In 1898, the Democratic party’s White Supremacy Campaign crushed the half
decade-long fusion of Populists and Republicans. With the Populists defeated,
and many finding their way back into a conservative Democratic party, no grassroots
movement stood in the way of the Southern Power Company’s bid for electrical
control. Despite a 1913 grant of statutory authority to police regulatory rates,
the state’s Corporation Commission cautiously avoided conflict, reluctant to use
its authoritative power. As a result, only the state’s court system could prevent the
company’s dictation of the state’s public energy policy.