Tag Archives: Georgia

Videos: Four board appointments, plus Justice, Water, and Alcohol @ LCC 2015-06-23

$16,915 to upgrade a water main to subsidize a developer, but no approval of $15,957 to study public transportation and truck routing.

Speaking of subsidizing private developers, there’s yet more fallout from the failed 2007 mega-mall-and-subdivision Market Street project; see separate post.

And the Chairman gave an excellent demonstration of why elected officials would benefit by interacting and even debating with citizens, instead of jumping to conclusions and preaching at them.

Here’s the agenda, and the LAKE videos of the previous morning’s Work Session and the budget hearing immediately before the Regular Session. Below are the Regular Session LAKE videos with a few comments, followed by a video playlist. Continue reading →

Videos: Four board appointments, plus Justice, Water, and Alcohol @ LCC 2015-06-22

The Chairman said the Finance Director would make a presentation about the Adoption of the Fiscal Year 2016 Budget Tuesday before they voted; he said nothing about that presentation being the second Public Budget Hearing. See LAKE videos of the first Budget Hearing and of the second budget hearing.

The Commercial Driveway for Raceway on James Road. is yet more fallout from the failed 2007 mega-mall-and-subdivision Market Street project; see separate post. Also five pre-bidders but only one bid, this one from Scruggs Co., for Widening of a Portion of Old US 41 N.

Why is the county paying the cost to Upgrade Water Main at Lake Alapaha Subdivision from 2 inches to 6 inches? At least we found out where and why for the Engineering and Surveying Services for Water and Sewer.

Here’s the agenda. Below are the LAKE videos of the Work Session with a few comments, followed by a video playlist. Continue reading →

Hospitals most likely to deploy microgrids: SGMC next to VSU?

According to a thesis at Georgia Southern, hospitals are the most likely 300x143 States, in A Technical and Economic Feasibility Study of Implementing a Microgrid at Georgia Southern University, by Matthew S. Purser, 1 March 2014 industry to form microgrids, and it’s not just New York State doing microgrids; even Alabama has one. South Georgia Medical Center plus VSU seems like a good microgrid opportunity. Put solar panels on the roofs, buy some Tesla Powerwalls for backup, experiment with some wind…. Maybe the Valdosta-Lowndes Development Authority could help. And use the electricity bill money saved to fund public transportation!

Matthew S. Purser, Georgia Southern, Spring 2014, A Technical and Economic Feasibility Study of Implementing a Microgrid at Georgia Southern University. Continue reading →

New York State awards funds to 85 local microgrid projects

Georgia could do this. Or the Valdosta-Lowndes Development Authority could do it locally. At least one student at Georgia Southern did a thesis on a mcirogrid there. Where’s VSU? Wiregrass Tech? ABAC?

Katherine Tweed, Greentechmedia, 9 July 2015, New York Looks to Cement Its Lead as Microgrid Capital of the World, Continue reading →

Exxon acted on climate change in 1981, funded deniers 27 more years, and is back at same Malaysia oil and gas field

Exxon showed more sense three decades ago than now, when it’s back at the same Malaysian oil and gas field it backed off from in 1981 because it would release massive amounts of carbon dioxide that would accelerate climate change. It’s time to end the era of fossil fuels and get on with changing the world to cheaper, faster, and far cleaner sun, wind, and water power.

A decade before Al Gore’s 1992 book Earth in the Balance, years before Bill McKibben’s 1989 book The End of Nature, before the same year as the publication of the first GISS scientific study on Climate impact of increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide in Science,, according to Suzanne Goldenberg, The Guardian, 8 July 2015, Exxon knew of climate change in 1981, email says — but it funded deniers for 27 more years, Continue reading →

NRC emergency hearing on Spectra AIM fracked methane pipeline past Indian Point nuke

Even the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has finally noticed that Entergy’s Indian Point nuke, already famous for 300x191 Location map, in NRC on Spectra AIM fracked methane pipeline past Indian Point nuke, by Stop the Algonquin Pipeline Expansion (SAPE), 15 July 2015 falsified records, catching fire and leaking oil into the Hudson River, plus being on a fault line, not has Spectra’s Algonquin Incremental Market (AIM) fracked methane pipeline aimed at it. Stop the Algonquin Pipeline Expansion (SAPE), Special meeting of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on AIM Pipeline,

Nuclear Expert Paul Blanch to Present Critical New Information about Dangerous Siting of Spectra AIM Pipeline Next to Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant

Continue reading →

Southern Company and Duke backing solar Florida

Are all the fracking utitilies finally seeing the sunlight? By Backing solar power in Florida, are Duke, Southern Company, TECO, and even FPL’s parent NextEra hedging their bets, or finally realizing where the future is?

Reem Nasr, CNBC, 12 June 2015, The sleeping giant of the solar industry: Florida,

Duke Energy Florida told CNBC that it “is a strong supporter of solar energy and we are committed to helping to grow solar in Florida.” Last month it announced an additional 500 megawatts of solar facilities by 2024, among other solar projects.

Meanwhile in May Duke Energy of Charlotte, North Carolina bought 7.5% of Sabal Trail, along with Spectra Energy of Houston and NextEra Energy of Juno Beach, Florida.

Southern Co., which owns Florida’s Gulf Power, said the following:

Continue reading →

Georgia #1 in solar jobs and China beats its own emissions pledge

It’s great the three biggest climate change problem countries are finally 300x454 E2 Top 10 Q1 2015, in Clean Energy Works for US: Q1 2015 Jobs Report, by Environmental Entrepeneurs, 30 June 2015 committing to emissions reductions and other substantial changes, although not enough to, you know, stop global warming from getting even worse. Meanwhile, CO2 emissions did not increase from 2013 to 2014, even though the global economy grew, and this was largely because of renewable energy deployment in China. That’s right: China is actually leading the way faster on climate change than it is promising to do. And the old fake excuse that we need fossil fuels for economic growth is busted. Oh, and Georgia is leading the U.S.!

Chris Mooney and Steven Mufson, Washington Post, 30 June 2015, In a major moment for climate policy, China, Brazil, and the U.S. all announce new commitments, Continue reading →

Want to help stop racism? End the failed war on drugs!

If we’re tired of arguing over pieces of cloth, how about we do something about one of the main tools of racist oppression in the U.S.? Legalize drugs, thus stopping paying for 75% of the U.S. prison population, which is far more black than white, and is often rented out for literally pennies. Remember, slavery is not illegal in the U.S., as long as it is punishment for some crime. Second clause, 13th Amendment:

except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted

More black men are in jail, prison, probation, or parole now than were enslaved in 1850, as Michelle Alexander has noted. Anyone who says Continue reading →

Georgia Power starts selling rooftop solar tomorrow

For most of June, Georgia Power has had two ads rotating on the 300x225 Sunlight from Georgia Power, in Giving you the power to go solar, by Gretchen Quarterman, 10 June 2015 five LED billboards in Valdosta, saying

Giving you the power to go solar —Georgia Power

When? Tomorrow, July 1st, as Southern Company CEO Tom Fanning said at the SO Stockholder meeting 27 May 2015. Why then? Because that’s when HB 57, aka the Solar Power Free-Market Financing Act of 2015, goes into effect. As Tom Fanning has made his mantra since that meeting:

“If somebody wants to buy distributed generation, I want to sell it to ’em,”

Herman K. Trabish, Utility Dive, 11 June 2015 Inside Georgia Power’s move into the residential solar market: The utility says it will offer solar through an unregulated business, but installers fear possible anticompetitive impacts, Continue reading →