Update 10:15 AM 5 October 2012: Ignore this version and go directly to the complete version.
Here is the first set of LAKE videos from the Meet the Candidates event at VSU Monday.
Introduction
Ron Borders, Introduction
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Author Archives: admin
Georgia Power’s Bowers pushes solar misinformation out the next fifty years
Paul Bowers, CEO of Georgia Power, doubled down on baseload nuclear, coal, and natural gas for the next fifty years. What’s he scared of?
Nick Coltrain wrote for OnlineAthens yesterday, Renewable push not in the cards for Ga. Power,
“Renewable (energy sources are) going to have a sliver,” Bowers said of fuels to create electricity. “Is it going to be 2 or 4 percent? That’s yet to be determined. Economics will drive that. But you always remember (that renewable energy is) an intermittent resource. It’s not one you can depend on 100 percent of the time.”
One time you can depend on it is hot summer days when everybody is
air conditioning, which is why
Austin Energy flipped in one year
from spouting such nonsense to deploying the most aggressive solar rooftop
rebate program in the country.
Austin Energy did the math and found those rebates would cost
about the same as a coal plant and would generate as much energy.
And when it is needed most, unlike the fossilized baseload grid,
which
left millions without power in the U.S. in June
and
hundreds of millions without power in India in July.
Bowers knows better than the nonsense he just spouted; as recently as November 2011 he told Georgia Trend,
Continue readingA billion people on solar: India
Two professors in India have done the math and found that
there’s plenty of available land in India (much of it on rooftops)
to power its billion people on solar energy alone.
And solar uses less water than nuclear or coal, also as we already knew for the U.S.
Today in The Hindu, India can meet energy needs sans N-power: Study,
According to their study, 4.1 per cent of the total uncultivable and
waste land area in India is enough to meet the projected annual demand of 3,400 terawatt-hour (TWh) by 2070 by solar energy alone (1 terawatt-hour per year equals 114 megawatts). The land area required will be further reduced to 3.1 per cent “if we bring the other potential renewable energy sources of India into picture”, they claim. They conclude that land availability is not a limiting constraint for the solar source as believed. According to their study, 4.1 per cent of the total uncultivable and waste land area in India is enough to meet the projected annual demand of 3,400 terawatt-hour (TWh) by 2070 by solar energy alone (1 terawatt-hour per year equals 114 megawatts). The land area required will be further reduced to 3.1 per cent “if we bring the other potential renewable energy sources of India into picture”, they claim. They conclude that land availability is not a limiting constraint for the solar source as believed.
The graph above shows land occupation needed to generate 1 gigawatt hour (1GWh) for each of coal, nuclear, hydroelectric, and solar. It is Figure 3 from the actual study, Is land really a constraint for the utilitzation of solar energy in India? by H. Mitavachan and J. Srinivasan, Current Science, Vol. 103, No. 2, pp. 163-168, 25 July 2012. More from the Hindu article, with graphs from the journal article:
Continue readingGA State attorney general tries to order private citizens not to oppose charter school amendment
Pushers of the charter school amendment must be desperate! Blurring the line between public officials and private citizens, state Attorney General Sam Olens wrote:
Local school boards do not have the legal authority to expend funds or other resources to advocate or oppose the ratification of a constitutional amendment by the voters. They may not do this directly or indirectly through associations to which they may belong….
As Jim Galloway wrote yesterday for the AJC in Sam Olens orders local school boards to stay out of charter school fight,
That means organizations like the Georgia School Boards Association, and perhaps, the Georgia School Superintendents Association, would be barred from speaking out against the proposed constitutional amendment.
And would that include organizations like PAGE, which produced the slides that a local middle school teacher used last week? What about that teacher, or Dr. Troy Davis, speaking a few weeks earlier, both on their own time?
Olens’ letter would apply to what the VDT said was in the VBOE and LCBOE joint resolution, at least the part about “The resolution explicitly states that the boards are asking voters to not support the Constitutional Amendment relative to state charter schools.”
But what does Olens mean, duly elected local school boards don’t have authority to express opinions about educational matters that would directly affect the people who elected them?
Why has Sam Olens suddenly gotten religion about this now, after he was silent last year when both VBOE and LCBOE adopted resolutions against the school “unification” referendum? Where was he when both boards of education hosted numerous forums opposing consolidation?
Will he next be telling the Valdosta City Council it can’t pass a resolution opposing a referendum? What exactly is the difference between that elected body and an elected school board as far as expressing such an opinion? And all of those resolutions were non-binding opinions.
Will Sam Olens next be telling the VDT it can’t editorialize against the charter school amendment?
How desperate are the pushers of the charter school amendment?
Continue readingLocal school systems jointly oppose charter school amendment
The Valdosta Board of Education, followed by the Lowndes County Board of Education, adopted a “Charter School Amendment Resolution” or a “Joint Resolution in Support of Quality Public Education”, depending on which ones minutes you go by. What does the resolution actually say?
Brittany D. McClure wrote for the VDT 11 September 2012, School boards to adopt resolution against charter school amendment.
“The Lowndes County and Valdosta City Boards of Education request that the Governor and State Legislators commit their support to adequately fund a first-class K-12 public education for students in Lowndes County and Valdosta City and across the state of Georgia,” the resolution states.
The resolution explicitly states that the boards are asking voters to not support the Constitutional Amendment relative to state charter schools.
Valdosta Board of Education did that at their 10 September 2012 meeting:
Continue readingVDT against charter school amendment
Even the VDT opposes the charter school amendment.
“Staff Writer” editorialized in the VDT 12 September 2012,
Will charter schools hurt public education?
So the state has consistently run down the public education system in Georgia over the course of the last decade by drastically cutting funding from programs, but are now complaining because student test scores and graduation rates have decreased.
The state solution? Allow for basically anyone who has a building to apply to run a “charter school” that would siphon money away from public education. Students would be able to choose where they would go, the parents or community officials would “run” the schools, and they would not have to meet the same standards as the current public schools, but taxpayers would still be forced to pay for them.
State officials are fond of saying that charter schools aren’t private schools, but when a school gets to pick and choose who they let in and who they don’t, that’s the definition of a private school. Only the elite whose parents want to run the schools will have a chance, and the poor and disenfranchised will have no choice, will not be accepted, and will suffer even more because the money will no longer be there to educate them.
Here’s an idea: Restore all those drastic austerity cuts from education to pre-Gov. “Sonny” Perdue levels, invest in the public education system which is already in place and doing quite well in spite of the state’s best efforts to shut it down, and restore the true value of a public education to the taxpayers of the state who are footing the bill and seeing fewer results.
I like that idea. Let’s vote No on the charter school amendment in November so we can get back to funding public education.
-jsq
South Georgia Library Board @ SGLB 2012-09-18
The library board heard citizens at length about a problem that was
apparently news to the board,
later considered the problem at length,
came up with an interim solution,
and formed a committee to examine it longterm.
Citizen concerns about rules against after hours library use
Concerns were raised about hours at the southside library at the monthly meeting of the South Georgia Library Board, 18 September 2012. Apparently rules have recently been changed for all library branches so that meetings can no longer be held after library hours. This is a problem for volunteer groups composed of working people. It was unclear what the latest version of the rules is. And the library board appeared unfamiliar with the hours of its own libraries. However, they did at the end of their meeting extensively consider the issue and apparently come to an interim solution with a path to a more general solution.
The rules change may have been due to
one incident at one branch
(not the southside branch)
for which the library board knew the sponsoring organization.
Questions were raised as to why a blanket rules change ensued.
One citizen pointed out that
taxpayers pay for the library buildings
so it’s not clear why they should be prevented from using them;
school buildings, too.
Another consideration was
elderly parent care, because it’s hard to get help for that
any time other than during the day.
Kay Harris wanted to be sure everyone who wanted to speak had spoken.
At least one citizen left
a written statement for the record,
which is always a good idea.
Then all the citizens who had spoken left the meeting,
apparently uninterested in anything else the library board was doing.
Interestingly,
a southside library support group
was in one of the regular report items.
Transparency
After the other citizens left, one of the library board (his nameplate
said Ray Devery)
asked whether Gretchen could stay.
Kay Harris without hesitation said yes and moved on to approval of the minutes.
Congratulations to Kay Harris on knowing the open meetings law
and sticking to it!
Speaking of the minutes, where are they so the taxpaying public can see them?
Regular business
Regular board business included circulation,
story time,
and
carpet restoration.
Lanier County “volunteered”
prison labor for library uses,
a
technology report (which included nothing about Internet access),
finances
revenues exceeded expenditures, yet the state cut more than $86,000,
payroll,
insurance webinar, and staff turnover.
There was a
community relations development report,
including festivals,
kindle use,
751 total facebook likes and 200,000 reach.
Regarding the planned Five Points library, Kay Harris clarified that staff are not supposed to help promote that “in any way, shape, or form.” During paid hours. After hours is different.
Board discussion of after hours library use
A library board that is
approving furlough days
is not in a good position to extend library hours.
Kay Harris proposed
suspending the rules for southside library
and revisiting the general rules at next month’s board meeting.
They considered
leaving after hours use decisions to local branches.
They wanted to know
how much after-hours use is there, anyway?
They discussed
fiduciary responsibility for library branches.
They discussed
lead time for approving new groups for after-hours use.
As near as I can tell, they decided to suspend the current
after-hours rules for southside library,
have Kay Harris appoint a committee to look into the situation,
and revisit the rules in general at their next meeting.
I can’t tell when they actually voted on any of that.
However, library director Kelly Lenz has
confirmed by telephone that that’s what they decided.
Here’s a video playlist:
South Georgia Library Board
southside library hours,
Monthly Meeting, South Georgia Library Board (SGLB),
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 18 September 2012.
Who’s who
Continue readingMeet the candidates tonight at VSU
Who’s running?
What are they for?
Come see tonight!
According to the Chamber’s facebook event:
Continue readingThe Valdosta-Lowndes County Chamber will host a Meet the Candidates event on Tues. Oct. 2 from 5-7 p.m. at the VSU Continuing Education Building located on 903 N. Patterson Street.
The event is an opportunity for the public to meet and hear from contested candidates running in the Nov. 6 general election. Attendees can speak one-on-one with candidates and candidates will be given three minutes to discuss his or her main initiatives.
“The election is quickly approaching and it is important to know who i s on the ballot and their stance on key issues. This event provides a way for the public to have personal interaction with the future decision-makers of our community,” said Chair of the Chamber’s Government Affairs Council, Ron Borders (Real Living Realty Advisors).
Attendees should look forward to meeting the following candidates:
Southern Company’s three-legged nuclear regulatory-capture stool
The
failed EDF nuke project at Calvert Cliffs in Maryland
makes it clearer why Southern Company (SO) was the first company
to get a nuclear permit in 30 years:
it was the only one big enough and monopolistic enough to pull it off.
Even then it’s such a
bet-the-farm risk
that even
“great, big company”
SO only dared
to deploy its
“great big huge scale“ equipment
with the regulatory capture triple-whammy
of
a stealth tax on Georgia Power bills,
PSC approval of cost overruns,
and
an $8.33 billion federal loan guarantee:
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a legislated
stealth tax in the form of
a rate hike on Georgia Power customers for
power they won’t get for years if ever.
If you’re a Georgia Power customer,
look on your bill for Nuclear Construct Cost Recovery Rider.
You’ll find it adds about 5% on top of your Current Service Subtotal.
Georgia is one of only a handful of states where such a
Construction Work in Progress (CWIP) charge is legal
thanks to our regulatory-captured legislature.
Doubling down on bad energy bets,
Southern Company is also
trying to use CWIP to build a coal plant in Mississippi.
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A captive Public Service Commission that
rubber-stamps costs for Plant Vogtle.
In case there was any doubt as to the PSC’s role in legitimizing those new nukes,
the very next day Fitch reaffirmed Southern Company’s bond ratings.
Translation: Georgia Power customers subsidize SO’s bonds and SO shareholders’ stock dividends. The PSC also approved cost overruns being passed on to Georgia Power customers, and those nukes are already over $400 or $900 million, depending on who you ask. What do you expect when 4 out of 5 Public Service Commissioners apparently took 70% of their campaign contributions from utilities they regulate or their employees or their law firms, and the fifth commissioner took about 20% from such sources? Hm, there’s an election going on right now!Southern Company’s regulated utility subsidiaries derive predictable cash flows from low-risk utility businesses, enjoy relatively favorable regulatory framework in their service territories, and exhibit limited commodity price risks due to the ability to recover fuel and purchased power through separate cost trackers.
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An
$8.33 billion federal loan guarantee.
Even that’s not good enough for SO and Georgia Power: SO is
asking for less down payment.
And what if even one of that three-legged regulatory capture stool’s legs went away? Continue reading
Hahira Honeybee breakfast @ Honeybee 2012-10-01
Monday morning was the first event of the 31st annual Hahira Honeybee festival: early morning food and conversation at the Honeybee breakfast.
This was underneath the water tower, at the community center on Randall Street, where the Senior Walk is going on this morning.
Continue reading