Tag Archives: History

Germany solar equal to 20 nuclear plants

What's 20 times more powerful than a nuclear plant and didn't already run a billion dollars over budget? German solar plants!

Erik Kirschbaum wrote for Reuters 26 May 2012, Germany sets new solar power record, institute says,

German solar power plants produced a world record 22 gigawatts of electricity per hour—equal to 20 nuclear power stations at full capacity—through the midday hours on Friday and Saturday, the head of a renewable energy think tank said….

Norbert Allnoch, director of the Institute of the Renewable Energy Industry (IWR) in Muenster, said the 22 gigawatts of solar power per hour fed into the national grid on Saturday met nearly 50 percent of the nation's midday electricity needs….

The record-breaking amount of solar power shows one of the world's leading industrial nations was able to meet a third of its electricity needs on a work day, Friday, and nearly half on Saturday when factories and offices were closed.

Berlin is at more than 52 degrees north latitude. Even southern German city Munich is at 48 degrees north. That's a thousand miles north of where we sit here in south Georgia at 31 degrees north.

Germany has sun like Alaska, while Georgia has sun like the south of Spain.

"Never before anywhere has a country produced as much photovoltaic electricity," Allnoch told Reuters. "Germany came close to the 20 gigawatt (GW) mark a few times in recent weeks. But this was the first time we made it over."

Maybe it's time for the Southern Company and Georgia Power to get out of the way and let the Georgia legislature change the Georgia Territorial Electric Service Act of 1973 so we can get on with solar power in Georgia. How about if Southern Company and Georgia Power also stop pouring money into the leaking nuclear bucket and buy solar power instead.

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ALEC loses 8 more, including Wal-Mart

Even Wal-Mart ditches ALEC! What about the Southern Company?

ALEC Exposed is keeping a list of Corporations Which Have Cut Ties to ALEC, and since the ten we last counted, eight more have jumped the sinking lobbying ship: Blue Cross Blue Shield, YUM! Brands, Procter & Gamble, Kaplan, Scantron, Amazon, Medtronic, and Wal-Mart. That’s right, even Wal-Mart. Jason Easley wrote for Politicus USA yesterday, Wal-Mart Dumps ALEC and Outs Them as Un-American,

In a statement, Wal-Mart representative Maggie Sans wrote, “Previously, we expressed our concerns about ALEC’s decision to weigh in on issues that stray from its core mission ‘to advance the Jeffersonian principles of free markets…We feel that the divide between these activities and our purpose as a business has become too wide. To that end, we are suspending our membership in ALEC.”

Wal-Mart claimed that ALEC was no longer as interested in Jeffersonian free market principles as they were other partisan political issues. Two of those unnamed political issues are most certainly voter ID and stand your ground laws.

When even Wal-Mart complains that ALEC isn’t “free market” enough, Wal-Mart, which Continue reading →

Coal ash and political spending transparency shareholder resolutions defeated @ SO 2012-05-23

Defeated, but with increased shareholder support this year, two shareholder transparency resolutions have been introduced year after year at Southern Company (SO), one on coal ash and the other on political spending. Here’s video of the political spending resolution being presented at the meeting, and here’s the text of the resolution. This year as usual the SO board opposed both resolutions, and as you can hear SO CEO Thomas A. Fanning announce in this video, both were voted down, with these percentages:

The reasons the board gave for opposing the political spending transparency resolution include that SO claims it is already disclosing everything it needs to. Much of that disclosure started in 2006 due to shareholder and outside pressure to do so. Center for Political Accountability press release 5 April 2006,

McDonald’s (NYSE: MCD) and Southern Co. (NYSE:SO) agreed to disclose and have their directors oversee soft money political contributions made with corporate funds, shareholder activists announced today. The groups, Washington-based Center for Political Accountability (CPA), socially responsible investment firm Trillium Asset Management Corp., and the Central Laborers’ Pension Fund, are part of a nationwide campaign to bring transparency and accountability to company political spending.

In its own 2012 statement of opposition, the SO board noted shareholder pressure is having an effect on transparency:

Continue reading →

Strickland Mill in Remerton —Emily Foster

Received yesterday. -jsq

FYI: The Strickland Mill in Remerton is being threatened with demolition. Remerton City Council will meet to discuss this situation on Monday, June 4th at 5:30pm during their work session, and on Monday, June 11th at 5:30pm to vote on the matter. The public is invited to both of these meetings to express opinions on the possible demolition of the Mill. As you all are aware, this mill complex dates to 1899 and is one of the few surviving textile mills in our region. This is an important community landmark and was very influential to the development of Valdosta, not to mention integral to Remerton's existence.

Emily Conklin Foster

Shareholder Questions to Southern Company

Nuclear is our only emissionless technology, said Southern Company (SO) CEO Thomas A. Fanning. That would indicate that solar and wind have emissions. I assume he just mis-spoke in his otherwise masterful responses (often not answers) to shareholder questions.

Slides and sound for CEO Fanning’s main presentation are available on SO’s website. He indicated SO is unmatched in a combination of financial aspects, including dividends that have steadily increased year after year, and especially investment stability. He neglected to mention that much of those dividends are made possible by Georgia Power’s guaranteed profit margins. He did find time to oppose big government regulation, which is ironic, since Southern Company is a big beneficiary of Georgia’s numerous regulations benefitting Georgia Power. He also bragged about the Georgia legislature passing the “Energy Rate Increases to Finance Nuclear Power Plant Construction”.

During the Q&A session, I congratulated CEO Fanning on his 62% compensation raise last year, and noted that Georgia Power customers also got a raise, Continue reading →

Florida utility delays nuke, asks for rate hike

Florida is already experiencing a likely future for the new Plant Vogtle nukes in Georgia: completion date pushed back, and customer charges raised.

Fred Hiers wrote for Gainesville.com 1 May 2012, Progress asks for nuke fee hike,

Progress Energy announced Tuesday that it is hiking the estimated cost of its proposed Levy County nuclear plant and pushing the plant’s completion date back to 2024.

Progress Energy also said it plans to ask Florida regulators to increase customers’ bills to upgrade Progress’ damaged Crystal River nuclear plant.

Progress said in a press release that the new cost of the plant could be as high as $24 billion. The previous estimate was about $2 billion less. The plant was originally slated to go online in 2016, but that deadline continues to get pushed back.

2016 to 2024? An eight year delay? And from $22 billion to $24 billion, or 9% more? It looks like Progress Energy has started down the path of many $billion cost overruns that The Southern Company and Georgia Power already went down 30 years ago and have already started back down again. Georgia Power customers: don’t be surprised if your rates go up more for nukes that get pushed still farther into the future.

Meanwhile, by John Hanger’s estimates, an extra $1 billion would buy about 450 MW of wind power or about 330 MW of solar power. So that $2 billion expected cost rise would buy about Continue reading →

Videos @ GLPC 2012-02-27

Here are videos of the entire February meeting of the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC). I would post their agenda, but they didn’t publish one.

They elect new officers annually. The previous chairman, Tommy Willis, handed over to the new chairman, Bill Slaughter. The recognized outgoing members John Bailey from Hahira and W.G. Walker from Dasher and former chairman Tommy Willis and introduced Ryan Warren as the new member from Dasher. (Who’s the new member from Hahira?)

See these two items previously posted:

Here’s a video playlist:

Regular Session, Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 27 February 2012.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).

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Conservation at Lake Alapaha: REZ-2012-02 Dinkins @ GLPC 2012-02-27

How did conservation zoning get put on part of Robert Dinkins’ property at Lake Alapaha? County records conflict on that point. Was it important to keep that conservation zoning? Staff thought so, but the Planning Commission thought otherwise, and the Lowndes County Commission decided to agree.

The second county case in the 27 February 2012 Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC) meeting was REZ-2012-02 Dinkins, Southern Shore, 0264 007 A&B, ~97 ac., R-21 & CON to R-A, well/septic. They spent 8 1/2 minutes on it, mainly listening to the requester, Robert Dinkins, wonder how any part of the subject property was zoned for conservation. Staff recommended the conservation zoning remain. GLPC voted to recommend removing it.

REZ-2012-02 got 2:37 12 March 2012 Work Session of the Lowndes County Commission and 6:49 in its 13 March 2012 Regular Session. The County Commission voted to remove the conservation zoning. Here’s a previous post with more detail about that.

Here’s a video playlist of this rezoning item in all three meetings (GLPC, LCC Work Session, and LCC Regular Session):

Conservation at Lake Alapaha: REZ-2012-02 Dinkins
Regular Session, Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 27 February 2012.
Work Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 12 March 2012.
Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 13 March 2012.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).

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Width, houses, and inheritance: REZ-2012-01 Whitehead/Black @ GLPC 2012-02-27

Housing, driveway width and possible change to the ULDC, conveyance to relatives, number of housing units, and other issues: the Planning Commission discussed all these and recommended a rezoning with a few conditions (limit of 2 houses). The County Commission zipped through making a decision.

The first county case in the 27 February 2012 Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC) meeting was REZ-2012-01 Whitehead/Black, 218-82 & 82A, ~7.1 ac., 2 lots, E-A/R-A to R-A, well/septic. They spent more than 27 minutes (1:09 + 3:54 + 6:02 + 1:21 + 1:40 + 2:56 + 2:56 + 0:59 + 6:16) on REZ-2012-01.

Compare that to the 5 minutes in the 12 March 2012 Work Session of the Lowndes County Commission and approximately 5 minutes in the 13 March 2012 Regular Session as the Lowndes County Commission approved the rezoning with the limitation on only 2 houses.

Time isn’t everything, and staff did visit the site and clarify some points and Commissioners did ask a few questions in the Work Session, but the Planning Commission spent much more time examining this case.

Here’s a video playlist of REZ-2012-02 in all three meetings (GLPC, LCC Work Session, and LCC Regular Session):

Width, houses, and inheritance: REZ-2012-01 Whitehead/Black
Regular Session, Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 27 February 2012.
Work Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 12 March 2012.
Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 13 March 2012.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).

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Quitman 10+2 petition

Funny how only the actions of the black activists who won school board seats got investigated by the GBI, and only they were charged with anything, despite a number of irregularities among the losers. If that doesn't seem right to you, this may be of interest: U.S. Justice Department – Eric Holder: Identify prosecutorial misconduct/voter suppression in Quitman 10 +2 case

Many voters in Brooks County are older African-Americans who are senior citizens in their 60's, 70's and 80's that witnessed first-hand the politics of Jim Crow in the last century, but had to deal with GBI agents coming to their doorsteps of their small rural town with guns strapped to their side asking questions. Some were voting for the first time or the first time in years in 2010, but there has been an ongoing effort by Republicans to present more obstacles and/or threats to eligible voters so they would be discouraged not to vote.

I think the Quitman 10+2's real crime was very simple: winning. Even worse, they used an innovative strategy (absentee ballots) for an end-run around their opponents. If that school board election in Brooks County had been a football game, the Q10+2 would be hailed as heroes by the local and state press for winning the game. Why is winning an election by legal means not accorded the same treatment?

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