Category Archives: Government

Keep the pipeline fox out of your henhouse! –Don Brotherton

LTE in the VDT yesterday, scan by Michael Noll. And you can also rescind. -jsq

Say no to Sabal

I have been contacted by Sabal Trail Transmission for the permission to survey our property for the proposed natural gas pipeline in Lowndes County Aﬁer receiving several letters from Sabal and now having received the “scary” certiﬁed letter, my answer is still the same. No. We already have one gas pipeline on our property and having two will not be twice the fun.

Sabal is in the very early stages of gathering information to get a permit from FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission). They can only gather this information from surveys. If property owners allow them to survey It is the same as letting the fox in the hen house. They will have the information they need to obtain the permit.

Keep the fox out of your hen house! If you haven’t already said yes, just say no!

Don Brotherton
Valdosta

Here’s a sample letter to deny permission to Sabal Trail Transmission.

And even if you already signed, you can resind permission. Here’s a sample letter to deny permission to Sabal Trail Transmission.

Mississippi PSC required spending docs for Kemper Coal: what about Plant Vogtle?

Maybe Georgia PSC could do about Georgia Power’s nuclear Plant Vogtle what Mississippi PSC did about Mississippi Power’s Kemper Coal: hold their parent Southern Company accountable for cost overruns. And for pipelines!

Sam R. Hall blogged for Daily Ledes 1 November 2013, Sources: U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz to visit Kemper coal plant,

The PSC voted unanimously to require Mississippi Power to provide additional documents justifying their spending on the Kemper plant. The hearing is set for May 2014, when the plant was originally supposed to go online.

“If the PSC rejects some of the spending as imprudent, it could add to the $1 billion in costs that shareholders have already agreed to absorb,” the Associated Press reported last month.

Meanwhile, GA PSC Continue reading →

Videos: Steward, Chancy, VLCIA, Nottinghill, and Teramore @ GLPC 2013-10-28

Prequel of the bogus VLMPO maps! Maybe the Valdosta City Council tonight will clarify why the Industrial Authority is asking it to annex and rezone a parcel it apparently does not own. Here’s what the Planning Commission said about that, plus rezonings in Dasher (no speakers and approved unanimously) and Hahira (tabled at request of applicant; see separate post for more on that one), plus two in Lowndes County: Teramore (yes, it’s Dollar General again, and they unanimously recommended it), and Nottinghill is back and got tabled again.

Here’s the agenda with links to the videos and a few notes.

Greater Lowndes Planning Commission
Lowndes County City of Valdosta City of Dasher City of Hahira City of Lake Park
REGULAR MONTHLY MEETING

AGENDA
Lowndes County South Health District Administrative Office
325 West Savannah Avenue
Monday, October 28, 2013* 5:30 P.M. * Public Hearing

Continue reading →

Rezoning for another industrial park? @ VCC 2013-11-07

Why is the Valdosta City Council considering annexing and rezoning land for VLCIA that the Industrial Authority apparently doesn’t even own? Revolving loans, railroad, and appointments to the Central Valdosta Development Authority/ Downtown Development Authority, to the Valdosta-Lowndes County Conference Center & Tourism Authority, to the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) Citizen Advisory Committee, and the Valdosta Tree Commission.

That rezoning was considered at the 28 October 2013 Planning Commission meeting. Here’s the Valdosta City Council agenda:

AGENDA
REGULAR MEETING OF THE VALDOSTA CITY COUNCIL
5:30 PM Thursday, November 7, 2013
COUNCIL CHAMBERS, CITY HALL

Continue reading →

Proactively make mental health a priority –Joyce Weaver Johnson

Blogged with permission from Joyce’s facebook page. -jsq

Ok, I rarely do this but after reading something on FB earlier, I just have to because I feel SO strongly about it! I have been a social worker for 28 years. Of the 28 years, I have spent almost 15 years in the mental health field. When I started with community mental health services, I was told the patient was the #1 priority and QUALITY of service was most important.
Through the years MH services have been significantly cut with treatment facilities for youth closing, mental health hospitals closing and HMOs refusing to pay for more and more outpatient services. Now the #1 priority is BILLING and treating the paperwork not the patient is most important.

When treatment facilities and hospitals were closed, we were told Continue reading →

Your well-intentioned request is impractical –VSU Foundation

The VSU Foundation knows more than 98% of climate scientists, and also sneers at former divestment from tobacco and apartheid companies. Nevermind that fossil fuel divestment is going faster than either of those. Is it good fiduciary responsibility to stay invested in the stranded investments of fossil fuel stocks while solar stocks are skyrocketing? Is this really how to encourage people to give to VSU? Is that how the alumni want their investments used?

Seen today on S.A.V.E.’s facebook page, VSU Foundation’s response to S.A.V.E.’s fossil fuel divestment request:

October 29, 2013
Danielle Jordan, President
S.A.V.E.
Valdosta State University
Dear Ms. Jordan,
The Investment Committee of the VSU Foundation Board of Trustees has reviewed the request from your organization that securities issued by companies engaged in the production of fossil fuel energy be excluded from the foundation’s endowment portfolios. Compliance with your well-intentioned request is impractical for a number of reasons and perhaps even a breach of the fiduciary responsibility that all of our trustees take very seriously.

The various VSU Foundation endowment portfolios are managed Continue reading →

Citizens for solar power; GA leg. not so much

Utility backers in the Georgia legislature tried scare tactics to stop HB 657 (or anything else) from requiring more solar power from Georgia Power. Still no solar tax, said citizens in Savannah, Columbus, Gainesville, Athens, and now Atlanta.

Walter C. Jones wrote for the Florida Times-Union 31 October 2013, Outlook for solar bill isn’t bright in Georgia. Not sure why this picture of me illustrates this story on facebook (I wasn’t at the hearing in Atlanta), but hey, why not.

Claudia Collier with Green Georgia drove from Savannah to speak at the hearing.

“This bill will give us direct choice in where our electricity comes from,” she said.

Rep. Mike Dudgeon, R-Johns Creek, pointed to the amount of solar generation the Public Service Commission ordered Georgia Power to acquire this year.

“It looks like the PSC is already managing the situation,” he said.

As Southern Company CEO Tom Fanning and Georgia Power CEO Paul Bowers well know, Continue reading →

Video of citizens in Athens opposing Georgia Power solar tax

Another city, more citizens opposed to Georgia Power’s solar tax, and to Georgia Power’s rate hikes for fossil fuels and nukes.

Hyacinth Manacap Empinado wrote for Athens Patch today, “No” To Rate Hike for Georgia Power, Say Residents at Athens Meeting: People urged Public Service Commissioner Tim Echols to vote against the Georgia Power rate hike request.,

Echols says that part of the money will be used to clean up older coal plants and convert some plants to burn cleaner, natural gas.

If approved, Continue reading →

No solar tax –citizens in Gainesville GA

Solar advocate PSC Commissioner Bubba McDonald joined Tim Echols for this one. Citizens said no to Georgia Power’s proposed solar tax, just like in Savannah and Columbus.

Sarah Mueller wrote yesterday for Gainesville Times, Public gives thumbs-down to Georgia Power rate hike,

The Georgia Power Co. rate hike proposal and suggested fees on solar energy installation didn’t get a lot of support from residents who attended a town meeting in Gainesville on Tuesday night.

The Georgia Public Service Commission is reviewing a $482 million three-year rate increase request from the energy company that would add about $7.84 to the average ratepayer’s monthly bill. The Georgia Sierra Club and Georgia Watch has sponsored town meetings around the state this month to let commissioners hear public input on the request. Commissioners Tim Echols and Lauren “Bubba” McDonald participated in the meeting at the Brenau Downtown Center.

Pursuing solar energy as state policy was also a hot topic at the meeting, which was lightly attended. About 10 people spoke, criticizing the proposed hike, the company’s proposed guaranteed profit increase to 11.5 percent and Continue reading →

Videos: Special bid review meeting @ VLCIA 2013-10-29

With a bare quorum of 3 out of 5, VLCIA Chair Mary Gooding said they had finally purchased their own office space and would henceforth pay neither lease nor rent using our tax dollars. I’d like to congratulate them for a thorough public bid review.

Project Manager Allan Ricketts reviewed the project including the bids on “the second document in front of you” that the taxpaying public didn’t get to see. He did summarize the bids, and they even showed them on a slide:

$273,595	Cauthan
$232,445	Kellerman
$274,900	Quillian Powell
$262,557	Taylor
$244,000	True North

A board member wanted to know if the bids were all local. Ricketts said they were.

Mr. Matt Hart, with IPG, project manager on the project, clarified Continue reading →

On the LAKE front

Citizen dialog for transparent process by the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange