learn it live is making the official video record.
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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 |
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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!
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“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:
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?“What is it we as a nation need to understand about our own energy security?”
The main vulnerabilities are: Continue reading
He directly challenged Gov. Deal and the legislature.“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.”
“This is about goodness and light, and sound economics.”
The next speaker (didn’t get his name, sorry) ran through some statistics, including:
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We already knew that, but JPI has quantified it: Continue readingYesterday, 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.
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
Here’s the video: Continue reading…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.
Gardeners are ready to “get dirty” following Tuesday’s Common Council passage of long-awaited leases to turn 34 vacant city-owned lots into neighborhood oases.
Lawmakers approved the leases unanimously and without debate. Some community gardeners have been eagerly awaiting the action for three years.
Mayor Byron W. Brown’s administration delayed submitting the master leases because of numerous concerns. The logjam ended late last week when city planners sent the proposed agreements to the Council for final action.
“We have our insurance signed up, so we’ll Continue reading
Patrick Davis wrote, Rural Republicans in Georgia can’t have it both ways on immigration reform
That last link is to Parolees to replace migrants? Gov. Deal says put probationers in fields by David Rodock in the VDT 15 June 2011, which included: Continue readingWith the law passed and ready for implementation, many rural farmers—especially in Central and South Georgia—are taking notice to the exodus of migrant workers and immigrants which has left some farmers without workers to pick crops.
Many of these same farmers that are hurting economically and losing crops in these rural counties had voted Republican for years.
Valdosta’s Ellis Black who represents parts of Lowndes County as a state representative helped to pass Gov. Nathan Deal’s conservative and punitive agenda and consequently it has contributed to drive an increasing number of migrant workers out of the Peach State.