Southern Co. Gains Powerful Ally in Trump Attorney General Pick

Utility is biggest corporate donor to nominee Jeff Sessions
Attorney general has sway over environmental enforcement

Senator Jeff Sessions
Photographer: Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

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By Jennifer A Dlouhy

January 9, 2017 at 8:42 PM UTC

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Southern Co., one of the largest investor-owned electric utilities in the U.S., is set to have a powerful friend in the Justice Department if the Senate confirms Republican Senator Jeff Sessions to be attorney general.

The $47.8 billion electric utility has a long history with Sessions and is his single biggest corporate contributor, according to financial disclosures filed with the federal government and analyzed by the not-for-profit Center for Responsive Politics. Southern political action committees and employees have funneled $174,765 to Sessions’ political campaigns since the Alabama native entered the Senate in 1997.