Roy Copeland, President of
100 Black Men of Valdosta, Inc., explained today’s annual BBQ.
Here’s Part 1 of 2:
17th Annual 100 Black Men BBQ Part 1 of 2:
Video by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 4 August 2012.
Here’s some more video of the food, music, and community at the historic Lowndes County Courthouse today. You’ve still got about half an hour to get down there.
Here’s Part 2 of 2: Continue reading
ALEC has been pushing charter schools in Georgia, both through “our state legislators” sponsoring bills 
and through the National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA). We already got that private prison customer law HB 87 from ALEC; why would we want to approve an ALEC-sponsored law to let Atlanta siphon public school money to charter schools?
Salvatore Colleluori & Brian Powell wrote for MediaMatters 9 May 2012, How ALEC Is Quietly Influencing Education Reform In Georgia,
Georgia media have been silent as members of ALEC in Georgia’s legislature have successfully pushed through a version of ALEC’s Charter Schools Act, which would create a state-controlled board with the power to establish and fund charter schools over local opposition. A Media Matters analysis found that while Georgia media have frequently written about the bills, they have completely overlooked ALEC’s influence in the debate.
The article details how at least two of the statehouse sponsors of the relevant bills are ALEC members: Speaker Pro Tempore Jan Jones R 46 and Majority Whip Edward Lindsey R 54. Remember them, from the list of Georgia Legislators with ALEC Ties? You thought maybe that list was hypothetical and of little effect? Nope, these bills echo ALEC model charter school legislation, and these ALEC legislators actively pushed them into law. Plus look at the titles these two legislators have on their own legislative websites: Speaker Pro Tempore and Majority Whip. How close is that to our legislature being owned lock, stock, and barrel by ALEC?
But wait! There’s more…. Lee Fang wrote for Republic Report 14 May 2012, Charter School Lobby Group Quits ALEC Two Days After Being Identified By Republic Report,
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An AJC columnist asked the state Department of Education to check figures from Herb Garrett, Executive Director of the Georgia School Superintendents Association, that the proposed charter school law would have the state send much more money per student to charter schools than to public schools. The DoE confirmed it. We can’t afford to have public schools sucked dry for Atlanta-picked charter schools. And yes, this is another ALEC boondoggle.
Maureen Downey wrote for the AJC today, Under new law, state will send more funds per child to state charter schools than local systems
Given this funding disparity, though, it would make far more sense now for aspiring charter schools to seek state approval rather than local.
We need the state to fund public schools determined by local school boards; we don’t need the state rigging the system to divert public school funds to Atlanta-chosen charter schools.
The Democratic primary ballot had an opinion item about charter schools:
Democratic Party Question 1: Should the Georgia Constitution be amended to allow the state to override locally elected school boards’ decisions when it comes to the creation of charter schools in your county or city?
Democratic voters said by 56% they don’t want the charter school law.
However, that primary question was non-binding. The real charter school referendum will be on the November general election ballot. Here’s yet another reason to vote it down.
-jsq
Received yesterday on Sierra Club reports on big fossil fuel’s coordinated attack on clean energy. My comments below. -jsq
Although the Sierra Club was notified of the errors in their report, they have yet to address them. In addition, neither fact checking nor communication was attempted by the Sierra Club on claims made in this report.
In response to this error-filled report , here is a short statement and brief fact check.
http://www.alec.org/fact-setting-response-to-sierra-club-report/-Todd Wynn
And if you follow that link you find these things:
The American Legislative Exchange Council is not against renewable energy in any form….
ALEC believes that free markets in energy produce more options, more energy, lower prices and less economic disruptions. Also, ALEC believes that mandates to transform the energy sector and use renewable energy sources place the government in the unfair position of choosing winners and losers, keeping alive industries that are dependent on special interest lobbying. ALEC opposes mandates and therefore opposes infighting among fuel sources. ALEC also believes that government programs designed to encourage and advance energy technologies should not reduce energy choices or supply. They should not limit the production of electricity, for example, to only politically preferable technologies.
Translation: ALEC opposes renewable energy portfolio (REP) standards, which is one of the main points of the Sierra Club report. So ALEC’s rebuttal actually supports that point.
The rest of ALEC’s response is fiddling around the edges about Continue reading
CWIP rate hikes for power nobody’s getting yet: it’s not just for nukes for Georgia Power and Coal for Mississippi Power, it’s for Florida Power and Light’s Turkey Point nuke boondoggle! Let Ed Asner explain.
Here’s the video:
Ed Asner asks why not put that $35 billion to better use:
Why would anyone not want to work on renewable safe and much less expensive solar energy, in the sunshine state?!
Or in the Empire State of the South, for that matter. You know, Georgia, the state where FPL Continue reading
Southern Company (SO) is playing the CWIP game of charging customers for electricity they won’t for years with coal in Kemper, Mississippi, not just with nuclear at Plant Vogtle in Georgia. Maybe we should elect some new Georgia Public Service Commissioners so we won’t see the kind of behavior Mississippi’s PSC has turned to.
Cassandra Sweet wrote for Dow Jones and WSJ 25 July 2012, 2nd UPDATE: Southern Co. Second-Quarter Profit Up as Economy Improves,
The company is proceeding with construction of a $2.88 billion
advanced-coal plant in Mississippi, despite a decision last month by state regulators to deny a $55 million rate increase the company requested while a related court case is pending. The company’s Mississippi Power unit has filed an appeal of that decision with the state Supreme Court, and argues that without the rate increase it won’t be able to cover certain project expenses that could boost its customers’ future costs.
Mississippi’s Public Service Commission actually denied that rate increase, partly due to opposition from AARP, Sierr Club, and other concerned organizations and citizens. Imagine Georgia’s captive PSC doing that! Mississippi Power took it all the way to the MS Supreme Court, challenged by MS Sierra Club, and that Supreme Court also denied the rate increase. According to MS Sierra Club:
Continue readingSierra Club has dug up the money trail connecting fossil fuel companies funding with current legislative attempts to block renewable energy such as solar and wind. And there’s our old friend ALEC!
Sierra Club PR today, 
“Clean Energy Under Siege” Study Follows Money Trail Behind Campaign Against Renewable Energy
If well-funded opponents of clean energy are willing to commit resources to hurting their enemies at the federal level, it only follows that they would pursue their goals in state and local venues as well.
FIGURE 1 — TOP 10 OIL & GAS LOBBYING COMPANIES, 2011 Client/Parent Total ConocoPhillips $20,557,043 Royal Dutch Shell $14,790,000 Exxon Mobil $12,730,000 Chevron Corp. $9,510,000 State Renewable Portfolio Standards have long been regarded as a major driver for the addition of renewable energy generation. RPS’s have been established in some form in 30 states and generally require a utility to produce an increasing percentage of the electricity they sell from renewable sources. Wind energy has been a particular beneficiary of state RPS laws and has also helped lower the overall cost of electricity in many of those states.
Groups like the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) are a clear and present threat to state RPS laws. ALEC describes itself as a nonprofit group that “works to advance the fundamental principles of free-market enterprise, limited government, and federalism at the state level….”23 ALEC’s modus operandi is to provide state lawmakers with “model legislation” that will carry out the goals of its corporate members.
They have had significant success with several initiatives. One high-profile example is the “stand your ground” law — ALEC-authored legislation that was implemented nearly word-for-word across several states.
Let’s not forget Georgia’s HB 87 “anti-immigration” law, based on a model bill that ALEC-affiliated legislators proposed in at least 24 states. 
A law that actually creates new misdemeanors and felonies that feed the private prison industry, such as Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), which tried to build a private prison in Lowndes County, Georgia.
ALEC is also pushing a 
charter school law that the Georgia legislature passed that put a referendum on November’s ballot to authorize Atlanta overriding local school boards. Privatizing schools would do no more to improve education than privatizing prisons has done to improve incarceration. It’s all about fiddling laws for the profit of ALEC’s cronies.
Today, ALEC is in the
process of approving anti-RPS language to send to willing sponsors in state Houses across the nation.
Here’s the gist of the whole thing:
It is a testament to the success and rapid growth of clean-energy resources that they are now regarded as enough of a threat to draw fire from some of the largest, most powerful corporations on the planet.
Those would be the corporations that are making historic record profits by Continue reading
Southern Company (SO) is reducing its coal fuming and making the rest comply with EPA regulations, and is surprised to discover that won’t cost nearly as much or take nearly as long as it complained only 8 months ago. But remember SO isn’t even abandoning coal and is shifting to big-plant baseload natural gas and nuclear while avoiding distributed solar and wind power.
Cassandra Sweet wrote for Dow Jones and the WSJ 25 July 2012, 2nd UPDATE: Southern Co. Second-Quarter Profit Up as Economy Improves,
Southern Co. plans to shut down about 4,000 megawatts of older, coal-fired power plants to comply with stricter federal pollution rules.
How much coal generation is that? SO’s Plant Scherer near Juliette, Georgia, the largest power plant in the western hemisphere, burning 12 million tons of Wyoming coal every year, is the “nation’s No. 1 producer of carbon dioxide — the heat-trapping gas that is held chiefly responsible in models of global warming” (number two is SO’s Plant Bowen near Cartersville and number three is SO’s Plant Miller in Quinton, Alabama). Each of Plant Scherer’s four plants is rated at 880 megawatts, or 3520 MW total. But don’t get your hopes up: one of those four plants is owned by Florida Power and Light and JEA of Jacksonville, Florida. Why should Florida power companies want to shut down a plant that leaves the pollution in Georgia while exporting the power to Florida?
Continue reading
With
all counties reporting, only Bacon, Clinch, Coffee, and Irwin went for T-SPLOST: voters defeated it in Region 11 by 38,514 no votes (58%) to 28,040 Yes (42%) votes.
Update 2017-03-27: And Atkinson, with final tally 38,731 no votes (58%) to 28,217 Yes (42%). Plus it’s back as a regional proposal.
Lowndes County voted 2 to 1 against. That’s the result of hard work by a broad coalition across the political spectrum, including everybody from Gretchen Quarterman to Nolen Cox.
The only regions to vote Yes were 7-Central Savannah River, 8-River Valley, and 9-Heart of Georgia, all 2 of 3 of them state border regions. Even 12-Coastal rejected T-SPLOST 58% to 42%. Atlanta metro Region 3, the real excuse for the whole failed exercise, resoundingly defeated T-SPLOST by a whopping 63% to 37%.
Georgia Sierra Club and Atlanta Tea Party have already drawn up Plan B for metro Atlanta. 
How about a Plan B for the entire state, with passenger rail from Atlanta to Valdosta and Savannah, bus systems in every metro area, and airport improvements?
-jsq
At least they had primary opposition, and there’s still the general election in which to challenge the Georgia PSC incumbents. Even the incumbents aren’t defending coal anymore. Keep up the pressure and maybe they’ll finally get us solar and wind energy, or, even better, we’ll elect someone who will. Steve Oppenheimer and David Staples are running in the general election.
Ray Henry wrote for AP today, Chuck Eaton, Stan Wise win Republican primaries for Ga. Public Service Commission
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