Obama Admin Spared Developers Millions in Loan Fees for Ga. Nukes

"The Obama administration finalized $6.5 billion worth of loan guarantees for the country's first U.S. reactors in decades without requiring developers to pay a "credit subsidy fee" -- money that protects taxpayers should the developers default, according to documents obtained by Greenwire.

The Energy Department zeroed out the fees in February when finalizing a first-of-its-kind $3.5 billion loan guarantee for a subsidiary of Southern Co. and an approximately $3 billion loan guarantee for Oglethorpe Power Corp. to build two reactors at the Alvin W. Vogtle nuclear plant, about 30 miles southwest of Augusta, Ga., according to two letters obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests.

DOE Loan Program Office Executive Director Peter Davidson sent a Feb. 11 letter to Earl Long, Southern subsidiary Georgia Power's assistant treasurer, and a separate letter the same day to Betsy Higgins, Oglethorpe's chief financial officer, which said the companies owed nothing in final credit subsidy fees tied to the execution of the Vogtle loan guarantees."

Hannah Northey reports for Greenwire April 21, 2014.