Author Archives: admin

Duke Dump ALEC @ DNC 2012-09-05


150,000+ People Demand Duke Dump ALEC --Whit Jones
Leaving another event, I saw this on the street in Charlotte.
Whit Jones said they’d just had a demonstration demanding Duke Energy dump ALEC.
Also that he had encountered Duke CEO Jim Rogers and asked him when
Duke would dump ALEC.
Rogers was uncommittal.
Here’s

Jones’ blogged account of that encounter:

In short, I asked Duke’s CEO Jim Rogers if he would listen


to the
over 100,000 people who are calling on him to have Duke Dump ALEC
and stop funding voter repression. He responded that “he’d be
listening,” and when I pressed him for a commitment to drop ALEC he
said “I’m not going to give you [a commitment right now] but you can
trust that I’m paying attention to what you’re saying, and you’ll
know in due time.”

Here’s

video of the event.

Continue reading →

NRC rejects nuke permit for EDF in Maryland

French nuclear operator Électricité de France (EDF)



was denied a license last week for the proposed Calvert Cliffs
nuclear reactor in Maryland, because the
Atomic Energy Act of 1954 prohibits majority foreign ownership
of nuclear plants.
EDF now has 60 days to find a U.S. partner, or give up the project.
Who could the possible suitors be?
Hint: think southeast.

The handwriting was on the wall two years ago when
Constellation Energy pulled out of the project.
Jim Polson and Alan Katz wrote for Bloomberg 10 October 2010,

Constellation Drops Nuclear Plant, Denting EDF’s U.S. Plans,

Constellation Energy Group Inc. pulled out of negotiations on a $7.5


billion loan guarantee to build a nuclear reactor in Maryland with
Electricite de France SA, potentially damaging the French utility’s
U.S. expansion plans and the companies’ partnership.

The cost of the U.S. government loan guarantee that the companies’
joint venture, UniStar Nuclear Energy, would need to build the
Calvert Cliffs 3 reactor is too high and creates too much risk for
Constellation, the Baltimore-based utility said in a statement
yesterday. The statement said the next step is up to EDF. Enlarge
image U.S. Deputy Energy Secretary Daniel Poneman

In a letter Oct. 8 to Daniel Poneman, deputy secretary of the U.S.
Department of Energy, Constellation said it received a government
estimate that the venture would have to pay about $880 million to
the U.S. Treasury for the loan guarantee, “dramatically out of
line with both our own independent assessments and of what the
figure should reasonably be.”

Constellation’s decision may make it more likely that the U.S.
utility will exercise a put option forcing EDF to buy as much as $2
billion of Constellation’s non-nuclear power plants, said Ingo
Becker, head of utilities sector research at Kepler Capital Markets.

“EDF very clearly said if they exercise the put, this thing is
over,” Becker said. “Constellation may have just turned
around the calendar and pulled out of the new build before
exercising the put, anticipating EDF’s reaction.”

In a letter Oct. 8 to Daniel Poneman, deputy secretary of the U.S.
Department of Energy, Constellation said it received a government
estimate that the venture would have to pay about $880 million to
the U.S. Treasury for the loan guarantee, “dramatically out of
line with both our own independent assessments and of what the
figure should reasonably be.”

Meanwhile, Southern Company

is still trying to reduce what it has to pay for its
$8.3 billion federal loan guarantee.

Back in Maryland, the news got worse for the nuke last year.
EDF

asked for the state’s help,
but didn’t get the answer it wanted.
Scott Dance wrote for Baltimore Business Journal 16 December 2011,

EDF: Constellation-Exelon settlement hurts Maryland nuclear industry,

Continue reading →

Energy experts making excuses for fracking

Numerous eminent current and former regulators, governors,
and legislators’ best advice for how to keep fracking from
polluting our aquifers and drinking water: “strict regulation”.
As Gandhi reputedly said about western civilization: that would be a good idea.
But in Georgia and many other places, where the regulatory agency
(GA PSC) and the legislature are pretty much captured by the utilities
they pretend to regulate, how will we get that “strict regulation”?

This was at a Politico event, sponsored by American Wind Power,
called Energy & the Presidency.

Join POLITICO for a lunch conversation with energy experts and
policy leaders

Energy & the Presidency panel
as they discuss current energy legislation, the
energy debates facing the nation, policy options and what’s ahead in
the year to come. Speakers include: ClearView Energy Partners’ Kevin
Book; former Administrator of the EPA and former Director of the
White House Office on Climate Change, Carol Browner; Rep. Ed Markey
(Mass.); former Gov. Bill Richardson (NM) and former Gov. Bill
Ritter (Colo.).

When: Wednesday, September 5, 2012 at 12:00 pm ET



This event was in North Carolina, where the late John Blackburn, Ph.D.
already reported two years ago that

the whole state could be powered by wind, sun, existing hydro, landfill gas, and less natural gas than is already in use,
why do we need fracking at all?

Georgia has similar real renewable energy potential,
plus studies by

Georgia Tech
and Duke
indicate that Georgia doesn’t need any additional total electric power
anyway, if it gets on with energy efficiency.
Add

solar and

wind instead of natural gas, and we can retire a lot of
coal plants.
With no need for fracking.

I have an idea:
let’s elect Public Service Commissioners and legislators who are not
beholden to the utilities they will regulate!

-jsq

New NRC head says agency is standing up for public health and safety

Sounds to me like the NRC is not telling its new chief everything.
For example, what about

Vogtle unit 1 shutting down right after it passed
an NRC review?
What about

cancer in Shell Bluff, Georgia, near the reactors?



Mike M. Ahlers wrote for CNN 14 August 2012,

New NRC chair vouches for agency’s independence, states goals

Allison Macfarlane said Tuesday she has confidence in the agency and
its independence from the nation’s 104 commercial nuclear power
plants.

“I have some strong initial impressions of the agency, and one is
that I’ve been very impressed with the staff and their dedication to
safety, and their willingness to stand up to industry when they
believe a situation is not safe,” Macfarlane said in a wide-ranging
discussion with reporters.



“So I’m actually quite assured that the agency is completing its
mission of protecting public health and safety,” she said. “They
take safety issues very seriously. They take their role as
regulators very seriously and the public should be assure that they
have the public’s best interests in mind.”



Macfarlane said she hopes to build public confidence in the agency
by improving communication, increasing transparency and making NRC
documents understandable. “Some of them are rather opaque,” she
allowed.

She has said some slightly more impressive things back before
she was appointed.

Continue reading →

Who are the owners of the Remerton Mill?

Somebody asked:

Who are the owners of the Remerton Mill?


Remerton Mill Map by Lowndes County Tax Assessor database
It’s not a secret; some of them are usually at the Remerton City Council
meetings that discuss the mill.

According to

the Lowndes County Tax Assessor’s database,
the owner of the property at 1853 W Gordon Street (aka Old Mill Site)
is Remerton Mills, LLC.
According to

Georgia Secretary of State’s corporation database,
the registered agent is Joseph H. Tillman, Sr.,
its articles were filed by Barry Chapman, and the LLC’s management
consists of
Richard J. Nijem,
Joseph H. Tillman, Sr.,
Jesse L. Maranville,
J. Glenn Gregory,
and Eric M. Tillman.

According to the Tax Assessor’s Database,
the adjoining property at 1415 Baytree Road is owned by
Richard J. Nijem, Jesse L. Maranville, Eric M. Tillman, Joseph H. Tillman,
and J. Glenn Gregory:
the same people as Remerton Mill, LLC.

-jsq

Wind second only to natural gas in 2011 added capacity

Looks like Southern Company (SO) bet on the wrong horse.

David Danielson wrote for DoE 14 August 2012,

A Banner Year for the U.S. Wind Industry,

The report finds total U.S. wind power capacity grew to 47,000
megawatts by the end of 2011 and has since grown to 50,000
megawatts, enough to power 12 million homes annually — as many
homes as in the entire state of California. And as wind energy
capacity has grown, more and more wind turbines and components like
towers, blades, gears, and generators are “Made in
America.” Nearly 70 percent of all of the equipment installed
at U.S. wind farms last year came from domestic manufacturers,
doubling from 35 percent in 2005.


Why should SO worry? Wind only came in second in added capacity.
Because of this:

In addition to strong gains in domestic wind manufacturing and
capacity, the report finds that as wind technology improves, costs
are coming down. Technological innovations are helping make longer
and lighter wind turbine blades, while improving turbine performance
and increasing the efficiency of power generation. At the same time,
wind project capital and maintenance costs have continued to
decline.

And wind doesn't even have Moore's Law going for it as much as solar does,
plus solar is usable in more areas than wind.
Add wind and solar and why do we need much natural gas?
(Or any coal or nuclear?)

-jsq

No dumping! Drains to waterways


No dumping

Rainwater only
Seen Saturday near old Pine Grove School.
NPDES is

National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System:

Water pollution degrades surface waters making them unsafe for
drinking, fishing, swimming, and other activities. As authorized by
the Clean Water Act, the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination
System (NPDES) permit program controls water pollution by regulating
point sources that discharge pollutants into waters of the United
States. Point sources are discrete conveyances such as pipes or
man-made ditches. Individual homes that are connected to a municipal
system, use a septic system, or do not have a surface discharge do
not need an NPDES permit; however, industrial, municipal, and other
facilities must obtain permits if their discharges go directly to
surface waters. In most cases, the NPDES permit program is
administered by

authorized states.
Since its introduction in 1972, the NPDES permit program is
responsible for significant improvements to our Nation’s water
quality.

Yes, I know Valdosta also does this.
I like it that in a subdivision in an unincorporated part of Lowndes County
that the county does this.

-jsq

Save the Remerton Mill! —Ransom Gladwin

LTE in the VDT yesterday. -jsq

Part of my teaching load as a professor consists of supervising


student teachers at schools throughout Valdosta State University’s
46-county service area. I have traveled many South Georgia back
roads. What was once a charming rural landscape of unique little
towns has slowly morphed into sameness. Chain-brand retail stores,
fast food, and gas stations are interrupted by strip malls and
storage units. The region’s character has receded in the face of
nationalization and globalization. However, historical features, be
they a restored courthouse or a crumbling tobacco barn, light this
bleakness. They give character, history, and pride to communities.
One such structure is Remerton’s Strickland Mill, now in danger of
complete destruction.

As a member of the Save the Strickland Mill Committee of the
Valdosta Heritage Foundation, we recently toured the mill, with the
approval of the owners and accompanied by Remerton officials. The
original mill is structurally solid. The 1899 structure reflects

Continue reading →

Where would Georgia Solar Utilities Inc. get enough land for 80 MW solar generation?


Plant Branch in Georgia
Where will
Georgia Solar Utilities Inc.
get

the 2,200 acres it says it needs to build 80 MW of solar generation?
Well, it’s supposed to be “adjacent to Georgia Power Co’s coal-burning Plant Branch near Milledgeville, Ga.”, so let’s look there.


Plant Branch Location Map
A

brochure on Plant Branch by Georgia Power
(undated, but last date mentioned is 1998, so I’m guessing 1999)
says:

Located on 1,900 acres on Lake Sinclair in Putnam County between
Eatonton and Milledgeville, Plant Branch was the first
million-plus-kilowatt electric generating station to operate on the
Georgia Power system. It is named for Harllee Branch Jr., former
chairman of the board of Southern Company and president of Georgia
Power. Construction on the plant began in 1961, and by the summer of
1969,

Coal pouring onto pile
four units were in operation. The 1,539,000 kilowatts
generated by Plant Branch provides enough electrical power for
342,000 households.

And now Plant Branch will be among the first to close coal-generating
units.
According to
Melissa Stiers for GPB News 12 July 2011,

Georgia Power Closing Three Plants,

Two coal fired units at Plant Branch in Milledgeville will close in
2013. That’s a result of federal regulation tightening air pollution
controls. The company has said it’s too costly to upgrade those
units.


Plant Branch across Lake Sinclair
As we know, Georgia Power’s parent The Southern Company

claimed it was incompetent to deal with the new EPA regulations
even though it had already announced the Plant Branch closures (amounting to about 770 MW),
and later SO announced

4,000 MW of coal plant closures.

While the various news stories keep saying Plant Branch is in Milledgeville,
actually, it’s on the other side of Lake Sinclair, closer to Eatonville,

Plant Branch site in Putnam County qpublic map
and in Putnam County.
A quick glance at the

Putnam County Tax Assessor database maps
shows that the land parcel containing Plant Branch
is 913.87 acres, much of which isn’t actually used by the plant.
And Georgia Power owns a total of more than 3,000 acres adjacent
to that site.
So I’m guessing the 2,200 acres figure is simply around 3,100 total
Georgia Power acres minus 913 acres for the present Plant Branch site.

Estimates for land needed for a megawatt of solar power generation range

Continue reading →

Sinkhole under the shed

The sinkholes are not just

in the garage
and

under the front steps,



Michael McCormick walking towards his shed
there’s one
under Michael McCormick’s tool shed.
He already jacked up the shed and put blocks under it
after the ground sunk underneath it.
With all these sinkholes on his lot (and more in the yard),
how are they connected underground?
How will they expand?

Here’s

a video playlist:


Videos by Gretchen Quarterman and John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 28 August 2012.

-jsq