The latest brouhaha in the saga between activist environmentalists and The Southern Company is under way. It probably never ceased.

This debate has to do with a report from The Southern Company, pappy of Georgia Power. In a nutshell, The Southern Company says its future is in nuclear power plants and not governmental restrictions on carbon dioxide emissions from existing plants.

The environmentalists claim The Southern Company is intentionally ignoring a problem. They bolster their argument with the position that the power behemoth gets away with their arrogance (our words, not theirs) as a result of one of the most powerful and expensive lobbying efforts in Georgia.

We have never been a regular advocate of the "extreme" environmentalist positions. In fairness, regardless of the issue at hand, they have a point.

SIDEBAR: Every reasonable person is in favor of clean air, water, soil and responsible stewardship of the environment. Some environmentalists resort to scare tactics, propaganda and appeals to emotion without the support of credible scientific evidence. As a result of crying "wolf" too often, they cast unfair doubts on more rational and responsible environmentalists.

Back to the point...the environmentalists have one here. The Southern Company and its affiliate, Georgia Power, are recognized as one of the most powerful lobbying influences in Georgia. To prove this point the Atlanta Metro Chamber of Commerce credited their lobbyists for being a leading source in the drive to deny the people of Georgia a fair vote on their state flag.

This is further amplified by the research the Southern Party of Georgia has done on the participation of Georgia Power in causes which have little or nothing to do with energy regulation, service to their vast customer base or improving the investments of their stockholders. To the contrary, they have spent huge sums of money on political correctness which adversely affects both their shareholders and the rate payers of Georgia.

So on this point----Georgia Power's unbridled lobbying----a rare combination of the environmentalist and the heritage communities of Georgia having solid agreement.

While trying to be fair in our assessment, it needs to be said that there was a time when Georgia Power and The Southern Company were good citizens of Georgia and they honored and promoted the culture and heritage of Georgia and the South. I can remember the days when I served on the Georgia State Chamber Board of Directors with Harley Branch, the leader of both those companies.

He was a true Georgia patriot who saw to it his business interests represented real service to the customer base while participating actively in the perpetuation of Georgia history, heritage and culture. I don't believe Harley would have ever allowed his company to become involved in social engineering based in political correctness or any non-business related issue that would divide the people of the state. Where oh where is the Harley Branch leadership today? The environmentalists could ask the same question.

So you will know I'm not what you might term "anti-power business," fairness requires that I reveal during my absence from Georgia in Virginia for several years, I served on the Virginia Power Consumer Board of Directors. We would have never considered getting involved in partisan or PC-promoted activities. We also tightly monitored the activities of the corporate lobbyists in the General Assembly.

Whatever your thoughts about the global warming issues, or nuclear power plants, there is one conclusion on which we may all find some common ground:

Georgia Power and The Southern Company have no business spending rate payers' money on foolish and expensive lobbying for social, cultural and anti-heritage related issues in Georgia.