text: 2,590.57
  -53.12(-2.01%)
  23,555.92
  -401.97(-1.68%)
  -160.87(-2.24%)
  FILE - In this Nov. 13, 2012 file photo, workers vehicles fill the parking lots at Mississippi Power's Kemper County energy facility near DeKalb, Miss. Southern Co. earnings slumped 52 percent to $297 million in the second quarter due mainly to cost overruns at the coal-fired power plant under construction in Mississippi, the company reported Wednesday, July 31, 2013. The utility, based in Atlanta, reported earnings of $297 million, or 34 cents per share, from $623 million, or 71 cents per share, a year ago. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)
  ATLANTA (AP) -- The Southern Co. utility said Wednesday that it took a $297 million after-tax loss on a Mississippi power plant and abandoned its attempt to raise its budget for a nuclear plant in Georgia.
  It also shifts more financial risk to Southern Co. If spending is below an approved budget, Georgia regulators must legally assume the utility's spending is prudent — and, therefore, can be passed along to customers — unless proven otherwise. If Southern Co. exceeds the construction budget, the burden is on the company to show that the spending is justified.