A Georgia Senate committee needs to take it up
a bill that would greatly ease financing
solar power for your housetop or business roof.
Sen. Jack Murphy is the chair, and you can contact him today.
GA SB 51, The Georgia Cogeneration and Distributed Generation Act, was read to the Senate 16 January 2013 and referred to the Committee on Regulated Industries and Utilities. Here’s contact information for the Chair of that Committee:
Continue readingSeen Monday. Seems to me that instead of burning trees tree farmers should start growing solar farms on some of their less useful land.
Forest Bioenergy Conference —GFA
Deadline for early registration is Sunday, February 10…register today to save money!
It’s 21 February 2013 in Forsyth.
Interest in forest biomass as a potential feedstock for renewable energy facilities has been especially keen for the past several years and much of the activity has been centered in Georgia. GFA and UGA are excited about hosting our fourth biennial conference to examine where we are with forest bioenergy development in Georgia and where we may be going in the near future. While many issues are becoming clearer, much uncertainty remains with regard to government policy and market prices for fossil fuels. This conference is an excellent opportunity to hear from some of the players on the front lines of developing markets, influencing government policies, and conducting research on how these changes may impact our wood supply system.
These are some of the topics that will be addressed during this conference by many of the people directly involved with these changes that are taking place in our state. Join us and stay abreast of these significant changes taking place in our forest industry.
The talk I think they should pay attention to is:
What does Low-Cost Natural Gas Mean for Future Biomass Use?Continue reading
Georgia Senator Buddy Carter has introduced a Senate bill for the current
session of the legislature,
SB 51,
“The Georgia Cogeneration and Distributed Generation Act of 2001”.
It attempts to fix
Georgia’s special solar financing problem,
the antique 1973 Territorial Electric Service Act.
Why 2001? Apparently Buddy Carter has been introducing it every year since then. Last year Georgia Power’s disinformation campaign nuked it when it was SB 401. Has the legislature gotten tired of Georgia Power and its parent the Southern Company being way late and overbudget on those new nukes? Does the legislature want Georgia citizens to get the savings and job benefits of the fastest growing energy source in the country? Will GaSU help with SB 51, or only with GaSU’s attempt to become a solar monopoly utility? You can contact your legislators and tell them what you think. Every one of them who voted for Georgia Power’s stealth-tax rate hike for that nuke boondoggle should vote for SB 51 to start getting Georgia on a clean path to jobs and energy independence.
This bill is not perfect: it counts “generator fueled by biomass” as Continue reading
In Europe it’s already happening: solar and wind are causing
bond-rater Moody’s to warn of downgrades of energy companies
that depend on heat from burning coal, gas, or biomass.
Moody’s earlier even warned the Bank of England
of a potential carbon bubble developing.
If combustion energy plants are affected like this,
the credit effects will be even bigger on even-more-expensive
nuclear plants, which Moody’s called a
bet-the-farm risk way back in 2009.
James Murray wrote for businessGreen 6 Nov 2012, Moody’s: Renewables boom poses credit risk for coal and gas power plants: Credit ratings agency warns increases in renewable power have had ‘a profound negative impact’ on the competitiveness of thermal generation companies,
“Large increases in renewables have had a profound negative impact on power prices and the competitiveness of thermal generation companies in Europe,” said Scott Phillips, an assistant vice president and analyst at Moody’s Infrastructure Finance Group, in a statement.
“What were once considered stable companies have seen their business models severely disrupted and we expect steadily rising levels of renewable energy output to further affect European utilities’ creditworthiness.”
And not just rising, rising increasingly Continue reading
Not really about jobs, and not about feeding electricity into the grid: the new biomass plant near Dublin, GA is about saving that company money on electricity: but at what cost to the state and to local residents?
Mike Stucka wrote for Macon.com 6 December 2012,
Deal announces $95 million biomass power plant for Laurens County,
A new biomass power plant announced Thursday is expected to bring hundreds of related jobs and a direct $95 million investment.
A statement from the office of Gov. Nathan Deal said the plant itself will bring 35 permanent jobs to Laurens County.
Compare 35 permanent jobs for $95 million to MAGE SOLAR’s 350 jobs for $30 million. That’s about $2,700,000 per job for this deal, vs. $85,714 per job for MAGE SOLAR. Which would make MAGE SOLAR’s facility more than 30 times more effective at producing permanent jobs.
OK, but what’s this one supposed to do?
Continue readingExecutive Director Andrea Schruijer explained the Industrial Authority’s theory behind all those industrial parks. And she mentioned market analysis for a sustainable local economy. Nothing about market analysis about whether industrial parks actually bring in new businesses….
Valdosta CEO posted 28 NOvember 2012, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority Invests in Land Development For Future Industries,
Andrea Schruijer, Executive Director of the Valdosta Lowndes County Industrial Authority. A few years ago the community had the foresight to approve a mill that they would set aside for the Industrial Authority to provide for economic development. And because the community did that, the industrial authority is able to better plan for the future in growing our opportunities for economic development. One of the things that we noticed a few years ago is that we didn’t have enough land for development. And we didn’t have the right sized tracks in case we had a large user coming in looking at the community, where would we put them?
She says “the community did that”?
That’s funny,
Gary Minchew said he organized that.
Kari L. Sands wrote for VDT 20 June 2007,
Lowndes preps for vote on budget,
In memory of Armistice Day, the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, when World War I ended, let’s help the military get us off of oil and to deal with climate change so fewer people will die in wars.
John M. Broder wrote for NYTimes 9 November 2012, Climate Change Report Outlines Perils for U.S. Military,
Climate change is accelerating, and it will place unparalleled strains on
American military and intelligence agencies in coming years by causing ever more disruptive events around the globe, the nation’s top scientific research group said in a report issued Friday.
The group, the National Research Council, says in a study commissioned by the C.I.A. and other intelligence agencies that clusters of apparently unrelated events exacerbated by a warming climate will create more frequent but unpredictable crises in water supplies, food markets, energy supply chains and public health systems.
Hurricane Sandy provided a foretaste of what can be expected more often in the near future, the report’s lead author, John D. Steinbruner, said in an interview.
“This is the sort of thing we were talking about,” said Mr. Steinbruner, a longtime authority on national security. “You can debate the specific contribution of global warming to that storm. But we’re saying climate extremes are going to be more frequent, and this was an example of what they could mean. We’re also saying it could get a whole lot worse than that.”
…
Climate-driven crises could lead to internal instability or international conflict and might force the United States to provide humanitarian assistance or, in some cases, military force to protect vital energy, economic or other interests, the study said.
This is in addition to the even more obvious
connection between war and U.S. dependence on foreign oil
which the veterans in Operation Free want to fix
by helping us shift to clean renewable energy.
“In Iraq… the lines would stretch up to ten miles long under the hot sun, under constant risk of attack by extremists. I realized then just how vulnerable it makes any country to be dependent on oil, especially the United States, which uses nearly a quarter of the world’s supply.”
We also heard last year from Col. Dan Nolan (U.S. Army ret.) that the Marines in Afghanistan realized Continue reading
Wind and sun provided all the new electric power generation deployed in September 2012. As Moore’s Law continues to decrease solar prices, solar power gets deployed still more rapidly, and wind also gets installed on time and on budget. Meanwhile, nuclear takes a three-legged nuclear regulatory-capture stool and hardly any new reactors get finished anyway.
Stephen Lacey wrote for TP Climate Progress 24 October 2012, Wind And Solar Make Up 100% Of New U.S. Electricity Capacity In September,
September was tied for the hottest of any September on record globally. It was also a very hot month for renewable energy in the U.S. According to figures from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, wind and solar accounted for all new electricity capacity added to America’s grid in September.
New wind is up 25% Jan-Sep 2012 over the same period last year, and new solar is up 78%. For comparison, new coal is Continue reading
When the Industrial Authority came out for solar and broadband WCTV noticed. It seems solar and broadband are good not only in themselves, but also for good PR for the community. PR that might attract the kinds of businesses the Industrial Authority is looking for.
WCTV wrote 9 September 2012,
Solar Power and Broadband Internet Could Boost Local Job Growth,
The Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority has put a spot light on solar power and broadband internet. That’s according to a new analysis of regional businesses and employment. They say it will be a way to generate job growth going forward. Many in the community agree.
Valdosta Resident Mark Yates said “if they could bring those all in, it would be great for the economy and bring a lot of jobs for a lot of people in town here.”
That’s how Saginaw, Michigan, attracted that second Suniva plant
away from Georgia:
it has a plan for solar industry and it gets it in the news.
Way better than
worrying what Albany thinks, don’t you think?
By the way, Saginaw also goes for wind manufacturing jobs, and we already have one wind manufacturing business right here; more on that later.
It sure would be good if the Industrial Authority, with its 1 mil tax rate or almost $3 million a year, could succeed in attracting some jobs here:
Continue reading
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:
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.
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.
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