On February 23, 2016, Alabama Environmental Council (AEC) held its fourth POWER-UP Energy Forum at
Birmingham-Southern College (BSC), co-hosted by the Southern Environmental Center and the BSC
Urban Environmental Studies Program. AEC is a forty-nine-year-old environmental education nonprofit
directed by Michael Churchman. Churchman said, “AEC’s energy goal is to promote interests, not
positions on environmental issues, as it supports ways to meet Alabamians’ current energy needs
without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.”
1:30-2:45 - Producing and consuming electricity in a carbon-constrained future
Moderator, Michael Churchman, AEC Executive Director
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Nick Sellers - Vice President, Regulatory & Corporate Affairs, Alabama Power
Michael Scalf - Senior Strategic Consultant, Stakeholder Relations, Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)
Cameron Smith - State Programs Director for the R Street Institute in Washington, D.C. & Alabama
Media Group columnist
Mike Kensler - Director, Auburn University Office of Sustainability
The first speaker was Nick Sellers, Vice President of Regulatory and Corporate Affairs at Alabama Power.
He described the theoretical, ideal energy as safe to touch and that has no negative impacts on our
world. That’s not possible now; his PowerPoint presentation shows many energy resources (renewables,
natural gas, nuclear, 21st-century coal, and energy efficiency) contributing to power that balances
Alabama Power’s four criteria: clean, safe, reliable, and affordable energy for all consumers.
Forty-five percent of Alabama Customers make less than $40,000 a year, so cost is important. The
company wants to be sure customers understand the costs of changes required by new regulations, like
the recently-stayed Clean Power Plan. The faster it happens the more costly it will be. However, Sellers
said that the halted implementation of that plan won’t stop the move toward a carbon constrained
world.
Energy storage will be important, but Alabama Power won’t allow some customers to subsidize others
for improvements like energy storage, energy efficiency, or self-generated solar. Their commitment to
service while improving emissions hasn’t changed, whether driven by regulation, laws or, preferably,
innovation. Alabama Power’s parent, Southern Company, is the only electricity provider having their
own research component, looking for ways to decrease environmental impact as much as possible while
still meeting customer needs.
Fifteen years ago, Alabama Power’s generation was 70%+ coal; now just 50% with natural gas important
in the short run. For Alabama Power, energy efficiency is not just your power bill, but improving
consumption of energy from all sources. Sellers pointed out that as change happens toward a carbon
constrained world, all need a seat at the table, including at the regulatory body, Alabama Public Service
Commission, but it isn’t clear what that will look like.
The next speaker was Michael Scalf, Senior Strategic Consultant, Stakeholder Relations at the Tennessee
Valley Authority (TVA). Scalf began his talk with an appreciation of Huntsville Utilities, distributor for
TVA, for their part in one of the first AEC Conservation Awards. TVA is an 83-year-old federally owned
organization, which receives no federal tax dollars and which generates power for 9 million people in
seven states, including the top third of Alabama. Its mandates are power production, economic
development and environmental stewardship.
Scalf wondered how rapidly and large scale we are moving away from the past 100% big central
generation of power and moving towards renewables. The driving planning document for TVA is their
Integrated Resource Plan, which they revisit as needed, with the help of stakeholders. They did one in
the 90’s, one again in 2011 with another in 2015, because things were changing so rapidly. The latest
plan calls for no baseload nuclear after finishing Watt’s Barr nuclear generator in June. TVA is phasing
out the 50 to 60-year-old coal plants and decreasing emissions and dealing with the coal ash.
He also spoke about Google’s plans to use land on a retired Alabama coal plant for a renewable-energypowered data center. TVA is responding to customers like Google and Walmart which are driving the
move toward more solar. They recently returned the licenses for Belafonte nuclear plants the company
had reserved. (Although they have scaled back their solar incentives, they still pay solar customers 100%
of the retail value of the power they generate.)
TVA is not troubled by their goal under the Clean Power Plan, which is 40 percent reduction in carbon,
since they are at 30 percent presently and electricity growth rate is trending flat. In addition to their
support of renewables, five years ago, TVA launched an energy efficiency program which has saved as
much electricity as a nuclear plant would have generated. Scalf’s closing words were, “The key to good
solutions is forming relationships with people” and “there is value in all being at the table”.
Cameron Smith then took the podium. Cameron is the State Programs Director for the R Street Institute
in Washington D.C., a pragmatic free market think tank, and an Alabama Media Group (AL.com)
columnist. He sees too much of “for and against” sentiments in discussing electricity and emissions.
Smith talked about how, during these types of conferences, you always have to remember that not
everyone is being represented; not every voice is present to share differing opinions and thoughts. So R
Street asks, “Who’s not in the room?”
Feelings, he stressed, are a terrible driver for policy, and he recommends not starting with feelings,
politics, things you read on the Internet, but with evidence-based ideas backed by science. However, he
rejects the term “established science”, not from a “denial” point of view, but because science is
constantly looking for better information. In his view, to claim “this is it” isn’t science, but dogmatism.
Smith gave his thoughts on a cleaner energy future. He made it clear that electricity and transportation
were some of our largest producers of carbon emissions. R Street contends that we need regulatory
stability for success and to protect the environment. The damages that are external to the current price
of carbon should be taxed rather than subjected to this work-around of more regulations. Taxing things
we want less of, like carbon emissions, with revenue-neutral “untaxing” of things we want more of, like
income, lets people make sensible employment decision while protecting the environment and
promoting innovation.
Alabama has made progress with carbon reduction; from 2010 to 2014, there has been a 12.8 percent
drop in carbon emissions. Also, Alabama is likely to comply with the Clean Power Plan constraints fairly
easily. For a rate-based target (pounds of CO2 per megawatt hour of electricity production), Alabama is
84% and 39% of the way to 2022 and 2030 targets just with existing clean energy commitments. For
mass-based targets (number of tons that can be emitted over a certain time period), Alabama has
exceeded the 2022 goal at 138% and is 52% of the way to meet the 2030 target.
Smith also warned that we should prepare for an energy market disruption. Radically different solutions
to transportation are being considered in California, for example, since so many resources are misused
by parking cars. The alternatives could be the on-demand Google car, or Uber. He thinks that, to make
more clean energy plans work, people need to invest in cleaner energy options, but keep the markets
interested, because “when markets get involved, the solutions last longer”.
The last speaker was Mike Kensler, the Director for the Auburn University Office of Sustainability.
Kensler defined sustainability as an ethic and a way of looking at the world as well as a set of tools and
processes based on four basic values that he says underline why we do what we do: 1) How am I
showing up today? 2) Am I bringing out the best in others? 3) How am I treating the world around me?
4) What am I leaving for those who come after me?
Auburn Office of Sustainability uses the following definition: “Meeting human needs now and in the
future in a fair, just, and equitable way while protecting and maintaining healthy ecosystems in
perpetuity.” Sustainability is important especially now since we are changing the chemistry of both our
air and water, which are fundamental life support systems for 7.5 billion people on our planet. In 1960
we only had 3 billion but could have 10 billion in the next 35 years, so limited resources are being
strained.
He spoke on energy and our desired future; about how nature, energy, society and wellbeing are all
interconnected, and showed how to remember this by visualizing a compass: NESW, shown in the slide
below. We need to live in accordance with the laws of nature since nature bats last. We can maintain a
prosperous economic system only in accordance with the environment, i.e., by living sustainably within
the physical limits of our planet.
The sustainability framework has been adopted by many businesses as a megatrend shifting the way in
which every business in every industry competes. Kensler suggested that solving major issues before us Climate change, Cyber security, Preparing for pandemics, Terrorism, Water scarcity, Aging populations,
Obsolete infrastructure, and Sustainable Energy – requires coming together across usual boundaries into
Megacommunities where business, government and civil society come together to solve common
problems in recognition that they can’t solve them alone.
Auburn has responded to the sustainability challenge by signing the American College and University
Presidents Climate Commitment and adopting goals for the campus. Their climate action plan involves
becoming carbon neutral by 2050, reducing campus energy intensity 20% by 2020 based on 2006
baseline, and adding increasing amounts of renewable energy. Kensler concluded that we need to be
willing to have unfamiliar conversations that engage new ways of thinking and consider different ways
of operating.