Judge grants request to silence Kemper manager

A state court judge in Alabama has granted Southern Co.'s request to keep a project manager at the Kemper County coal plant from disclosing certain information about the facility.

Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge Elisabeth French granted the temporary restraining order Feb. 19.

Court filings do not indicate exactly what kind of information Southern Co. — the parent of south Mississippi's Mississippi Power Co. — is trying to prevent Brett J. Wingo from disclosing. Lawyers for the utility wrote in the petition that it would cause "substantial and irreparable injury" should it become public.

Southern Co. attorneys listed in court filings did not immediately return a message Thursday morning. Wingo was listed as representing himself. Contact information for him was not readily available Thursday. A Southern Co. spokesman declined an interview request. "We do not comment on personnel matters," Tom Leljedal said.

In her order granting the temporary restraining order, French set a hearing for the matter in Birmingham on Friday at 11 a.m. In its petition, Southern Co. attached a subpoena for Birmingham employment attorney John Saxon. Court filings indicate Wingo and Southern Co. have reached, but not executed, a settlement that would essentially prevent Wingo from disclosing what the company considers sensitive information about the Kemper plant. Saxon did not immediately respond to a message Thursday morning.

This is the second dose of turmoil for the $6 billion Kemper plant in two weeks. On Feb. 12, the Mississippi Supreme Court invalidated the rate increases Mississippi Power had used to pay for the plant's construction. The court ruled 5-4 that the Mississippi Public Service Commission did not follow proper procedure in granting the increases, which totaled nearly $300 million for 2013 and 2014. The court's ruling ordered that money refunded to Mississippi's 186,000 ratepayers.

Mississippi Power has said it will ask justices to reconsider that decision. The PSC will not begin any refund proceedings until the court has ruled on Mississippi Power's motion for rehearing.

The Kemper plant was originally supposed to start operation last May, but that has been pushed until next year. The original cost estimate Mississippi Power attached to the project several years ago was $2 billion. That has nearly tripled.

A settlement that limited to $2.4 billion the costs the utility could pass to ratepayers was invalidated by the state high court's decision, too. The majority ruled the settlement was unenforceable because it was not negotiated in an open meeting.