It is not enough to add a little solar and wind on top of fossil and fission fuels –a German @ GA PSC 2013-06-18

A German national residing in Georgia asked for a serious effort on energy efficiency and conservation while switching to real renewable energy sources instead of fossil fuels and nuclear, at the Georgia Public Service Commission meeting Tuesday 18 June 2013.

She said increasing fires and floods were part of climate change, and we need to do something about it.

I always hear this phrase “growing energy demand” as if it’s something, some matter of fact. A growing economy means growing energy demand, and that means consequently growing waste, growing pollution, growing inequity, and so on. Any thinking person should notice that we need to find a way out. For anyone concerned about our future, business as usual is no longer acceptable. We need drastic changes in our energy supply. We need to use less.

Only a month earlier, Tom Fanning, CEO of Georgia Power’s parent company Southern Company reemphasized yet again that

To us, growing the economy is how we’re going to make profit.

Yet GA PSC could do something about that antique attitude, as this speaker pointed out:

I want to call your responsibility to regulate Georgia Power. Instead of rubber-stamping Georgia Power’s business as usual, you should make them commit to energy efficiency and support consumers in using less energy and thereby paying less.

After tapping the full potential of efficiency and conservation, the electricity that is still needed has to come from renewable resources. In Germany the energy transformation to sustainable sources is driven by distributed energy supply, and not by the monopolists. And this… has a lot of positive side effects, like more jobs, more autonomy to local communities, cleaner air and water, and local added value.

It is not enough to add a little solar and wind although that’s a start. But it’s not enough to add these things on top of the old extractive energy sources, as fossil and fission fuels.

Georgia has a long way to go, and it needs fundamental changes now. We can’t afford to wait another twenty years. And it is possible with a serious effort in the state to save up to 30% of our electricity within the next ten years. Twenty years to focus on developing clean solutions, and I mean clean solutions, and not nuclear.

And talking about nuclear, additionally to the twenty years plan to meet electricity demand, I would like to see from Georgia Power a one million year plan to safely store the radioactive waste that they are producing.

Here’s the video:


It is not enough to add a little solar and wind on top of fossil and fission fuels –a German
Georgia Power proposed closing of coal plants,
Administrative Session, GA Public Service Commission (GA PSC),
Doug Everrett (1: south Georgia), Tim Echols (2: east Georgia), Chairman Chuck Eaton (3: metro Atlanta), Stan Wise (5 north Georgia), Bubba McDonald (4: west Georgia),
Video by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), 244 Washington Street SW, Atlanta, GA, 30334-9052, 18 June 2013.

See also:

Oh, and Name, organization, and topic, please!

-jsq

One thought on “It is not enough to add a little solar and wind on top of fossil and fission fuels –a German @ GA PSC 2013-06-18”

  1. Pingback: Koch astroturf vs. solar jobs for Georgians | On the LAKE front

Comments are closed.