Georgia state officials say the pace for early voting
is slower this year than for previous presidential elections,
but as Eyewitness News reporter Greg Gullberg shows us,
you’d never know it in Lowndes County….
Jessica’s not alone.
In fact, she was joined by a wave of voters of all ages
here in the first week of early voting here in Georgia.
Now they’ve actually
already set an all-time record
here in Lowndes County
for the most votes in the
first two days of a presidential election, with almost three thousand.
This thing is astonishingly poorly advertised,
unless you happen to follow one of the organizing organizations.
It’s not in the VDT calendar,
it’s not on
the conference center’s calendar,
and people keep asking when and where is it.
Now you know.
Lets face it — its rare we see a government goal reached on
time, let alone early. Not too long ago, the Danish Government
announced an ambitious goal to reach 200 megawatts of solar capacity
by 2020, and as of last week, they have already met it! The country
is currently installing an average of 36 megawatts of solar panels
each month. At this rate, their resulting capacity by 2020 will be
over five times the original goal. Denmark's power is currently
20% supplied by renewable sources, and the nation has set a goal of
sourcing 100% of its energy from renewable sources by 2050.
So Denmark has already deployed four times as much solar capacity
as GA PSC required of Georgia Power,
and almost as much solar capacity as Georgia Power has just asked GA PSC to approve.
While deploying more per month than Southern Company's largest solar farms anywhere.
The Georgia Sierra Club sent a questionnaire to all candidates for
Georgia Public Service Commission.
None of the incumbents answered.
The two challengers did.
Here’s the one from
Steve Oppenheimer
for District 3.
-jsq
As a Candidate for Public Service Commission, what is your campaign strategy for achieving 50% +1 of the votes cast?
[I’m omitting the answers to this question. -jsq]
How should the Public Service Commission consider and
weight the impacts to community health (asthma, cancer rates, etc.)
and on Georgia’s environmental (water quantity, air quality etc.)
when making decisions about a utility’s generation portfolio?
The PSC has a major role shaping energy policy for Georgia. I would
like to schedule PSC hearings on the relationship of power
production and our air, water, morbidity and mortality and our
general quality of life. My professional background in dentistry &
health care provides a keen understanding of the relationship of
power generation and health. Dr David Satcher, former US Surgeon
General and Executive Director Satcher Health Leadership Institute
at Morehouse University has become a friend and part of my
professional network during the campaign. I would like to see PSC
convene hearings on the topic. Georgians for a Healthy Future, a
relatively new, broad based, organization would provide another
forum for discussion of these issues. Membership in Georgians for a
Healthy Future includes Georgia Legislators on both sides of the
aisle. The PSC must be a leader on these issues—as the
legislature as a body will likely not be progressive on these
issues.
The Georgia Sierra Club sent a questionnaire to all candidates for
Georgia Public Service Commission.
None of the incumbents answered.
The two challengers did.
Here’s the one from
David A. Staples for District 5.
-jsq
As a Candidate for Public Service Commission, what is your
campaign strategy for achieving 50% +1 of the votes cast?
[I’m omitting the answers to this question. -jsq]
How should the Public Service Commission consider and weight the
impacts to community
health (asthma, cancer rates, etc.) and on Georgia’s environmental
(water quantity, air quality
etc.) when making decisions about a utility’s generation portfolio?
Impacts to community health and the environment have to be considered
very carefully. I know
there are a number of different ways of viewing the situation but the
explanation I’ve found
that works best with Republicans in trying to get their support is that
it comes down to a private
property matter. The right to swing ones fist ends at the other
person’s nose. Does anyone have
the right to pollute the air that I breathe or the water that I drink?
If I buy a piece of property for
instance along the Savannah River or Ogeechee River, does someone
upstream from me have
the right to pollute the water that then flows onto my land, carrying
those pollutants with it?
States that empower multiple entities to act as charter school
authorizers realize significantly lower growth in academic learning
in their students, on the order of -.08 standard deviations.
Currently we have
the local boards of education that authorize charter schools at a
very high rate, 94%. If the charter is not approved by the local
board then they can appeal to the Dept of Ed. For approval. So, by
adding another authorizer in the form of the UNCONSTITUTIONAL
charter school commission you simply reduce the academic learning of
the students! This is not about education this amendment is about
the money earned by some to keep power! Our constitution states that
we have an obligation to provide free quality education to all
Georgians. We have no obligation to line the pockets of the rich
with our tax dollars!
Karen Noll spoke to the Lowndes County Commission Tuesday
about the charter school amendment,
saying it would implement taxation without representation
and would take more tax dollars from our public schools
to give twice as much money to special charter school students.
When you’re talking about my kids in the schools
and you’re going to take their money
and ship it to somebody else’s family and then there’s no accountability,
that’s just unacceptable.
So if Southern Company is a “great, big company” similar to Australia,
why did Australia just deploy a solar farm ten times the size of
the biggest one SO has in Georgia?
From an energy standpoint, Southern Company is a little bit smaller,
but similar to, the energy production profile of the nation of
Australia. We are a great, big company from an energy production
standpoint.
At about 11am local time near the Western Australian town of
Geraldton this morning, Australia’s first-utility scale solar farm
was officially switched on.
It was a suitably sunny day (blighted by three million flies) and
although just 10MW in size, and built courtesy of funding from the
local government, a state-owned utility and by one of the wealthiest
companies on the planet, it may presage a dramatic change in the way
this country produces energy.
So what’s SO or Georgia Power’s biggest solar plant in Georgia?
You remember,
1 MW in Upson.
OK, to be fair, that’s just Georgia Power.
SO does have larger solar farms elsewhere, including
Let's look at Georgia's non-unionized public schools.
So far as I know, Georgia does not have teachers' unions.
But there's still no reason to believe charter schools in Georgia
would be any more magic
than in Chicago.
So if someone has a charter school idea that they think will perform
better than public schools,
they can talk to their local school board about that, and maybe
that local board will agree.
There's no need to authorize an unelected Atlanta board to force that charter
school on us.
Vote No on the charter school amendment in November.
A record 2,861 total votes were cast
in Lowndes County by Tuesday 16 October 2012.
Georgia state officials say the pace for early voting is slower this year than for previous presidential elections, but as Eyewitness News reporter Greg Gullberg shows us, you’d never know it in Lowndes County….
Jessica’s not alone. In fact, she was joined by a wave of voters of all ages here in the first week of early voting here in Georgia. Now they’ve actually already set an all-time record here in Lowndes County for the most votes in the first two days of a presidential election, with almost three thousand.
