Author Archives: admin

Incinerator forces Harrisburg to sell off parking lots

After defaulting on its incinerator bonds, Harrisburg, PA, gets even more desperate and starts selling off pieces of itself.

William Alden wrote in huffpo 15 June 2011, Harrisburg’s ‘Bad Deal’: City Forced To Pursue Parking System Lease Despite Fears:

The finances of Harrisburg, Pa., are so desperate that local officials are considering a deal they fear will ultimately make the city more miserable.

A state-appointed panel, charged with crafting a financial recovery plan for the city, announced this week that Harrisburg must pursue the sale of public assets to help resolve its fiscal crisis. The nearly-bankrupt state capital, weighed down by debt more than four times the size of its budget, “is not in control of its own destiny,” the state team said in a report.

Three years ago, confronted with a similar budget shortfall, the city considered leasing parking garages and meters in exchange for quick infusion of cash, but that deal was never approved. Last month, the offer resurfaced when New York-based developer LambdaStar expressed renewed interest. Some city leaders harbor a growing fear that Harrisburg will be forced into a deal that will bleed its coffers over the course of decades, after it surrenders valuable assets to a profit-driven company with the power to raise rates on a captive base of customers.

But those misgivings may not matter, as a budget crisis chokes Harrisburg into submission.

“This is a situation where Wall Street will get paid, and the little guys on Main Street, taxpayers, are going to get stuck holding the bag,” Harrisburg City Council Member Brad Koplinski said.

Couldn’t happen here, right? Our local governments would never hastily approve bonds that could force raising taxes or default, would they? Oh, right: they already did.

-jsq

No land for solar in Georgia?

Nelson Hawk, after an excellent panel presentation at the Georgia Solar Summit, repeated the old canard that there’s not much land available for solar in the southeast. I couldn’t stand it, and blurted out “parking lots!” And airports, and road rights of way, and, let me think: rooftops! Or waste water treatment plants, like Valdosta just used, or barns on the north edges of fields, or the acreage Georgia Power is wasting on nuclear plants, or….


Gretchen Quarterman and Dan Corrie
Dan Corrie notes that Cobb EMC bought up 3600 acres in Ben Hill County for a coal plant. That acreage could generate quite a bit of solar power!

-jsq

New Jersey is #2 in solar power: where’s Georgia? —Richard Polich of Kema @ Solar Summit

Did you know New Jersey generates more solar energy than any other state except California? New Jersey, hundreds of miles to the north of Georgia, has 320 megaWatts installed and 329 megaWatts in the pipeline. This is according to Richard Polich of KEMA at the Georgia Solar Summit this morning.

New Jersey, not even Arizona is number 2 in solar in the U.S. According to a recent Arizona State University study, Georgia is the third top state “that would benefit from solar deployment through generating and exporting energy to other states”. Here’s a business opportunity for Georgia!

-jsq

Energy as a National Security Challenge —Col. Dan Nolan @ Solar Summit

In his morning keynote at the sold-out Southern Solar Summit, Col. Dan Nolan (U.S. Army ret.) asked the musical question:
“When did our Marines become Birkenstock-wearing tree huggers?”
This was after some Marines asked for solar power so they wouldn’t have to haul fuel in long convoys, which were among the most dangerous missions. Most of that fuel was going into very inefficient generators to run very inefficient air conditioners in tents in the desert. Dealing with that got the military thinking about energy security: assured access to mission-critical energy.

Looking up, he asked:

“What is it we as a nation need to understand about our own energy security?”
He identified America’s strategic center of gravity as its economy. It’s very resilient but has vulnerabilities open to attack. So how do we secure those vulnerabilities?

The main vulnerabilities are: Continue reading →

From 4 to 40 solar companies in Georgia —James Marlow @ Solar Summit

James Marlow started the Georgia Solar Summit by saying in a few years we’ve gone from four to forty solar companies in Georgia, and we should:
“Stop talking about what we’re going to do in the future, and start talking about what we’re going to do in 100 days.”
He directly challenged Gov. Deal and the legislature.

“This is about goodness and light, and sound economics.”

The next speaker (didn’t get his name, sorry) ran through some statistics, including:

  • 93,502 U.S. solar workers: doubled since 2009
  • 26% growth
  • No other industry is growing like this.
A telling comparison:
  • 1GW nuclear power station takes 10 years to build.
  • In one month Germany installed 2GW of solar last June.
Germany, which is far north of Georgia. Georgia has far more sun.

-jsq

Private prisons spend millions lobbying to lock people up —Justice Policy Institute

Andrea Nill Sanchez wrote 23 June 2011 in ThinkProgress, Private Prisons Spend Millions On Lobbying To Put More People In Jail:
Yesterday, the Justice Policy Institute (JPI) released a report chronicling the political strategies of private prison companies “working to make money through harsh policies and longer sentences.” The report’s authors note that while the total number of people in prison increased less than 16 percent, the number of people held in private federal and state facilities increased by 120 and 33 percent, correspondingly. Government spending on corrections has soared since 1997 by 72 percent, up to $74 billion in 2007. And the private prison industry has raked in tremendous profits. Last year the two largest private prison companies — Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and GEO Group — made over $2.9 billion in revenue.

JPI claims the private industry hasn’t merely responded to the nation’s incarceration woes, it has actively sought to create the market conditions (ie. more prisoners) necessary to expand its business.

We already knew that, but JPI has quantified it: Continue reading →

$3 million T-SPLOST for sprawl on Cat Creek Road

Three million dollars buried on page 90 of the 171 page T-SPLOST Unconstrained Investment List for the Southern Georgia Region to funnel traffic along Cat Creek Road to Moody Air Force Base, promoting sprawl in far north Lowndes County, in an area the Comprehensive Plan says should be for agriculture and forestry.

In amongst the boilerplate and the red herrings (“potentially reducing the incidence of crashes”, “mitigating congestion”) is the real purpose of this project:

Also as a part of the project, protected left turn lanes will be added at various intersections along Cat Creek Road. The proposed intersections include Pine Grove Road, Radar Site Road, New Bethel Road, and Hambrick Road.
There’s a more long-term reason, too, which is hinted at with this further unnecessary work: Continue reading →

A mix is the way to go —Dr. Noll

This comment from Dr. Noll came in today on San Antonio promises to shut down a coal plant:
Of course we can! And “a mix of energy efficiency, [energy conservation,] and new renewable energy projects” (e.g. solar, wind, geothermal)is the way to go. We simply need the political will and communal support to make such a transition possible.

I am still in Germany and am amazed to see just how much progress has been made here in these past couple of years. Solar thermal and solar voltaic installations abound on private residences; wind mills can be seen in many regions; cars are more fuel efficient, houses better insulated, public transportation accessible and affordable, recycling thoroughly organized, etc.

We may still have a long way to go, but until Continue reading →

Harrisburg defaulted on incinerator bonds

Last year Harrisburg, PA defaulted on bonds it issued to build an incinerator, according to Aaron Smith in CNNMoney, Harrisburg, Pa., defaulting on its bonds:
The capital city Pennsylvania is broke and will be skipping this month’s multi-million dollar bond payment.

On Sept. 15, Harrisburg, Pa., was scheduled to make a $3.29 million payment on the bonds it issued to build a trash plant. But, the cash-strapped city doesn’t have the dough.

“The city’s budget is in deficit,” said Chuck Ardo, spokesman for Harrisburg Mayor Linda Thompson. “We’re looking for ways to trim the budget just to keep services going.”

“Now the chickens have come home to roost,” the mayor said in a statement released Wednesday.

You remember, “Officials here decided seven years ago to borrow $125 million to rebuild and expand the city’s enormous trash incinerator….”

Well, that could never happen here, could it?

-jsq

This is what a mayor with vision sounds like

Mayor Julian Castro of San Antonio speaks at 44:25 about
…the nexus between sustainability and job creation. Every now and then, perhaps once in a generation, there presents itself a moment, an opportunity, for those cities that are willing to seize it, to truly benefit the region for generations to come.
Here’s the video: Continue reading →