing to put their community's health and safety above profits and power (literally and figuratively). I am stand with them.

Ira Gershwin said it best

In this week's Sandersville Progress as a letter to the editor

Three years ago Washington County leaders got “engaged” to Cobb EMC, a non-profit co-op entangled in a web of court cases costing co-op members. The shadow of those questionable deals and bad decisions now stretches all the way to Washington County.

Perhaps our local leaders didn’t know the true extent of Cobb EMC’s problems when they signed on for Plant Washington. But now, after repeated court battles which have cost the co-op millions of dollars and forced the members to take THEIR co-op to court at their own personal expense, the writing is on the wall in big bold letters.

Dwight Brown’s legal woes are not over. On July 7, Brown was re-indicted, and charged with additional crimes. In addition to the 31 original counts of racketeering, theft, and making false statements, Brown is now charged with four counts of intimidating witnesses. The District Attorney has not ruled out the possibility of more indictments against other people.

The legal problems aren’t over for the Cobb EMC Board of Directors either. Judge Schuster has ordered the Board of Directors to appear in his courtroom on August 12. The ‘Marietta Daily Journal,” a respected newspaper in Cobb County owned by Ben Tarbutton III’s father-in-law, recently described the Cobb EMC Board of Directors as “unindicted co-conspirators.”  

Did our local leaders know about the dirty dealings at Cobb EMC? We hope not.

We may have fallen in love with Cobb EMC and all the pretty promises it made to us together with Power4Georgians. Four other EMCs called off the engagement two years ago.

 It’s not too late to call off this wedding. Some people will be disappointed. Feelings might be hurt. If we stop now, no one has to buy a bride’s maid dress they don’t like and will never wear again. There won’t be a mess to clean up after the raucous reception. A lot of money can be saved.

This engagement has run its course. Ira Gershwin said it best, “Let’s call the whole thing off.”

Katherine Helms Cummings

FACE Executive Director

Washington EMC member 

This year is off to a bang.

I started the New Year with an incision healing under my left arm and another on my left breast after a lumpectomy. Attorneys representing the grassroots organization I now work for had told us to be prepared to spend all year in court with appeals. I wasn't dreading the new year, but I was afraid there wasn't a lot of fun stuff to look forward to doing.

Yesterday the leader of Cobb EMC, Dwight Brown, got himself served with 31 counts of racketeering, theft, and making false statements (lying). We had waited almost two years after his home and office were searched to see if anything would come out of it. Three other Cobb EMC board member homes were also searched in the spring of 2009, and the Cobb D.A. has said more indictments may be issued.

Guess who signed some of the legal documents for the power plant application? Since Plant Washington and Power4Georgians was unveiled almost three years, the pieces haven't quite fit together. I think a court trial might put the puzzle together for us and those who planned and participated in this scheme.

I end the week knowing that the three years of my life that I have invested in learning more about Plant Washington, educating the public about it, and finding partners across the state and country to support our work, have been well worth it.

Today those partners not only celebrated this huge win for us in our fight, but they cheered when I told them my path report came back with clear lymph nodes and margins.

I still have a lot of work to do this year. Last month I told my county commissioners the longest fight in our country against a proposed coal plant is happening in Early County, GA. I learn from those people every day. They have been in it for 10 years and have no intention of stopping now. I have three years behind me on Plant Washington.With some luck, hard work, and preventive healthcare, I have far more than seven good years in me.                       

Jac Capp at Georgia EPD offers no support for enforcing new air regulations

This morning Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB) included coverage of the new EPA Greenhouse Gas regulations which go into effect tomorrow (EPA regulations set for January 2, 2011.)  They included comments  from Air Division Director Jac Capp (the audio is not currently available and will be posted here if it is available later).

Capp said that meeting the new regulations will require additional costs for energy producers in Georgia. In the second sound bite he said that the EPD is not sufficiently funded to cover enforcement of the regulations. He never mentioned the positive impact that cleaner air will have on citizens' health or our natural resources.


At an EPD question and answer session over a year ago citizens asked how the EPD will monitor the coal ash waste and emissions from Plant Washington. At one point Capp said that they will stay on top of these issues, but he then said that because the EPD is underfunded and understaffed, that the public should call their offices if we see ash blowing in the area. It seems that the public is responsible for monitoring the toxin wastes and emissions in our neighborhoods.
Today's news coverage shows that the Air Protection Branch of the EPD is more concerned about protecting the profits of energy producers in Georgia rather than the health of citizens and our natural resources. We should tell our state legislators that the EPD must enforce these regulations, and the General Assembly should provide funding for the EPD to do this work.

Lastly,  for those plant supporters who keep saying, "the EPD will protect us," it is clear from Capp's statements that we can't count on that, and the pollution naysayers need to know this.

Katherine Helms Cummings
FACE Executive Director