Court orders Georgia Power to pay whistleblower millions

ATLANTA - A federal court has ordered Georgia Power Company to pay four million to a whistleblower executive fired 12 years ago after raising questions about the company&#39;s management of nuclear power plants. <br> <br> The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta ordered the power company to pay former executive Marvin Hobby four million dollars in back pay. Georgia Power also will have to send a letter to every employee welcoming Hobby back to the company. <br> <br> Hobby was manager of Georgia Power&#39;s nuclear operations division when he began questioning the company&#39;s nuclear power policy in 1989. <br> <br> That year, Hobby wrote an internal memo suggesting Georgia Power wasn&#39;t following government policy as it turned over control of a nuclear plant in Waynesboro to Southern Nuclear Operating Company. <br> <br> Hobby also complained that he was asked to lie in testimony against a company employee involved in a separate whistleblower case. <br> <br> A few months after Hobby wrote the memo, he was dismissed. Hobby&#39;s attorney, Michael Kohn, said Georgia Power told Hobby the reason for his firing was downsizing. <br> <br> The company hasn&#39;t decided whether to appeal the ruling. Kohn said Hobby still wants to work for Georgia Power and plans to return when the company contacts him.