Former Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer, Southern Company
Fanning Sees Recovery in U.S. South Manufacturing
June 27 (Bloomberg) -- Thomas Fanning, chief executive officer at Southern Co., talks about the company's operations and ...
About Thomas Fanning
Thomas Fanning, former Chairman, President, and CEO of Southern Company, appeared on a joint episode of the SunCast and Energy Empire podcasts on April 1, 2026. Fanning discussed his current role leading the Alliance for Critical Infrastructure, where he focuses on preparing the country for cyber and physical attacks on critical systems. He described a "COTE plan" in which the private sector would lead the recovery of America's critical infrastructure during a crisis, with the government shifting from regulator to enabler. During the interview, Fanning argued for a national energy strategy, calling it a "national security imperative" to build power infrastructure. He also characterized organized energy markets such as PJM, New England, MISO, Texas, and California as "kind of a disaster," stating that "nobody's going to build long-term assets in those markets without changes." Fanning noted that in retirement he is also assisting former Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz with nuclear energy efforts.
Transcript (17 segments)
✨ AI-enhanced transcript with speaker attribution
I
Interviewer0:00
Utilities, they're boring. Grandma, buy the dividend. Thomas Fanning with Southern Company and affiliated with his beloved Georgia Tech, the Wreck as well. Can you get engineers? Is there an employment shortage of smart people to run utilities?
T
Thomas Fanning0:15
Oh no. In fact, in our region, the United States, we tend to be an employer of choice, so we have lots of demand for the jobs at Southern.
I
Interviewer0:23
Yeah, maybe the stock plan. Look at this chart, folks. I was not aware of this, full disclosure, I missed this. Utilities are boring. 13.9% dividend reinvested, that's from Bloomberg per year. And you said 30 years, it's an even bigger number. How much of that was a population boom in your Sun Belt, you know what I mean?
T
Thomas Fanning0:46
At the end of the day, our business is driven by organic growth. And so it's a population boom, it's a part of the United States that supports business and has had constructive regulation for a long time.
I
Interviewer0:56
What you have, your general counsel said, always answer short questions, right?
T
Thomas Fanning1:01
Yeah, he said short questions. You can go longer here.
I
Interviewer1:06
Okay, so you built the Sun Belt up, you built the population up. What's in now? What, 10 years out, can you get the same organic revenue growth?
T
Thomas Fanning1:12
Oh sure. Here's the issue right now. Southern Company is the only company in our industry committing 20 billion to what I'm calling a 21st-century energy portfolio. That is, as we say, all the arrows in the quiver: nuclear, coal, gas, renewables, and energy efficiency.
I
Interviewer1:34
Okay, you're one of the few people that's really talked about arrows in the quiver. You were an action CEO, CFO, you did the engineering side, you actually ran operations for the whole shop. I would suggest in a compartmentalized CEO world, you've seen a lot of the different things. What do most utilities get wrong? What's the thing, the skill set they need every day for the next 10 years, next 20 years?
T
Thomas Fanning2:01
Southern Company is renowned for our bench and our development. I've had 15 jobs in my 30 years, I've had eight different business units. So a lot of utilities don't have the breadth of experience that you're able to get at Southern Company. And I think you hit the nail on the head. I think in order to effectively kind of lead the utilities of the future, you've got to be able to see around corners a little bit. You've got to have vision and a little bit of courage to act on that vision. And I think our company demonstrates that. In order to go forward with nuclear today, in order to go forward with coal today and everything else, it takes a little vision and a little bit of courage.
I
Interviewer2:39
I was in Orlando not too long ago doing a speech and you know, you look out, it looks a little dry and there's a plant off in the distance. But at the same time, how much growth can your basic district take? I don't mean just Florida, but is the South just growth out, if you will?
T
Thomas Fanning2:56
Oh no, no, no. And in fact, what we typically see is the South has had one of the best economies for a long time. As invariably you will see recessions occur in the United States, the South is typically later to enter, the recessions are less severe, and we're typically quicker to exit. We're seeing that right now. In fact, if you look at our industrial sales, 2010 over 2009, up 7.7%, way over historic. And in the first quarter of '11 versus first quarter of '10, we were up 6.7%. So we're seeing a V-shaped recovery in manufacturing.
I
Interviewer3:33
You must have seen my script before you came out. Look at this chart, which is the Fanning chart, the nostalgia of a manufacturing past. And there it is, that's manufacturing population adjusted, and there's the great rollover. We know. How do you link in to spur that industrial, whether it's an auto plant or whatever, how do you spur those manufacturing jobs?
T
Thomas Fanning3:55
So you know, Tom, I gave a speech at the United States Chamber of Commerce recently where I talked about the linkage between a sensible national energy policy and the creation of jobs in a manufacturing economy. What we've got to do is keep as a primary policy focus reliability high and prices low. And that's one of the challenges we're facing today when you see all of the regulatory challenges in front of us.
I
Interviewer4:19
Well, I want to get one last question here, and this is absolutely critical. Do you believe in a manufacturing multiplier? Everybody says service sector, service sector. I don't know if Disney World's service sector, manufacturing, but for Southern Company, is it really about those manufacturing jobs being more productive for America, or do you really not care what the quality of the job is?
T
Thomas Fanning4:37
Oh, we absolutely care. And in fact, I'll just give you our own example. So this nuclear plant we're building at Plant Vogtle 3 and 4, at its peak we'll have 3,500 people on site employed, but the multiplier effect of that job is about 35,000 people. And I can show you 10 economic development projects right now in the Southeast that are a thousand jobs or more. And so we're starting to see that recovery.
I
Interviewer5:02
Good, too short. Thank you so much, Tom Fanning with Southern Company.