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Dear <<First Name>>,

Last week something big happened in Georgia’s legislature: 23 Georgia senators, half the body, signed Senate Resolution 300 in a a rare bipartisan initiative to ask Georgia Public Service Commissioners to do their jobs and protect Georgia Power customers. Here is the headline for SR 300:

Public Service Commission; pursue actions to protect 2,700,000 electricity customers from unjustly paying for construction mistakes

Here is the resolution if you want to read it. It’s a quick read at only 3 pages and is very well written if I do say so myself (I helped with it).

A couple of things to know:

1 - Resolutions are non-binding. However, it would be great if the Senate Regulated Industries and Utilities Committee would approve the resolution and move it out of committee for a full Senate vote. That committee is chaired by Bill Cowsert, District 46. If you know Mr. Cowsert and have influence with him or are his constituent, please call him and ask him to move this resolution out of committee. (404) 463-1366

2- Completion of fuel load for Unit 4 is scheduled for Q3. If and when this happens, Georgia Power will seek cost recovery for $10.2 billion in cost overruns which they should not get. That’s what this resolution seeks to prevent.

Does this sound like work that should be rewarded? These incidents have occurred with Reactor Unit 3:

• reactor core flaws that collapsed upon pressure testing

• a huge reactor part slipping its anchoring on a train car

• 10,000 missing required construction documents

• hundreds of wiring mistakes

• cooling pool damage

• missing pipe struts

• inoperable valve needing replacement

The list could go on. Oh, I should?

Okay here is more. Check these punches thrown by energy professionals in reports filed at the commission about Plant Vogtle:

As Staff has stated in every Vogtle Construction Monitoring (VCM) proceeding beginning with the sixth VCM, unachievable, and therefore overly aggressive, schedules have had and continue to have serious negative unintended consequences as follows:

a. Difficult to status the Project cost and schedule

b. Inability for senior management to hold personnel accountable to the schedule

c. Promotes a culture of production over quality

d. Promotes a culture of poor inspecting or non-inspecting of work

e. Inability to sufficiently staff activities

f. High personnel turnover and absenteeism

g. Inability to accurately status the project

h. Large backlogs of work scopes

i. Large backlogs of work package closures

j. High first-time component testing failure rates (80%)

k. Extensive rework and retesting

https://psc.ga.gov/search/facts-document/?documentId=187821 pages 17-18

Want to see more hair-raising incompetence documented by construction monitors?

GIVEN SOUTHERN NUCLEAR COMPANY’S APPROACH TO PROJECT PLANNING AND THE SCHEDULE PERFORMANCE TO DATE, HOW WOULD YOU CHARACTERIZE THESE EFFORTS?

Simply stated, it is to develop an unachievable plan, fail relatively quickly, and repeat the process to develop a new (and still unachievable) plan. When first creating the unrealistic plan, this is usually accompanied with, and based upon, a “Productivity Improvement Plan” wherein improvements in productivity are assumed within both the newly established Schedule Baseline and in the going forward cost estimates, but performance then falls far short of these assumed improvements.

(June 5, 2020, Don Grace 22nd VCM filing page 22)

These failures shock the conscience, yet Georgia Power continues to earn incredible profits ($9 billion to date and going strong) on this poor performance. And they will seek full cost recovery on $10.2 billion in cost overruns too, no doubt. But don’t worry. We won’t let them.

But back to SR 300: if you know Senators who have not signed on, please let them know you care about this issue and want them to sign it. Here is a listing of the 23 who have signed.

Actually I see two I know whose names aren’t here. Off to the phones! Please join me in making calls to any that you know or who represents you. It’s easy - if you need help let just me know.

Oh poor Trisha Pridemore, she’s disappointed about the resolution. Our chair of the Ga PSC, who is not beloved, didn’t like finding out about the resolution from the media and didn’t like seeing Republicans signed on. "I'm disappointed to see some friends in the Legislature take some cheap political shots" at the PSC, she said.

That’s rich considering the shots she’s throwing our way in excess of $35 billion in costs for Plant Vogtle. Initial Ga Power bill estimates of $5/month have increased to $17.80/month, an incredibly high increase for one power plant. Since Plant Vogtle is still not done – not even close - that number will grow. There’s nothing cheap about that, Chair Pridemore, and you are not our friend.

Did I forget to mention that Ms.Pridemore is not a Ga Power customer? She lives in Cobb County and is a customer of Cobb EMC. She votes to raise our power bills, not hers. She wants you to know that’s she done a lot for you, though. Just because I haven’t seen anything doesn’t mean it’s not there. Actually, it’s not there.

I cannot wait to help an opponent defeat her next year. She is up for election in 2024. And I cannot wait for you to help me defeat my opponent this year.

Please look for several emails from me this week inviting you to a Zoom meeting where I am going to be making a campaign announcement next Tuesday March 28 at 6 pm. Please hold the date and register when you see emails go out this week.

When I visit my mother she always asks, What are you up to? What are you doing these days? And I tell her, Working to defeat people who serve on the Ga Public Service Commission but they don’t pay Georgia Power bills and don’t represent our interests. I know she doesn’t really get that, but she smiles anyway and says, That’s good.

This battle doesn’t sound fun, but it is. I am a worthy opponent to these jokers and I am going after them with everything I’ve got. Thanks for your support.