'Mad Money' Spotlight: Southern Company

Carbon companies -- including coal stocks, steel makers and utilities -- should be on investors' watch list. Or so said Jim Cramer during Thursday night's "Mad Money" broadcast.

President Barack Obama is targeting these groups in an effort to curb global warming, and even strong growth in China cannot stem the effects of cap and trade on these industries, Jim Cramer said.

Case in point: Southern Company(SO Quote), which Cramer said he would sell on the basis of the fact that the company is so significantly coal-based.

Earlier today the Energy Department said Southern Company is on the short list for $18.5 billion in government loan guarantees for building the first new nuclear power plants.

Last month the company posted a 65% plunge in first-quarter profit, marred by a lawsuit settlement and disappointing sales to industrial customers.

Shares of Southern Company were up 2% to $27.93 in morning trading.