Category Archives: Economy

A huge impact on land values, not to mention the safety factor –Larry Rodgers on WALB @ LCC 2013-12-09

WALB did what the Lowndes County Commission did not after Spectra’s sales talk this morning: let local citizens speak.

Robert Hydrick on WALB today, Sabal Trail gives information on pipeline project, quoted Spectra rep. Brian Fahrenthold (one of five Spectra sent) about Spectra’s feint of a former route through Valdosta, now aimed through rural Lowndes and Brooks Counties instead:

This updated route, Fahrenthold pointed out, reduces the amount of the city of Valdosta that would be affected as well as reduces the overall area of Lowndes County that would be affected.

“The first route was 31.3 miles and the [new route] is 15.6. That’s a fifty percent reduction in our proposed route,” said Fahrenthold.

Well, no, it’s a shift in Spectra’s proposed route for their Sabal Trail Pipeline to go farther west, past Clyattville and through Brooks, Colquitt, Mitchell, and Dougherty Counties. How does it feel to be expendable, rural landowners?

Fahrenthold also emphasized Continue reading →

ALEC solar tax

Arizona, Virginia, and now they’re trying in Georgia: ALEC wants to tax your solar panels. ALEC is trying to legislate buggy whip requirements in an age of affordable electric cars.

Suzanne Goldenberg and Ed Pilkington wrote for the Guardian 4 December 2013, ALEC calls for penalties on ‘freerider’ homeowners in assault on clean energy,

Documents obtained by the Guardian show the core elements of its strategy began to take shape at the previous board meeting in Chicago in August, with meetings of its energy, environment and agriculture subcommittees.

Further details of Alec’s strategy were provided by John Eick, the legislative analyst for Alec’s energy, environment and agriculture program.

Eick told the Guardian the group would be Continue reading →

Inexpensive electric cars

Plug one into solar panels on your roof, and you’ve got a solar powered car.

Zachary Shahan wrote for evcentral.org today, 11 Electric Cars Priced Lower than the Average New Car, including a list of November prices starting less than $16,000 and no more than $30,000:

Nissan Leaf – $21,300

Chevy Volt – $26,685

Toyota Prius Plug-in Hybrid – $27,490

Ford C-Max Energi – $28,943

smart electric drive – $12,490

Ford Focus Electric – $27,700

Chevy Spark EV – $19,995

Mitsubishi i – $15,495

Fiat 500e – $24,300

Wheego Whip — $18,995

Wheego LiFe — $25,495

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80 years ago alcohol prohibition ended: time to end drug prohibition

The twenty-first amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified eighty years ago today, repealing the eighteenth amendment, ending alcohol prohibition, and along with it the alcohol mobs it had bred. It’s time to do the same with drug prohibition, and along with it not only drug gangs but also the epidemic of incarceration in this country.

Eleanor Roosevelt wrote in her newspaper column My Day, 14 July 1939, Prohibition, Continue reading →

Buried under nine feet of manure: 19th century horse predictions

There is a big difference between the 19th century horse excrement crisis and the current 21st century energy crisis, similar as they may sound. One was real. The other is manufactured by the modern equivalent of stagecoach vendors.

Stephen Davies wrote for The Freeman 1 September 2004, The Great Horse-Manure Crisis of 1894,

In 1898 the first international urban-planning conference convened in New York. It was abandoned after three days, instead of the scheduled ten, because none of the delegates could see any solution to the growing crisis posed by urban horses and their output.

The problem did indeed seem intractable. The larger and richer that cities became, the more horses they needed to function. The more horses, the more manure. Writing in the Times of London in 1894, one writer estimated that in 50 years every street in London would be buried under nine feet of manure. Moreover, all these horses had to be stabled, which used up ever-larger areas of increasingly valuable land. And as the number of horses grew, ever-more land had to be devoted to producing hay to feed them (rather than producing food for people), and this had to be brought into cities and distributed—by horse-drawn vehicles. It seemed that urban civilization was doomed.
Continue reading →

Solar Oakland Schools expect 45% savings

Maybe local school districts would like to do this. Dublin, GA High School did. Lowndes County School District has the bond rating to do it.

SunPower PR in WSJ today, Oakland Unified School District Plans to Reduce Electricity Costs by Nearly Half with SunPower Solar Systems at 16 Schools,

SAN JOSE, Calif., Dec. 5, 2013 /PRNewswire/ — SunPower Corp. (NASDAQ: SPWR) today announced that it is designing and building high efficiency SunPower solar power systems for 16 schools in the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) in Oakland, Calif. Once completed in 2014, the district estimates it will reduce electricity costs at those facilities by 46 percent.

“Our contract with SunPower will enable Oakland Unified School District to Continue reading →

Two more nukes cancelled: Darlington in Ontario

Two cancelled, excuse me, “defer construction”, two others may not be refurbished, and six more may get shut down soon. Yay Ontario!

Jim Ostroff wrote for Platts today, Ontario to indefinitely defer new Darlington nuclear reactors: energy plan,

Ontario will indefinitely defer construction of two new nuclear power reactors at Ontario Power Generation’s Darlington site; back away from firm plans to refurbish operating units at Darlington and Bruce Power’s Bruce A site; and may order the shutdown of OPG’s six-unit Pickering plant prior to the units’ scheduled 2020 closing date, the provincial government said in a long-term energy plan issued late Monday.

The province, which owns OPG, said that advances in energy conservation, enhanced efficiency and a slowdown in electricity demand growth have prompted it to revise a 2010 long-term energy plan that called for building two new reactors at Darlington, as well as refurbishment of 10 units combined at that station and at Bruce A.

Hm, conservation and efficiency. Not even shale gas.

We already know Georgia could get on with efficiency and conservation if Southern Company and Georgia Power would get out of the way. Which they will once they admit Plant Vogtle (new and old) has always been a boondoggle.

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I am committed to developing a culture of sustainability on this campus –VSU President McKinney @ SAVE 2013-11-15

At installation of VSU’s solar canopy, the president of VSU answered SAVE’s question:

You’ve heard about how these kinds of projects can yield a relatively quick return on investment. And you all need to know that, so long as I am president, I am committed to developing a culture of sustainability on this campus. I do not believe for a moment that environmental sustainability and the long-term economic well-being of the university are contradictory goals.

He offered an autobiographical tidbit:

I began my career in academia… as a professor of environmental ethics. I didn’t leave that behind when moved into the role I’m in now. I still hold dear to that kind of thinking. I still hold dear that kind of open dialog. And I remain committed to these kinds of projects. The sun is something we have in abundance here. And I think it is something we can continue to take advantage of.
Now I will take a little bit of credit. I remember probably the most opposite of the day we have today. Back over the summer, and early in the morning, and it was already extremely hot, and we were walking around trying to decide where we were going to put the array, and we looked a couple of spots, and then we came back here.
And the first thing that struck me from an academic perspective was the juxtaposition of having a solar panel and the old physical plant. Just from a metaphorical perspective, I just thought that was unique. But then we started talking about the fact that we could have shelter, power, for what is in many ways an academic hub of the university, the library. And generate some power in the process.
And be able to have not only the event that we have today, but I would hope other kinds of events, because I really do see this as a starting point.

He thanked everybody involved, especially SAVE and its president Danielle Jordan for her leadership, and in absentia plant operations.

Continue reading →

More solar jobs already than coal, or oil and gas extraction

Want jobs? Invest in solar power.

There are more people in the U.S. employed in the solar energy marketplace than mining coal. The banal argument that transitioning to a clean energy economy will cost us jobs is simply false. Solar is growing more than 10 times faster than the American economy.

Solar already employs more than coal, and that gap is widening. In 2012, solar added 14,000 new jobs, up 36 percent from 2010 and the industry will add another 20,000 jobs this year. The fossil fuels industry cut 4,000 jobs last year. So when it comes to employing Americans, solar is winning.

That 119,000 jobs in the solar industry is also more than the 106,400 “production and nonsupervisory employees” in the oil and gas extraction industry, and gaining rapidly Continue reading →

Great Promise and Leadership at Industrial Authority @ VLCIA 2013-11-19

Really; those are the names of two of the organizations they spoke before: Great Promise Partnership and Leadership Lowndes. And what is the mystery Project XX²?

Here’s the agenda:

Valdosta — Lowndes County Industrial Authority
Tuesday, November 19, 2013 5:30 p.m.
Industrial Authority Conference Room
2110 N. Patterson Street