Georgia Power’s power
Lord Acton’s famous warning — “power tends to corrupt; and absolute power corrupts absolutely” — has become a too-frequent quotation. But it’s the one that naturally comes to mind when you consider the influence of Georgia Power in Georgia.
- DOUBLE THE FUN: Georgia Power has proposed two more nuclear plants at Plant Vogtle, near Augusta.
Just consider how easily the power company managed to ram through the Legislature Senate Bill 31, which allows the company to charge residential customers for two new nuclear power plants even before the plants are constructed.
The Margaret Newkirk and Aaron Gould Sheinin shed some light in Sunday’s AJC on how Georgia Power had its way with lawmakers:
The company supplemented its year-round statehouse lobbying team with five of the biggest, most connected names in Georgia. It pulled in its law firm, registered its chief executive as a lobbyist and spent thousands buying lawmakers meals and sports tickets, burnishing its reputation as the most polished lobbying outfit around.
It was a textbook example of how to get one’s way at the Capitol, said state Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver (D-Decatur), who opposed the bill. She meant it as a compliment.
“They’re comfortable with all of us,” she told fellow House members before Thursday’s vote. “They extend themselves to all of us.”
Even before the session started, the company had spent $14,000 wining and dining key lawmakers. You can bet the legalized bribery only increased during the legislative session. And those numbers don’t even account for lobbyists’ fees, PR campaigns and the indirect influence over other influential people that Georgia Power wielded to get the bill through the General Assembly in merely a month.
Fat chance that ordinary residential consumers and small businesses could muster even a tenth of that kind of influence. And, despite rationalizations, Georgia Power made it perfectly clear that the bill had nothing to do with fairness and everything to do with power by exempting from the pre-pay plan big businesses — the only interest bloc that could have slowed its passage.
The AJC article cites a rebellion over the bill by conservative bloggers ,who — to their credit — were appalled by the lack of principle being exhibited by Republican lawmakers. But that rebellion is likely to stop once the bill becomes law.
Peach Pundit’s Buzz Brockway suggested yesterday that conservative activists take a pragmatic approach by quickly burying the hatchet, and most commenters agreed heartily:
If we as individuals want to impact legislation, we must build relationships with our Legislators. We must as individuals build credibility with those around us. As we individually do those things our influence will grow and legislation will be impacted. Doing that will advance good public policy and strengthen our political process.
No matter how much bloggers gloss over it, however, the flareup exposes something of a wedge between conservative activists and the state’s elected Republicans. Only two of the Senate’s 34 Republicans voted against the bill, while Senate Democrats voted 14-6 against the bill.
What Brockway and others fail to understand (or to admit to themselves) is that a bald inconsistency on principles paired with a craven deference to raw power are the core values of modern Republican governance. The Georgia Power money grab was inconsistent with both liberal and conservative principles, yet the state’s entire Republican establishment supported it.
I’m not saying this means that Georgia will go Democratic anytime soon. But it is the sort of wedge issue that Democrats can exploit if they campaign effectively.
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