Category Archives: Coal

VSU President’s Committee votes to divest from fossil fuels

Students, staff, faculty, and administration all say divest from fossil fuels. What will the VSU Foundation do now?
One year after

the committee was appointed 10 April 2014, it made a decision
8 April 2015:



S.A.V.E. applauds the decision by the President’s Special Committee
on Campus Sustainability to support fossil fuel divestment.
Leadership and stewardship are part and parcel to Valdosta State’s
role as an institution of higher education and we call on VSU to
honor these ethos by divesting from fossil fuels, ending its
profiteering from ecological harm, environmental destruction, and
human suffering.

Benjamin Vieth, the representative of Students Against Violating the Environment (S.A.V.E.) on that Committee, sent the above announcement after approval by S.A.V.E.
Among

other organizations included on that committee, Continue reading →

Solar growth like compound interest has turned Al Gore into an optimist

Not even Al Gore saw that the continually decreasing price of
solar power was causing exponential deployment growth that
will win within a decade. But now he does.
Since solar is going to win, building destructive and hazardous
petroleum pipelines for short-term profit for a few executives and investors
would be short-sighted at best.
Let’s stop those pipelines, LNG export, and fracking, and plug in to
sun, wind, and water power for a clean and prosperous future.

Experts predicted in 2000 that wind generated power worldwide would


reach 30 gigawatts; by 2010, it was 200 gigawatts, and by last year
it reached nearly 370, or more than 12 times higher. Installations
of solar power would add one new gigawatt per year by 2010,
predictions in 2002 stated. It turned out to be 17 times that by
2010 and 48 times that amount last year.

And you ain’t seen nothing yet: Continue reading →

Georgia Power buys 99MW in two Georgia solar projects

Decatur County scores two big solar projects.
When will Lowndes County get a move on in solar?
How about some projects like this at your empty industrial parks,
Valdosta-Lowndes Development Authority?
Now that even Southern Company CEO Tom Fanning is bragging about renewable
energy, maybe the solar sun is shining enough for other local governments
to see it.

Southern Company PR, PRnewsWire, 20 February 2015,

Southern Company subsidiary acquires two Georgia solar projects totaling 99 megawatts,



Southern Company subsidiary Southern Power today announced the
acquisition of two photovoltaic (PV) solar projects totaling 99
megawatts (MW) in Georgia — the 80-MW

Decatur Parkway Solar
Project and the 19-MW

Decatur County Solar Project — from
Tradewind Energy, Inc.

The projects were proposed by Continue reading →

Ask Sabal Trail to invest in solar farms instead of pipelines –Alton Paul Burns @ TCC 2014-12-09



He concluded, “There’s nothing beneficial to the state of Georgia in this pipeline.”
Some Commissioners had never heard of Sabal Trail:
now they have, from local resident Alton Paul Burns,
at their

9 December 2014 Thomas County Commission Regular Session,
and they know it could come right through Thomasville.

Discussing

among themselves, one Commissioner remarked that the pipeline
wouldn’t go through her place, but it was still a concern, and they
should ask Sabal Trail to come explain themselves.

Later, Continue reading →

Even more U.S. solar jobs than in coal or oil and gas extraction



In a year solar jobs increased more than 20% to 142,000,
according to the

National Solar Jobs Census 2013.

Let’s remember Politifact Rhode Island rated as true
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse’s claim that

there are already more solar jobs than coal mining jobs.
And already last year there were

more solar jobs than in production and nonsupervisory oil and gas extraction.
That was 119,000 solar jobs according to the

National Solar Jobs Census 2012
by the Solar Foundation; thus the 20% increase.

Meanwhile, “production and nonsupervisory employees” in the oil and
gas extraction industry increased 4% from 106,400 in September 2013 to
110,600 in September 2014, according to

Oil and Gas Extraction: NAICS 211 by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Total oil and gas industry employment increased 8% from
197,500 to 213,100 in the same period.

Of course, we really should be using the 2013 (not 2014) oil and gas figures
to compare Continue reading →

China, U.S., and Russia energy deals: bad news for Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline?

The U.S. and China made a historic deal on climate change this week.


Here’s the good (it’s real, it’s huge, and it’s positive economically
for both countries), the bad (nuclear is first on the list of those “clean energy” sources), and the ugly.
Also this week China made a second huge natural gas deal with Russia:
what does that mean to the current U.S. push for LNG exports,
including the proposed Sabal Trail pipeline gouge through Georgia?

The Deal

Rebecca Leber, The New Republic, 12 November 2014,

The World Has Waited for the U.S. and China to Take Action on Climate Change. They Just Did.

President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping announced on
Wednesday commitments to reduce both countries’ greenhouse gas
emissions. The surprise announcement, which came while Obama visits
Beijing this week, is the clearest sign yet the two countries are
serious on climate change.

After months of negotiations Continue reading →

China can go 80% sun, wind, water power by 2050 –WWF


300x424 Cover, in China's Future Generation, by WWF, February 2014
If the most populous country in the world can do it,
even the Sunshine State and the rest of the world can do it.
With no new nuclear,
depending heavily on on energy efficiency and conservation,
using China’s huge number of rooftops for solar power,
with almost as much wind power, plus a bit more hydropower,
China can go 80% renewable energy by 2050.
While reducing energy use per capita and increasing
GDP per capita.
So this path will not only improve Chinese quality of life
by getting rid of massive pollution by

reducing emissions 90% from
otherwise-projected levels; it will also give Chinese citizens
more money in their pockets.
China has no more sunshine than the U.S. or much of Canada does,
so there’s no reason the Canada, U.S., and pretty much every country can’t do this, too. Continue reading →

Georgians march in NYC for climate action

It’s a start.
At least New York City is already doing something.
Time for Georgia to stop burning more fossil fuels and uranium
and get on with solar power.


By Lisa W. Foderaro, NY Times, 21 September 2014,

At climate change march in New York, a clarion call for action,

Participants from across the country began arriving early on Sunday
morning at the staging area near the American Museum of Natural
History. Rosemary Snow, 75, stretched her legs after a nearly
14-hour bus ride from Georgia.

Continue reading →

Toxic Waste? Coal ash in Alabama and Georgia landfills



Oregon

denying a permit for a coal dock on the Columbia River Monday
may seem far away, but the effects of coal ash are right here
in Lowndes County.
Effects that an Alabama county is calling a toxic chemical civil rights violation in the Arrowhead Landfill in Uniontown.

AP reported 14 August 2014,

EPA investigating claims west Alabama landfill violates civil rights of black property owners,



It’s not the first time that the Arrowhead has been in the news. In
2009, an estimated 3.9 million tons of coal ash was dumped at the
landfill. It was brought in after a Tennessee Valley Authority dam
breached in east Tennessee, spilling toxic ash into a river and
damaging about 300 acres. To date, it’s the largest coal ash spill
in U.S. history.

Much of that ash ended up being dumped at the landfill in Perry
County, which in return received Continue reading →

All of the above: mercury water, methane fracking, radioactive waste, water overuse; EPA go clean renewables instead –Susan Corbett




South Carolina Sierra Club Chair Susan Corbett summed up
the problem with

the EPA’s carbon rule:
it opposes one poison while promoting others.
We can make a real green clean energy policy
based on conservation, efficiency, solar, and wind energy.
Remember, you can still

send in your own comments directly to EPA.


SC Sierra club, chair at EPA Atlanta hearing, by Elaine Cooper on YouTube 30 July 2014: Continue reading →