LET THEM EAT CAKE!!!
Federal Department of Energy officials Jigar Shah and Jennifer Granholm, and Georgia Public Service Commissioners, held a ceremony on May 31, 2024, honoring the completion of Plant Vogtle’s new reactors with a cake shaped like the facility. This cake was highly offensive given the huge costs Georgia Power customers had paid, totaling $1,000 from bill riders before the first electron was delivered. This cake was even more offensive by the fact that neither Secretary Granholm, nor Loans Program Office Director Jigar Shah, nor any of the Georgia Public Service Commissioners, are Georgia Power customers. They did not pay $1000 throughout construction and are not now paying the rate increases that began May 1, 2024.
Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm made no mention of the $17 billion in cost overruns or the bill impacts that were about to hit those who are actually paying for Plant Vogtle. She instead expressed great pride and called for 200 more AP1000s, the Westinghouse reactor technology used to build Plant Vogtle.
The same month Secretary Granholm called for more, Georgia Power implemented the largest residential rate increase in state history for Plant Vogtle—a staggering 25%, after years of claiming the project would put ‘downward pressure on rates’.
At the first opportunity, voters turned out incumbent Georgia Public Service Commissioners involved in Plant Vogtle where they lost their seats by a decisive 63–27 margin.
Why was Plant Vogtle a financial disaster for the people of Georgia? Download the report to find out.
PLANT VOGTLE The True Cost of Nuclear Power in the United States
is a report prepared by a coalition of six Georgia nonprofit organizations to educate the ratepaying public and its elected officials about the history and experience of having Georgia Power build two reactors at Plant Vogtle.
This historic report documents the harm to Georgia ratepayers, the enrichment of Georgia Power and the failure of the Georgia Public Service Commission to protect its citizens from a powerful monopoly seeking to expand profits for shareholders.
We offer this as a warning to other states considering nuclear energy: do not believe nuclear energy proponents. Nuclear energy is never on time or on budget.
