Here the facilitator is getting the board and staff to answer some initial questions.
Pictures and videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange, 23 February 2012.
After they gave individual answers, they broke into groups each including board and staff: Continue reading
Dr. Smith speculated that Georgia Power might try to stop
solar installations like
the one he just opened in Richmond Hill
last Friday.
But can you imagine the power company coming and cutting our power offDoes Georgia Power really want to be seen opposing Lower Rates for Customers?and telling Dr. [inaudible] he has to pay more money? I don’t think that’s going to happen.
Maybe so, since Georgia Power
opposes SB 401, which would
facilitate exactly what Dr. Smith is doing.
You can help pass SB 401.
Call
your state senator, or
sign the petition.
Here’s the video:
Can you imagine the power company coming and cutting our power off? —Dr. Sidney Smith 2012 02 17
South Eastern Pathology Associates,
Selling Power, Lower Rates for Customers LLC (LRCLLC),
Richmond Hill, Bryan County, Georgia, 17 February 2012.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
Our goal is simply to make power available to all people at the lowest rates….He remarked this was their second installation. The first was at the Driftaway Cafe. They have another planned. A fourth one was supposed to be at a nearby orphanage, but Georgia Power wouldn’t allow it.
-jsq
What it does not have is any mention of
anything about Project Excel, or CCA, or the private prison,
even though Ms. Schruijer told me yesterday to expect the board
to say something about that.
You can still
express your opinion to them before then.
And since this agenda says
**TENTATIVE**
maybe that item will get added before tomorrow afternoon.
Also missing is any item for the Strategic Planning RFP, even though that RFP says the board will review any responses received by their February board meeting.
What this agenda does have is numerous specific items under the usual broad headers such as Existing Industry/Project Report. So instead of listening to Col. Ricketts and trying to figure out what he’s talking about, you can see such things as “e-Snychronist® Existing Industry Retention and Expansion business information system (BIS)” in writing. You still don’t see names of the “five (5) Prospects” or the “three (3) companies that are developing expansion plans”. Maybe I buy the competitive information argument for the prospects, but I’m not so sure about the three expanding companies, especially if they’re already local. And considering the things VLCIA has tried to sneak in under cover of not mentioning competitive information, such as biomass and a private prison, I’m not sure I buy that argument at all.
Also on the plus side, the agenda includes an actual schedule for bids Continue reading
Roy Copeland Chairman |
Tom Call |
Mary Gooding |
Norman Bennett |
Jerry Jennett, |
It’s not too late to express your opinion to this tax-funded (1 mil of your property taxes + SPLOST funds, for around $3 million a year) appointed board. Follow this link for contact information for the VLCIA board. Or sign the petition online and your signature gets emailed directly to VLCIA Executive Director Andrea Schruijer.
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While
opening a solar site in Richmond Hill last Friday, Dr. Sidney Smith said Georgia Power thinks it owns your sunshine:
It’s a personal freedom issue and a personal rights issue. And also it’s an issue of our future generations.But I know that we’re going to come out on top…. The reason we’re going to come out on top. You’re going to choose a higher power bill, or a lower power bill? Now, I know you’re going to say I want a lower power bill.
Here’s the video:
Does Georgia Power own the sunshine?
South Eastern Pathology Associates,
Selling Power, Lower Rates for Customers LLC (LRCLLC),
Richmond Hill, Bryan County, Georgia, 17 February 2012.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
As Dr. Smith told the AP a few days later:
We have a property rights issue: Who owns the sunshine, and does a property owner get to do anything he wants with it?” Smith said. “Georgia Power says he can use it to grow grass, get a sunburn, but he’s not allowed to change it to electricity. That’s not correct.”
And it goes beyond just generating your own power for
lower rates for yourself as a customer.
Why not be able to sell it to somebody else who wants it, too?
This is just the first step. In a way and a process that we’re ultimately going to be able to sell power out of Bryan County back to Atlanta, bringing dollars back from Atlanta to Bryan County.And Lowndes County can do the same. Atlanta wants our water? Sell them sunshine instead!
SB 401 can help with that. If you want it to pass, you can sign the petition or call your state senator.
-jsq
Errin Haines wrote for AP 18 Feb 2012, Georgia Power balks at Senate solar power proposal,
“The power company ought to be doing this, but they don’t want to buy it from anybody that produces it,” said state Sen. Buddy Carter, the bill’s main sponsor.Ah, the old territoriality law! “Competing” through assigned territories. Does that seem right to you?The state’s main electricity provider, Georgia Power, is opposing the legislation, pointing to the state’s Electric Service Act.
Created nearly four decades ago, the law established assigned territories for the power company, along with 42 electric membership cooperatives and 52 cities with municipal systems, all competing for customers.
Spokeswoman Christy Ihrig said in a statement that the proposed bill would illegally infringe on the company’s territory and that the introduction of a new supplier could drive up rates for customers because utilities would be required to hike costs. She added the company is supportive of solar power and is working to provide solar as an option to customers.
You know, it’s not illegal if the legislature changes the law….
If you want lower rates for customers, call your state senator today. Around here, that would be Senator Tim Golden, tim.golden@senate.ga.gov
121-A State Capitol
-jsq
David Royse wrote for the News Service of Florida yesterday, Scott Will Explore Ways to Privatize Prisons without Law Change,
Gov. Rick Scott said Thursday he will explore opportunities to privatize state prisons on his own following the Senate’s defeat of a bill that would have required some prisons be bid out to private companies.
Speaking to reporters Thursday morning after a public event on insurance fraud, Scott acknowledged that initially he didn’t consider privatizing prisons a priority, but was disappointed the Senate voted down a bill that would have done that, and said he’ll explore what many backers of the Senate plan said was a possibility that the governor could order privatization unilaterally.
The irony:
Scott pointed out that there are fewer inmates than anticipated and that it didn’t make sense to spend state dollars on half-full prisons.Maybe nobody told Gov. Scott CCA wants guaranteed 90% occupancy.
More irony: Continue reading
The message of Valdosta-Lowndes County Parks and Recreation AuthorityContinue readingExecutive Director George Page was clear at tonight’s Master Planning Steering Committee workshop when he told the group “I’m not a fan of the status quo.” If you’ve followed the work of Mr. Page and the staff of the VLPRA, especially their work on securing the upcoming baseball tournament which is projected to have an economic impact of about $250,000, then you know that this is no exaggeration.
The meeting tonight was the first of a series of meetings that are geared toward getting public involvement in the upcoming Parks and Recreation Comprehensive Master Plan. The VLPRA has contracted with
the Nashville-based architectural and land planning group Lose and Associates, to conduct the comprehensive plan. Lose is pronounced more like the geologic term defining windborne silt (loess), and less like how we identify the team that scores fewer goals in a soccer match (lose). The meeting tonight, which was led by two Lose planners, was focused on evaluating current VLPRA programs and facilities and offering suggestions for future improvements.
This evening’s group of about 15 participants consisted of
Georgia law says you can’t do that.Say you own a coffee shop. You’d like to install solar panels on your roof but can’t afford them. A company offers to install and lease you the equipment, provided you sign a long-term contract. The company will sell you energy at a cheaper rate than you already pay Georgia Power. No longer would you be so susceptible to spikes in electricity prices. Nor would your money be helping to support burning coal or nuclear power.
That’s why SB 401 is in the Georgia Senate. It’s
a common-sense measure that would put people to work, create a new sector in Georgia’s economy, and promote clean energy. In addition, the legislation would help shield people from increases in electricity rates, which, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, have risen nearly 50 percent over the last seven years.Why would Georgia Power not like that? Continue reading
As always, LAKE is doing a fantastic job of uncovering the shadows.Barbara,However, please note there is a difference in capatalism & crony capitalism. Liberals have their fair share of the crony variety also AKA Soros & Monsanto, GM,etc. Free enterprise & capitalism is why our borders are being crossed legally & illegally, but crony capitalism will destroy us. If the government chooses to privatize there should be clear total delineation between them & the private business, not fascist public/private partnerships like CCA is courting. We need to resist P3s totally, but they are being welcomed with multi grant incentives & blessings of the Dept of Community Development & its Chamber of Commerce conduits. We are on the same team always for transparency in government & we can be on the same team against CCA if we focus on fighting the 3P concept.
Just a reminder, I used to work for CCA & I still love to see bad men in shackles (emphasis on bad). I don’t share most of what I call simplistic liberal views on prison reform, but I am certainly with you against crony capitalism especially the public/private partnership variety. As I’ve said before they are just the good old boy system, legalized, subsidized, & on steroids.
-Barbara Stratton
Thanks for the compliments, and we’re going to get you carrying a camera yet…. See next post for the rest of my response.
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