Author Archives: admin

Library Board selects out-of-state architect for local library @ LCC 2012-07-24

The Library Board says no local architect was as qualified as the one they picked in Tallahassee to design a new local library here. The same Lowndes County Commission that just a month ago reappointed three members of the Library Board votes tomorrow evening on this bid selection.

Brittany D. McClure wrote for the VDT today, Library board selects architects: New main branch to be located at Five Points development

Clemons Rutherford & Associates (CRA) was chosen by the library


View Larger Map

board as the firm that will lead the design team for the new main library branch that will be moving next to the new municipal auditorium at Five Points.

Lowndes County Commissioners will vote Tuesday on the selection.

“The selection committee felt that the firm that was selected was the most qualified for the project as well as had the lowest estimate,” said Chad McLeod, Lowndes County project manager.

Though the selection process for agencies was directed by Lowndes County, the library board had input in the selection.

“The process to build the library began nearly three years ago at the county’s urging,” said Kay Harris, Library Board chairman.

Requests For Proposals (RFP’s) were advertised for 30 days, with 35 RFP’s requested by various agencies and architectural firms. Ten completed RFP’s were submitted to the county.

And when do we the taxpayers get to see these ten completed RFPs? Not unless somebody files an open records request and somebody else makes them available: it’s the county way!

OK, so why was CRA selected?

Continue reading →

Austin Energy’s Biomass Buyer’s Remorse

Georgia Power’s parent Southern Company (SO) is bragging about selling a 100 MW biomass plant to Austin Energy. Funny how SO’s press release doesn’t mention Austin Energy’s buyer’s remorse. Let’s see why Austin Energy should regret buying biomass.

SO PR 18 July 2012, Southern Company brings nation’s largest biomass power plant on line: Nacogdoches facility contributes to Austin Energy renewables goal

Southern Company SO announced today that the nation’s largest biomass plant is putting electricity on the grid in Texas. Southern Company President, Chairman and CEO Thomas A. Fanning joined state and local dignitaries today at the company’s Nacogdoches Generating Facility to mark commercial operation for the 100-megawatt unit.

Austin Energy is receiving energy from the plant through a 20-year power purchase agreement.

The PR goes on about local jobs and taxes, which could have been produced through building solar or wind generation. How much did that biomass plant cost Austin Energy? Funny how that’s not in the PR!

The City of Austin owns Austin Energy, and the Mayor and City Council are its Board of Directors. Vicky Garza wrote for the Austin Business Journal 20 July 2012, Austin Energy’s buyers remorse for biomass,

Austin City Council Member Mike Martinez wouldn’t mind a do-over on the $2.3 billion, 20-year energy contract the council approved in 2008.

The contract calls for Austin Energy to buy the entire output from the Nacogdoches Generating Facility, a 100-megawatt wood-waste-fueled biomass power plant.

“When the contract was initially brought to Council, it appeared to be a good deal to help us reach our adopted goals for renewables,” Martinez said.

It seemed like a good idea at the time.

$2.3 billion for 100 MW is about $23 per Watt. How does that compare to the 30 MW Webberville solar farm Austin Energy opened this year? Continue reading →

It is time to finally put the pieces of a larger energy puzzle together —Michael Noll

Seen today on the WACE facebook page: an online comment the VDT declined to let appear. It was on Natural gas use expanding; station planned for Valdosta by Kay Harris, VDT, 22 July 2012. -jsq

There are some major problems with this article, but let’s first begin with the points one can agree with:

Mr. Putnam is correct when he says that natural gas is a much cleaner source of energy than coal and oil. It is also true that natural gas is a “bridge fuel” which can buy us time to develop new technologies. However, here are the points that are missing (or were glanced over) simply because we are, again, looking for a quick fix to our dependence on foreign oil, while doing little to address issues that really matter:

  1. Neither Mr. Putnam nor the VDT seem to fully understand or recognize the environmental damage fracking does. This new technology is not only responsible for our nation’s current natural gas surplus, but also comes at an enormous price to both people and the environment.
  2. Time and again we are talking about the need to become independent of foreign oil, yet little attention is paid to the need to conserve. Instead we continue to ‘live it up” and consume more energy per capita than any other western nation. If you are addicted to a “drug” (as in an overly consumptive lifestyle) hopping from marijuana to heroin won’t help your general problem.

It is time to finally put the pieces of a larger energy puzzle together because at the end of the day natural gas, too, is a finite source. But how will we ever get there when a) entities like Southern Company (i.e. Georgia Power) refuse to embrace truly clean sources of energy production like solar and wind, when b) people like Mr. Putnam and papers like the VDT only present a one-sided view of an important and complex issue, and when c) we, the consumers, refuse to accept our responsibilities in this whole mess as if we had a God given right to be wasteful?

-Michael Noll

4 of 5 incumbent GA PSC Commissioners accept massive utility campaign contributions

Could contributions produce influence? Neither of the incumbent Public Service Commissioners showed up for last night’s GPB debate, just as they didn’t show up for the previous weekend’s GIPL debate. Saturday the AJC examined the incumbents’ campaign finance and regulatory records, and let’s look a bit into how they’ve acted as regulators towards their biggest indirect contributors: Georgia Power.

Kristi E. Swartz wrote for the Augusta Chronicle or AP 21 July 2012, Donors to Georgia Public Service Commission members vested in decisions,

Four of Georgia’s utility regulators have accepted at least 70 percent of their campaign contributions from companies and people that could profit from the agency’s decisions, a review of five years of campaign finance records by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution revealed.

The fifth member of the state Public Service Commission, Tim Echols, campaigned on the promise that he wouldn’t take money from employees or lobbyists for businesses regulated by the agency.

Even so, nearly one in five dollars in Echols’ contributions came from people or companies whose business is affected by PSC decisions, the review found.

Together, the PSC commissioners took in nearly $750,000 in the last five years, records show. Two of them — Stan Wise and Chuck Eaton — are seeking re-election this year to their $116,452-a-year posts.

Wise and Eaton would be the two incumbents who can’t be bothered to show up for debates. Doesn’t make them look very responsive to the people, does it? Who do they respond to, then?

A review of major decisions that have come before the PSC in the past five years shows utilities have received much — but not all — of what they have asked for.

Georgia Power donors

In the past five years, for example, Georgia Power’s rates have risen 24 percent, although they dipped in June. The PSC must sign off on the company’s rate changes.

Current and former employees of Georgia Power, its parent Southern Co. and its law firm, Troutman Sanders, poured $52,650 into the campaign coffers of four of the sitting PSC members.

A Georgia Power spokeswoman argued that including Troutman Sanders and other company vendors in an analysis of spending “is false.” But critics say including them is critical to capturing the full influence of the utilities on the PSC.

Influence like this? Melissa Stiers wrote for GPB News 19 July 2011, PSC Nixes Vogtle Cost Check,

Continue reading →

SPLOST VII, Millage, Library, and two road repairs @ LCC 2012-07-23

Two kinds of taxes: Lowndes County Commission Work Session Monday 8:30 AM and Regular Session Tuesday 5:30 PM, with a property tax millage hearing 5PM before the Regular Session. Apparently the cities and the county have come to some agreement about Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) VII. Road repairs are being contemplated for Cat Creek Road and Cameron Lane. And there’s something about an RFP for an architect for the library.

Update: SPLOST, not LOST. -jsq

Here’s the agenda.

-jsq

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, JULY 23, 2012, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, JULY 24, 2012, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street — 2nd Floor
Continue reading →

TSPLOST — There are ways to get more road ‘bang’ for buck

MJDOnline editorialized today, The TSPLOST — There are ways to get more road ‘bang’ for buck. Most of it is about Cobb County, but some of it may sound familiar:

THOSE PUSHING the TSPLOST have bungled the job despite their gargantuan $8 million war chest. They have muddled their message (is it congestion relief or a jobs program?) and even managed to fumble the project list. Cobb voters don't know whether they're voting for a rail line or a bus line. And even though the proposal now specifies the latter, the overwhelming suspicion is that if the TSPLOST passes they'll be stuck paying and paying and paying for the former instead.

Better to vote down this TSPLOST and hope and pray that it also fails region-wide, than possibly come back in two years with an improved project list that can get the public's buy-in. As it is, the bulk of the Cobb projects on the current list would likely be on a future local Cobb road SPLOST list if there were no such thing as a regional TSPLOST. Which begs another question: Why should Cobb abdicate control over its road program to the Atlanta Regional Commission or a regional roundtable in the first place? Who knows better than Cobb residents what our transportation needs are?

What do you think? Does GDOT in Atlanta know better than we do what we need around here?

-jsq

Invent batteries to the price point of the electricity market —Donald Sadoway

MIT Prof. Donald Sadoway thinks he’s found a way to build electric-grid-scale batteries out of dirt.

Electric utilities complain solar and wind power are not baseload, capacity, energy sources because they are intermittent. You know, if they weren’t busy running up cost overruns that could easily exceed the entire annual budget of the state of Georgia, maybe the utilities could solve this problem. Meanwhile, Prof. Sadoway, instead of looking for the snazziest coolest most efficient new method of energy storage, defined the problem in terms of the market:

the demanding performance requirements of the grid, namely uncommonly high power, long service lifetime, and super low cost. We need to think about the problem differently. We need to think big. We need to think cheap.

Then he set parameters on the solution:

If you want to make something dirt cheap, make it out of dirt. Preferably dirt that’s locally sourced.

He cast about for possible precedents and found aluminum smelting gave him some ideas for using low density liquid metal at the top, high density liquid metal at the bottom, and molten salt in between. Choosing the right metals is the trick, which he thinks he’s found: magnesium at the top, and antimony at the bottom.

Is Sadoway right? Will his battery work at grid scale? I don’t know. But he’s asking the right questions, and it’s worth a try.

As Kyle Sager wrote for Heliocurrent 4 May 2012, Renewable Storage: Leave it to MIT,

Has Dr. Sadoway achieved the holy grail of renewable energy? Judge for yourself. Our attention is compelled by the degree of his certainty and the seeming simplicity of the approach. Watch MIT’s Donald Sadoway explain his vision here (link).

Seems to me there are at least two major approaches:

Continue reading →

Debate: Georgia Public Service Comission candidates this afternoon on GBP

Rumor is that, like last weekend, the incumbents won't show up for this afternoon's Public Service Commission debates, this time on Georgia Public Television.

GPB does still list them as "invited", with this schedule for today, Sunday 22 July 2012:

Date and TimeDebateInvited Candidates
Sunday, July 22 at 4:30 pm Public Service Commission District 3 Republican Chuck Eaton and Matt Reid
Sunday, July 22 at 5 pm Public Service Commission, District 5 – Republican Pam Davidson and Stan Wise

If the incumbents don't bother to show up, how responsive to the people are they?

-jsq

I think voting on a Saturday is super extra great and convenient —Gretchen Quarterman

Gretchen reminded us to vote early yesterday. She got on TV to do that.

Greg Gullberg wrote for WCTV yesterday, Voting On Saturday For First Time In Ga. History

For the first time ever, Georgia voters statewide were able to cast their ballots on a Saturday. And for some it was their best chance.

Gretchen on WCTV “I think voting on a Saturday is super extra great and convenient,” said Gretchen Quarterman, Georgia voter. “To vote on Saturday is particularly convenient. You can just fit it in your errands.”

“It gives the opportunity for voters to get out and vote for those who have to work and it’s an inconvenience for them during the week,” said Sarah Stewart, Georgia Voter.

The extra day comes after the Georgia legislature shortened the early voting period for the Primaries. They took it down from 45 days to only 21.

In Lowndes County, plenty of people are taking advantage of early voting.

So what was Gretchen doing there?

Continue reading →

Where are the traditional media about Brooks County Board of Elections?

Patrick Davis provided some explanation of what the suspension issue was at the Brooks County Board of Elections, and then asked a bigger question: where are the traditional media when sunshine is needed?

Patrick Davis wrote yesterday for the Macon Examiner.com, Brooks Co. Board of Elections addresses voter disenfranchisement at meeting

The main reason behind the suspension is centered around his alleged participation in qualifying and certification irregularities along with accusations of voter disenfranchisement of local citizens in regard to a sample ballot for the upcoming July 31 election.

Collins insists it is a misunderstanding, and Nancy Duncan, the chairperson of the Brooks Board of Elections, echoes those sentiments and urged the Board of Elections not to involve the Secretary of State and/or other authorities.

As you can see, he linked who the Brooks County Board of Elections are to what they were saying in George Rhynes’ videos.

Davis linked and discussed to the timed video snippet from my blog post of Thursday; the one that shows the chair demanding of George Rhynes, “What are you doing?”

Then he brought up the bigger sunshine issue:

Continue reading →