Mississippi Power Co. v. Mississippi Public Service Commission

The Supreme Court of Mississippi ruled that certain documents concerning “the long term natural gas price forecast and a forecast of the economic impact of pending federal legislation of greenhouse gas emissions” that Mississippi Power Co. (Mississippi Power) had filed in January 2009 with the Mississippi Public Service Commission (MPSC) should be disclosed. Mississippi Power had filed the documents in connection with a certificate of public convenience and necessity proceeding for a proposed power plant in Kemper County, Mississippi. Bigger Pie Forum, a media outlet covering (and opposed to) the project, had sought the documents pursuant to the Mississippi Public Records Act. Mississippi Power had marked the documents at issue as confidential, but it came to light that it had shared information responsive to the records request with the Wall Street Journal. Mississippi Power, however, continued to assert that since the information provided to the Wall Street Journal was from a December 2009 filing with MPSC, an earlier filing in January 2009 that contained similar information remained confidential. The Mississippi Supreme Court disagreed, stating that “Mississippi Power’s revelation of natural gas price forecasts and CO2 cost assumptions provided to the Commission in December 2009 militates against the argument that a similar forecast submitted in January 2009 would be entitled to confidential, secret status.”