sustainable atlanta roundtable with georgia power

This morning I attended the Southface Sustainable Atlanta Roundtable. I try to go every month, but—as with any event that occurs less often than every week and more often than every year—it’s always easy to put it off till next time. But this morning was definitely the one not to miss, because the agenda consisted of a discussion with representatives from Georgia Power.

If you’re not from Georgia, that might sound innocuous. But among environmentalists in Atlanta, the name “Georgia Power” is generally used as a curse word. Georgia Power is the opposition in every initiative, the lobby against every policy, the enemy of environmentalism and sustainability. So bringing them to this particular table was more than just impressive, it was bound to be a good show.

I was not disappointed. Talking with people afterwards, I found that many activists were frustrated by the familiar answers that dance around the issues. But I was happy just to hear the questions asked, and even happier to watch the three Georgia Power representatives pass the microphone around uncomfortably, looking at each other sheepishly and hoping someone else would answer a particularly challenging question.

I was particularly interested by several questions dealing with Georgia Power’s “renewable energy” portfolio. I recently signed up for a renewable energy packet for our apartment (to the tune of an extra $4.10 per month, with nothing tangible to show for it). I know I could get much more sustainable and more truly renewable energy by buying from someone else (although I’m not sure if there are any competing energy companies that sell to my apartment building). But I didn’t research it that closely anyway, because I wanted to buy renewable energy from Georgia Power. I wanted to show them there was a market for green energy.

But, sadly, of course, the “renewable” energy they’re selling me isn’t really all that green. GP never actually said precisely how much of their “green” energy comes from what sources, but it was clear from the tone of their answers that the vast majority—if not all—of it comes from landfill gas. Landfill gas! Only in a throwaway society such as ours could that even qualify as renewable; in the real universe, there’s no such thing as trash, because everything is needed. In nature, everything is recycled. What level of consumerism have we reached when the gas from our trash heaps is considered “renewable”?

But the most interesting question came at the end. An enterprising young lady inquired about decoupling. I say enterprising, because despite having spent some time studying it, I still haven’t figured out exactly what that means. But the basic idea of decoupling is to split utility company’s profits from the amount of kilowatts they sell. Because as long as profits are inextricably and directly tied to the number of kilowatts, no utility company can ever be serious about conservation. If people using less energy means they make less profits, then there’s no chance at all that they’ll truly encourage customers to conserve. How can they? And why should they? All their motivations are forced the other way.

Surprisingly, this extremely volatile question of decoupling sparked no awkward glances among the GP representatives. One of them was happy to take the microphone. “I’ll answer your question the way it stands,” he said. “Does Georgia Power support decoupling?” He hardly even hesitated. “No,” he said. “We don’t.”

Of course he went on to explain why, in an explanation that made little sense to me. But I wasn’t listening that hard anyway. The truth is, I was busy being impressed. You have to give even “the enemy” credit when he tells the truth so honestly. At least then you know where you stand.