ATLANTA, March 16, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Georgia Power expects to request approval from the Georgia Public Service Commission to decertify two coal-generating units totaling 569 megawatts, the company announced Wednesday.This matches with a report from last July that gapower was turning away from coal. And they suspended work on Plant Branch a year ago. Unfortunately, mostly they’re turning to natural gas and nuclear. Continue readingThe request to decertify units 1 and 2 at Plant Branch in Putnam Co. will be included in Georgia Power’s updated Integrated Resource Plan filing with the commission in late summer. The company expects to ask for decertification of the units as of the effective dates of the Georgia Multipollutant Rule, which are currently anticipated to be Dec. 31, 2013 for unit 1 and Oct. 1, 2013 for unit 2.
The decision to decertify the units is based on a need to install environmental controls to meet a variety of existing and expected environmental regulations.
“After an extensive analysis of the cost to comply with environmental regulations, we have determined the continued operation of these units would be uneconomical for our customers,” said Georgia Power President and CEO Paul Bowers. “This decision is in keeping with our focus to provide affordable and reliable electricity for our customers.”
Category Archives: Planning
Beliefs are good, but facts are better –John S. Quarterman @ VLCIA, 15 March 2011
I understand the point about beliefs. But it’s not all about just the beliefs of just the people on the board. It’s also about things like is there enough water, and do we want businesses that soak up a lot of water, like Ben Copeland said at the Lake Park Chamber of Commerce. Beliefs are good, but facts are better. Thank you.
regular monthly meeting, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA)
Norman Bennett, Roy Copeland, Tom Call, Mary Gooding, Jerry Jennett chairman,
J. Stephen Gupton attorney, Brad Lofton Executive Director, Allan Ricketts Program Manager,
15 March 2011.
Video by David Rodock for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
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Sunshot: solar cheaper than coal in six years
The U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) aims to change that by bringing down the cost of solar electricity via a new program dubbed “SunShot,” an homage to President John Kennedy’s “moon shot” pledge in 1961.Hm, so maybe Ray Kurzweil is right.“If you can get solar electricity down at [$1 per watt], and it scales without subsidies, gosh, I think that’s pretty good for the climate,” notes Arun Majumdar, director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA–e), the DoE’s high-risk research effort. “With SunShot, the goal is to reduce the cost of solar to [$1 per watt] in the next six years.”
DoE Secretary Chu even thinks we could win something else:
“Just because we lost the lead doesn’t mean we can’t get it back,” Chu said. “We still have the opportunity to lead the world in clean energy…but time is running out.”Meanwhile, we could shift fossil fuel subsidies over to solar and get on with it.
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“we would appreciate it if our position was no longer misrepresented” –Georgia Sierra Club
March 9, 2011Continue reading
Brad Lofton
Executive Director
Valdosta Lowndes County Industrial Authority
2110 North Patterson Street
Valdosta, GA 31602
RE: Sierra Club position on the Wiregrass Energy facility
Dear Mr. Lofton:
Congratulations on the groundbreaking of your solar facility last month. The Georgia Chapter of the Sierra Club is very pleased and excited to see those types of clean, renewable projects coming online all across our state, after years of Georgia Power claiming that solar wouldn’t work in our state.
However, I am writing to you primarily on a different subject as it has come to our attention that you continue to claim
Industrial Authority board meets tonight
Maybe with new staff they can finally get agendas and minutes on their website, and maybe a picture of Tom Call. The picture of Call below was found elsewhere by LAKE.
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Roy Copeland |
Tom Call |
Mary Gooding |
Norman Bennett |
Jerry Jennett, Chairman |
“Parameters on the types of industry” –VDT Editorial
In addition to a news story about Brad Lofton moving on up to Myrtle Beach, the Valdosta Daily Times also had an editorial yesterday (14 March), Lofton’s leaving a void in which they make some good points, including:
While the search is on for a new director, now is the time for the city, county and industrial authority board to come together to make some decisions about the organization and what the community leadership needs and wants it to be.Here are a few modest suggestions along those lines, including considerations such as water.
More from the VDT: Continue reading
VDT on Lofton Leaving
The VDT finally published something today about Brad Lofton moving to Myrtle Beach, apparently mostly drawing on the same SC newspaper story LAKE picked up on last Thursday, with some material from the second SunNews story of Friday. The VDT did add some local interviews: Continue reading
History changes the closer you get to Valdosta?
According to “In the News” on the the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA) web site:
“Lofton is currently the president and CEO of the Effingham County Industrial Development Authority and the executive director of the Effingham County Chamber of Commerce. Lofton brings a wide range of experience to the position including time served as the executive director of the Lee County Chamber of Commerce and the Lee County Development Authority.”You have to search or scroll way down in that page to find that passage, and there’s no date on it.
However, it is almost a word-for-word copy of a paragraph by Kelli Hernandez that appeared in the Moultrie Observer 16 August 2006:
“Lofton’s most recent position was president and CEO of the Effingham County Industrial Development Authority and the executive director of the Effingham County Chamber of Commerce. Lofton brings a wide range of experience to the position including time served as the executive director of the Lee County Chamber of Commerce and the Lee County Development Authority.”See the difference? “Lofton’s most recent position was” in the Moultrie article is “Lofton is currently the” on the VLCIA’s own web site. So which was it? Continue reading
Vernon, California: they only cared about jobs
Adam Nagourney writes in the NY Times 1 March 2011: Plan Would Erase All-Business Town
VERNON, Calif. — Vernon is a bleak, 5.2-square-mile sprawl of warehouses, factories, toxic chemical plants and meat processors that looks like the backdrop for “Eraserhead,” the David Lynch movie set in an industrial wasteland. It has a population of 95 — and 1,800 businesses, drawn by low taxes, lax regulations and cheap municipal power.The rest of the story is mostly about how it’s gotten so bad Continue readingIt also has a history of corruption and public malfeasance going back nearly 50 years.
The politics of climate change denial
And the reason is that climate change is now seen as an identity issue on the right. People are defining themselves, like they’re against abortion, they don’t believe in climate change. It’s part of who they are.It’s like denying the earth goes around the sun. Why would they identify with such a silly thing? Because of what actually dealing with climate change would mean: Continue reading