Category Archives: Planning

Pro-pot reform equals votes

Why are we still arresting people for pot? Do we need to feed the private-prison-industrial-complex that bad? Nobody here profits by this racket (at least we hope they don't) other than illegal drug dealers. It's time to legalize, tax, and regulate.

Paul Armentano wrote for AlterNet 10 July 2012, There's Been a Tectonic Shift on Marijuana Across the US, Except in Washington — Why Can't We Pop the Beltway Bubble?

America is at a tipping point when it comes to the politics of pot. Never in modern history has there existed greater public support for ending this nation's nearly century-long experiment with cannabis prohibition and replacing it with a system legalization and regulation. Moreover, state and local politicians beyond the ‘Beltway bubble’ for the first time in many decades are responding to this sea change in public opinion, even if their colleagues in Washington are not. From Rhode Island to Texas, from New York City to Chicago, lawmakers are finally acknowledging that being pro-pot reform equals votes. The question is: Why isn't Washington getting the message?

How much change in public opinion?

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Colquitt EMC gets USDA funding, but not for smart grid

Local rural Georgia electric co-op Colquitt EMC nets USDA smart grid funding! Just not for actually doing smart grid. Funny how almost no states within Southern Company's sphere of influence got any of that funding. Too bad; we could use some of those jobs and retention of existing industries.

USDA PR 11 July 2012, Agriculture Secretary Vilsack Announces Funding to Improve Rural Electric Infrastructure: Funding Includes $10 Million for Smart Grid Technology

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced that rural electric cooperatives and utilities in 15 states will receive loan guarantees to make improvements to generation and transmission facilities and implement smart grid technologies.

"Maintaining and upgrading rural electric systems creates jobs and supports economic development," Vilsack said. "These loans I am announcing today will have a lasting impact on the rural landscape for generations to come. They will help ensure that rural areas can retain existing businesses, support new ones and have reliable, up-to-date infrastructure."

With this funding, USDA Rural Development moves closer to reaching Secretary Vilsack's goal to fund more than $250 million for smart grid technologies. Today's announcement includes support for more than $10 million in smart grid technologies, which help utilities make efficiency improvements to the electric grid and help consumers lower their electric bills by reducing energy use in homes and businesses.

Here's the one project in Georgia:

Colquitt Electric Membership Corporation — $20,000,000. Funds will be used to build and improve 478 miles of distribution line and make other system improvements, serving 3,284 customers.

That's my EMC! Go Colquitt EMC!

Wait, where's the smart grid project? Well, not in Georgia. In Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Minnesota, North Carolina (two in that state), Pennsylvania, South Dakota, and Texas. The only state in Southern Company's "Competitive Generation Opportunities" area with a smart grid project on that list is North Carolina. Just as North Carolina is the only state in that area with a renewable energy standard.

Southern Company and its child Georgia Power, successfully repelling electric innovation since 1973!

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Sidewalk snaps up behind coal in Georgia: Snapping Shoals EMC drops Power4Georgians

Only a few months ago, Cobb EMC pulled out of Power4Georgians and their coal plant plans; now Snapping Shoals EMC does the same. The sidewalk is indeed snapping up behind coal in Georgia. As once again customers of an EMC decide to run for its board. Southern Company and Georgia Power, are you listening? Not just about coal; also about those new nukes.

The insurgent candidates have a facebook page, Smart Energy for Snapping Shoals.

PR yesterday from Georgians for Smart Energy, Snapping Shoals EMC Backs Away From Risky Coal Plant Venture

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GA PSC Forum videos online now

I hear somebody asked about Georgia Power's Construction Work in Progress (CWIP) stealth tax charge to customers for Southern Company's new nukes at Plant Vogtle. Maybe some of these candidates for the Public Service Commission could help get Georgia Power and SO to stop suppressing solar and wind in Georgia, maybe even to lead the way.

GIPL wrote today,

Thanks to everyone who came out to our Political Forum on the Georgia Public Service Commission. We had a great turnout, and learned a lot about the 2012 candidates for the PSC.

This is a statewide election, so please share this video far and wide with your friends. The primary election will be held on July 31, and the PSC will also be on the ballot in November.

Participants in last night's forum included (from left to right) Republican Matthew Reid and Democrat Steve Oppenheimer, who are both challenging incumbent Republican Commissioner Chuck Eaton in District 3, and Republican Pam Davidson and Libertarian David Staples, who are running against incumbent Republican Commissioner Stan Wise in District 5.

Beth Bond from Southeast Green moderated the media panel featuring Kristi Swartz from the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Walter Jones from Morris News Service, and Jonathan Shapiro from WABE.

Georgia Interfaith Power & Light hosted this forum. Co-hosts included 14 local environmental, religious, and advocacy organizations, including Southeast Green, Georgia WAND, GA Sierra Club, Civic League of Regional Atlanta, Glenn Memorial UMC Environmental Committee, GreenLaw, Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance, Common Cause, League of Women Voters, Georgia Watch, Ryan Taylor Architects LLC, Sustainable Atlanta, Regional Council of Churches of Atlanta, Inc., Trinity Presbyterian Church Sustainability Committee, and the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.

Here's the video:

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Solar already beats gas

Here’s an answer to the question of How long until solar beats gas?

Gayle Reaves wrote for fwweekly 11 July 2012, Serious about Solar,

Even on not-so-sunny days, solar still produces. David Power, deputy director of Public Citizen’s Texas office, said that back in February, when cold weather and power plant outages produced blackouts, CPS‘ solar farm was on line and producing. “It was a pretty nasty day, cloudy, and there was a couple of inches of ice on the solar farm,” he said. “But they were still getting 30 to 35 percent of normal production out of it, even on the worst day you could imagine.”

Costs for solar panels have dropped dramatically in the last few years, although by some measures solar energy is still more expensive than that from gas-burning plants.

Power said that the comparisons that show solar to be more expensive are measuring the cost of building a solar plant compared to generating power from a fossil-fuel plant that may have been built and paid for decades ago. In marginal cost comparisons, he said, solar power comes out as costing either the same or less than building a new natural gas plant. “For that you have to get air quality permits and pay for fuel costs,” he said. “For the other, the sun shines, you get electricity, and you just have to wash it off once in a while if it doesn’t rain.”

So the answer is it’s already happened: solar beats gas now. So Southern Company’s fracking plan B makes no more sense than its nuclear Plan A.

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Georgia gets $2 billion under transportation bill

When Georgia gets $2 billion from the just-signed federal highway bill, why are federal Interstate 75 Exits 2 and 11 on our Region 11 T-SPLOST list?

Charles Edwards wrote for WABE 6 July 2012, Georgia gets $2 billion under transportation bill

The Georgia Department of Transportation will get infrastructure money under a U-S House resolution President Obama recently signed into law.

Yet more evidence that T-SPLOST is a poorly thought out inappropriate tax. We have through July 31st to vote it down.

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Duke and Progress to buy Santee-Cooper’s Summer nuke?

I erred in saying Duke owns nuclear Summer Station in North Carolina: it’s actually owned by SCANA and Santee Cooper. But I wasn’t as wrong as I thought. It looks like somebody’s been pressuring Duke and Progress, the two utilities currently maybe merging, to buy Summer.

John D. Runkle, attorney for NC WARN, hand-delivered a letter to Robert Gruber Executive Director Public Staff of the NC Utilities Commission on 18 June 2012, Re: INVESTIGATION — Duke-Progress Merger

In preparing comments on the Duke-Progress merger on behalf of the NC Waste Awareness and Reduction Network (NC WARN), we came across several reports that South Carolina officials, including the South Carolina Public Service Commission, were pressuring the utilities to purchase the State-owned Santee Cooper’s shares of the V.C. Summer Nuclear Generating Station.

Santee Cooper owns one-third of the present reactor and 45% of the proposed units 2 and 3. Based on the recent cost estimate of $9.8 billion, buying Santee Cooper’s share would add about $4.5 billion to the cost of the merger. But those are low-ball estimates; other nuclear units in the Southeast are projected to cost roughly twice as much. Realistically, purchasing Santee Cooper’s share would likely add much more to the cost of the merger.

We were unable to find any filings in either the South Carolina or North Carolina dockets regarding the V.C. Summer Station. If a purchase of nuclear units in South Carolina has been made a condition to the merger, it should be part of the public record, and not as some backroom negotiation.

I’d like to see that.

Even more I’d like to see this:

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Live streaming of Public Service Commission Forum tonight

All candidates for the Georgia Public Service Commission at a forum tonight, 7-9PM 12 July 2012. GA PSC is the body that says Georgia Power can charge its customers for cost overruns for the new nukes at Plant Vogtle; the new nukes that will suck up even more water and are already sucking up lots of money through the stealth tax Construction Work in Progress (CWIP) charge on Georgia Power customer bills. GA PSC did require Georgia Power to buy 50 MW of solar, but that’s pennies compared to the dollars Georgia Power and Southern Company are shovelling into that pit by the Savannah River. Who will stand up and say enough nuclear is too much, and let’s get on with solar and wind?

Georgia Interfaith Power and Light blogged today, PSC Debate Tonight,

Tonight, GIPL is joining forces with 14 local organizations to host a Political Forum with this year’s candidates for the Public Service Commission.

We’re having technical difficulties with the live web stream. We hope it will be up and running tonight, but if not, the debate will be posted online this week. You can check this website tonight at 7pm for live web streaming, or watch our twitter feed @GeorgiaIPL for updates.

When: Thursday, July 12, 7 – 9 p.m.
Where: Glenn Memorial UMC’s Auditorium/Sanctuary
1660 N. Decatur Road
Atlanta, GA 30307

All four challengers in the 2012 race have confirmed their attendance. Participants

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AP nuclear slant through omission

What's missing in AP's reporting and analysis of nuclear cost overruns?

AP published this Tuesday, News Guide: Nuclear industry facing cost pressures, perhaps as a companion to its story of the same day, Building costs increase at US nuclear sites. Like that story, the news guide is full of accurate and useful information about nuclear cost overruns, and even this good bit of analysis:

Q: Why do building costs matter to customers?

A: Because customers ultimately pay for the construction costs as part of their monthly power bills. The more a plant costs, the more customers will pay.

Yep, Georgia Power customers are already paying through that stealth tax, the construction work in progress (CWIP) charge for new nuke electricity they won't get for years if ever.

Yet something is missing. Can you spot it?

Hint:

Q: How does that compare with building coal- or gas-powered plants?

Good question, and AP correctly answers that nuclear plants are far pricier than coal or gas plants.

But are those three the only sources of energy? Where is the comparison to solar and wind power?

Well, maybe AP won't do it, but here it is already, Georgia Power deploys 1 MW solar; could have done 330 MW by now. Short version: for less than the amount of federal loan guarantees for Plant Vogtle, Southern Company could have built Georgia more solar energy production per capita than Germany, the world leader, has.

Why are we letting Georgia Power and the Southern Company pour our money down that pit near the Savannah River when they could be spending it to deploy solar and wind for more jobs, energy independence, and more profit for Georgia Power and SO? Oh, and clean air and plenty of clean water, too.

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Unemployed need public transit to get to jobs: T-SPLOST doesn’t help

If you're unemployed, you may not be able to afford a car: then how do you get to work even if you can find a job? As our own Industrial Authority's Community Assessment of last October said, we need public transportation to promote business by getting employees to jobs. T-SPLOST doesn't do that: it would widen more roads and build no public transportation.

Peter S. Goodman wrote for Huffington Post today, Unemployment Problem Includes Public Transportation That Separates Poor From Jobs

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — In the two months since he lost his job driving a delivery truck for a door company, Lebron Stinson has absorbed a bitter geography lesson about this riverfront city: The jobs are in one place, he is in another, and the bus does not bridge the divide.

Stinson lives downtown, where many of the factories that once employed willing hands have been converted into chic eateries. The majority of jobs are out in the suburbs, in the strip malls, office parks and chain restaurants that stretch eastward. Most of this sprawl lies beyond reach of the public bus system, and Stinson cannot afford a car.

The report Janus Economic did for VLCIA 11 October 2011, Community & Economic Assessment: Lowndes County says:

There is a plan for a public transportation system in Valdosta-Lowndes County but it currently lacks funding for implementation. Under current budget constraints it will be difficult to implement such a project, but businesses in the industrial parks and outlying areas may want to implement a limited transportation system if they discover that employee attendance is an issue.

That would be the plan for $7.5 million for a four line bus system that got cut first pass from the T-SPLOST project list, while widening a few miles of Old US 41 North got raised from $8 million to $12 million and is still in the final list.

T-SPLOST would promote more sprawl of exactly the kind we don't need. Let's not do that.

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