Category Archives: Law

Separate CWIP payments to Georgia Power —WACE call for action

We don’t have to wait for the Georgia legislature to ban Construction Work in Progress (CWIP) for Georgia Power’s new nukes at Plant Vogtle. WACE has put out a clever call for action about CWIP, Go Solar, Not Nuclear!

Here’s an excerpt:

  • Use two checks each time you pay your bill. One check covers the amount you are forced to pay for “Nuclear Construction Cost Recovery” (write “for solar construction” in the memo line). The other check covers the remaining amount of your actual electricity costs.
  • Include a note in the letter with your checks voicing your opposition to nuclear power and ask Georgia Power to invest your funds in solar energy instead. This note could read:
    • I oppose nuclear power because of its dangers to our health and our environment. (See the nuclear accidents at Fukushima, Chernobyl, and Three Mile Island)
    • I oppose the construction surcharge for nuclear power plants because they are too expensive and waste billions of our tax dollars. (Plant Vogtle was originally estimated to cost $660 million. Eventually, only 2 of its proposed 4 reactors were built, costing more than $8 billion, and resulting in huge rate hikes for Georgia residents.)
    • I ask that GA Power invest my money and any collected surcharges in solar instead.
The PDF of the call includes these addresses:
Tim Echols, Chairman
Georgia Public Service Commission
244 Washington Street SW
Atlanta, GA 30334
1-800-282-5813 		W. Paul Bowers, CEO
Georgia Power Company
241 Ralph McGill Boulevard NE
Atlanta, GA 30308
1-888-660-5890
And don’t forget Georgia Power’s parent company The Southern Company’s CEO, Thomas Fanning, said a year ago he’s “bullish” on solar. Let’s see some solar action from The Southern Company and Georgia Power!

Here are some more contacts.

You don’t even have to be a Georgia Power customer to write to these people. Most of them are elected or appointed officials who are supposed to represent you, the taxpayers.

-jsq

Why CWIP is a bad idea

Iowa is rejecting CWIP, and Georgia can, too. Here’s why.

Herman K. Trabish wrote for Green Tech Media 22 February 2012, The Nuclear Industry’s Answer to Its Marketplace Woes: Construction Work in Progress (CWIP) financing shifts the risks of nuclear energy to utility ratepayers,

A sign of the nuclear industry’s difficult situation in the aftermath of Fukushima is a proposal before the Iowa legislature
“Construction Work in Progress was intended to circumvent the core consumer protection of the regulatory decision-making process,”
that would allow utility MidAmerican Energy Holdings, a subsidiary of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, to build a new nuclear facility in the state using Construction Work in Progress (CWIP) financing (also called advanced cost recovery).

“Investment in nuclear power is the antithesis of the kind of investments you would want to make under the current uncertain conditions,” explained nuclear industry authority Mark Cooper, a senior fellow for economic analysis at Vermont Law School’s Institute for Energy and the Environment. “They cannot raise the capital to build these plants in normal markets under the normal regulatory structures.”

CWIP would allow the utility to raise the money necessary to build a nuclear power plant by billing ratepayers in advance of and during construction.

“Construction Work in Progress was intended to circumvent the core consumer protection of the regulatory decision-making process,” Cooper explained. “It exposes ratepayers to all the risk.” The nuclear industry’s answer to its post-Fukushima challenges, he said, “is to simply rip out the heart of consumer protection and turn the logic of capital markets on their head.”

And the Iowa Utilities Board staff agreed with Cooper and recommended against CWIP.
His message to policymakers is simple, Cooper said. “This is an investment you would not make with your own money. Therefore, you should not make it with the ratepayers’ money.”
Meanwhile, in Georgia: Continue reading →

How to ban CWIP in Georgia

A one-paragraph law can do it; that’s all it took in New Hampshire to ban Construction Work in Progress (CWIP) after Three Mile Island. OK, plus a state Supreme Court ruling, but that would be easier in Georgia since the New Hampshire Supreme Court already set a precedent of upholding the NH law. After Fukushima, Georgia could ban CWIP and end the new Plant Vogtle construction. The we could get on with building solar.

Here’s the text of the NH law, taken from the NH Supreme Court ruling:

“378:30-a Public Utility Rate Base; Exclusions. Public utility rates or charges shall not in any manner be based on the cost of construction work in progress. At no time shall any rates or charges be based upon any costs associated with construction work if said construction work is not completed. All costs of construction work in progress, including, but not limited to, any costs associated with constructing, owning, maintaining or financing construction work in progress, shall not be included in a utility’s rate base nor be allowed as an expense for rate making purposes until, and not before, said construction project is actually providing service to consumers.”
Simple enough. The Georgia legislature could do it. Knowing the NH CWIP ban caused PSNH to go bankrupt on costs for the Seabrook nuclear plant, Georgia Power might back off on Plant Vogtle rather than have such a law passed.

-jsq

What we can learn from no nukes and solartopia of 30 years ago

Why were only 12% of the projected 1000 nuclear plants built in the U.S. by the year 2000? Because of the no nukes movement started in Seabrook, New Hampshire in 1977. And because New Hampshire banned CWIP. Here in Georgia in 2012 we can cut to the chase and do what they did that worked.

Harvey Wasserman wrote for The Free Press 13 May 2007, How creative mass non-violence beat a nuke and launched the global green power movement,

Thirty years ago this month, in the small seacoast town of Seabrook, New Hampshire, a force of mass non-violent green advocacy collided with the nuke establishment.

A definitive victory over corporate power was won. And the global grassroots “No Nukes” movement emerged as one of the most important and effective in human history.

It still writes the bottom line on atomic energy and global warming. All today’s green energy battles can be dated to May, 13, 1977, when 550 Clamshell Alliance protestors walked victoriously free after thirteen days of media-saturated imprisonment. Not a single US reactor ordered since that day has been completed.

How effective?
Richard Nixon had pledged to build 1000 nukes in the US by the year 2000. But the industry peaked at less than 120. Today, just over a hundred operate. No US reactor ordered since 1974 has been completed. The Seabrook demonstrations—which extended to civil disobedience actions on Wall Street—were key to keeping nearly 880 US reactors unbuilt.
The only new nukes ordered since then are the ones Georgia Power wants to build at Plant Vogtle on the Savannah River, for which Georgia Power customers are already getting billed Construction Work in Progress (CWIP).

Thirty years later, some things haven’t changed: Continue reading →

A few questions I have… —Etta Mims

Received Monday. -jsq
John –

You have my permission to post this – these are the questions I have regarding the private prisons:

I believe research is one of my best friends! Thank you Wikipedia and Google!

I researched private prisons over the weekend, and here are some of my questions and “aha” statements:

  1. Please note: these Private Prisons are also called “For Profit Prison” – that right there should cause fear and trembling.
  2. If we as tax payers are funding these “Private/For Profit Prisons” are we allowed a percentage of the profits?
  3. “Private/For Profit Prisons” typically enter into contractual agreements with governments – again – fear and trembling.
  4. Why build a private prison? Why not add on to the current prison located to the west of I-75?
  5. If you look online, there are many Private/For Profit Prisons closing due to the recession:
  6. There are inadequately staffed Private/For Profit Prisons http://www.ccpoa.org/news/tags/tag/private+prisons This will lead to an increase in prisoners escaping.
  7. Prison employees typically live outside the county they work in, so how will this help our local economy?
I haven’t completed my research. I will continue to look into these questions and “ahas” until I understand the pros and cons completely.

Until then — I think March 13 is the deadline? Scary.

Why private prison employees might not want to work too close to home —Barbara Stratton

Received yesterday on Video: Drive Away CCA radio. -jsq
Great interview John. The comment about employees not wanting to work at a facility in the same county they live in was an interesting thought relative to the proposed local employment benefits. When I worked for CCA in the inmate Mental Health unit at the Valdosta Correctional Institute we were always warned that keeping pictures of our families or anything personal on our desks was possibly dangerous and therefore not recommended. I loved my job there because being inside the prison meant we had to form close working relationships with each other and I love teamwork on the job and it was never boring. We had almost constant training hours warning us about the dangers of being in close contact with inmates and all the rules about interacting. Forheight=”1 instance we had one inmate who was a brilliant artist. He like to gift us with his artwork, which we were allowed to accept as a non-personal gift to be placed on the office walls. He was a very well behaved prisoner especially to females, but his beautiful artwork always consisted of some form of predator watching prey such as a cat watching a bird. We loved the artwork, but took note of the inuendos.

Prisoners were always given strict instructions that

Continue reading →

Faith groups urge state governors not to sell prisons to CCA

From Quakers to Catholics,
“Our organizations advocate for a criminal justice system that brings healing for victims of crime, restoration for those who commit crimes, and to maintain public safety.”
religious groups oppose privatization of prisons. Here is the text of a letter many of them sent to all 50 state governors, joining the ACLU in opposing CCA’s recent offer to 48 states to buy their prisons.

You can help drive away CCA, 5PM this Tuesday, March 6th. Or sign the petition to the Industrial Authority to reject the private prison in Lowndes County, Georgia.

-jsq

March 1, 2012

Dear Governor:

We the undersigned faith organizations represent different traditions from across the religious and political spectrum. Our organizations advocate for a criminal justice system that brings healing for victims of crime, restoration for those who commit crimes, and to maintain public safety.

We write in reference to a letter you recently received from Harley Lappin, Chief Corrections Officer at Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), announcing the Corrections Investment Initiative – the corporation’s plan to spend up to $250 million buying prisons from state, local, and federal government entities, and then managing the facilities. The letter from Mr. Lappin states that CCA is only interested in buying prisons if the state selling the prison agrees to pay CCA to operate the prison for 20 years — at minimum. Mr. Lappin further notes that any prison to be sold must have at least 1,000 beds, and that the state must agree to keep the prison at least 90% full during the length of the contract.

The undersigned faith organizations urge you to decline this dangerous and costly invitation. CCA’s initiative would be costly

Continue reading →

Georgia prison population plummetting

In two years, the legislature went from denial to doing something about the unsupportable costs of Georgia’s prison system. The Georgia prison population is already plumetting, and will drop more. This makes a private prison in Lowndes County, Georgia an even worse business deal. If it ever opens, it probably will close.

Two years ago the Georgia legislature was in denial, as Carrie Teegardin wrote for the AJC 4 April 2010, Georgia prison population, costs on rise,

As Georgia lawmakers desperately search for ways to slash spending, they are not debating an option taken by other states: cutting the prison population.

Georgia operates the fifth-largest prison system in the nation, at a cost of $1 billion a year. The job of overseeing 60,000 inmates and 150,000 felons on probation consumes 1 of every 17 state dollars.

The state’s prison population has jumped by more than a quarter in the past decade and officials expect the number of state inmates to continue to creep upward. Georgia has resorted to measures other than reducing the prison population to keep corrections spending under control.

19 months later, things had changed, as the Atlanta Business Chronic reported 15 December 2011, BJS: Georgia prison population drops in 2010, Continue reading →

Monticello, FL prison maybe not yet closing, but at what cost?

Monticello and Jefferson County, Florida, have become dependent on a prison that opened in 1990. Why? According to Rick Stone of WUSF 1 Feb 2012,
Late in the 80s, with crime rising and prisons filling up, Florida needed new prison sites but few counties wanted to be one. Jefferson
because of the state’s declining inmate population.
County, just east of Tallahassee, was different. Then, as now, underpopulated and desperately poor, it saw an opportunity and it did something unusual.

“We welcomed them with open arms,” said Kirk Reams, Jefferson County’s court clerk and chief financial officer.

That’s not our situation. Crime is as low as it has been since the 1960s, prison populations have peaked, and we do have other sources of employment. Or are we really that desperate?

Jefferson County thinks it has lucked out again, but only at the expense of Florida taxpayers, and against the prison population trend.

John Kennedy wrote for the Palm Beach Post 8 February 2012, Condemned Florida prison gets second chance at life in House, Continue reading →

ACLU and 60 policy and religious groups ask states to reject CCA’s prison privatization offer

What do the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, The Sentencing Project, the NAACP, and the Southern Poverty Law Center have in common? They all want states to reject CCA’s offer to 48 states to buy prisons. Right here in Lowndes County, our Industrial Authority wants to go one better for CCA and help build a shiny fresh new private prison with our tax dollars.

PR from yesterday, ACLU Urges States to Reject CCA Offer to Privatize Prisons,

The American Civil Liberties Union and a broad coalition of 60 policy and religious groups today urged states to reject a recent offer by the nation’s largest private prison company to buy and privatize state prisons.

In a letter sent to governors in every state, the ACLU and 26 other organizations said a recent offer by Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) to buy prisons currently run by state officials is a backdoor invitation to take on additional debt while increasing CCA’s profits and impeding the serious criminal justice reforms needed to combat the nation’s mass incarceration crisis.

Two similar letters are also being sent today by religious coalitions to governors. One of the letters, sent by 32 faith groups including the United Methodist Church General Board of Church and Society, the United Church of Christ/Justice and Witness Ministries, the Episcopal Church and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Office of Public Witness, says there is a moral imperative in reducing incarceration through evidence-based alternatives to imprisonment and re-entry policies that ease the transition of prisoners back into society. A third letter, from the Presbyterian Criminal Justice Network, argues that the principles of mercy, forgiveness, redemption and reconciliation are largely absent from the private prison industry.

“Selling off prisons to CCA would be a tragic mistake for your state,” the ACLU’s letter reads. “[CCA’s] proposal is an invitation to fiscal irresponsibility, prisoner abuse and decreased public safety. It should be promptly declined.”

You can help decline CCA’s private prison in Lowndes County.

-jsq