“I do not know of any local elected officials that support the T-SPLOST in its’ current form.” —Tim Carroll

This comment from Tim Carroll came in Saturday on Ashley Paulk, Corey Hull, and Norman Bennett on T-SPLOST -jsq
For whatever it is worth, I do not know of any local elected officials that support the T-SPLOST in its’ current form. Chairman Paulk is right on target with his comments.

GALEO contests GA anti-immigrant bill

Jane Osborn notes:
More on the lawsuit filed to overturn HB87 that has scared the farmworkers out of state.
In the the press release by GALEO 16 June 2011:
GALEO (Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials), the leading Latino organization focused on civic engagement and leadership development of the Latino community in Georgia, has submitted an Amicus Brief to ask the federal court to stop implementation of Georgia’s HB87 law. The brief was filed by the law firm of Rohan Law, P.C. GALEO filed the brief in an effort to protect constitutional and civil rights of Georgians.

“This law will adversely impact our state by creating a state-law system for the regulation of immigration and immigration enforcement. This new scheme by the state is not only unconstitutional but will also encourage egregious violations of rights of Georgia’s residents and visitors,” said Jerry Gonzalez, Executive Director of GALEO.

GALEO believes that HB87 will disproportionately harm certain communities of color and would also encourage racial profiling. Enforcement of HB87 cannot be accomplished in a race-neutral fashion. Additionally, there are serious concerns of local law enforcement officials being unequipped to enforce HB87.

HB87 also threatens public safety in Georgia. By placing law enforcement officials in the position to enforce a broken immigration policy, HB87 will instill fear and mistrust in Georgia’s communities of color and drastically chill the reporting of crime and cooperation in criminal investigations by minorities. This erosion of trust would undermine public safety efforts for all Georgians.

Of course, the Georgia plan is to turn it into private safety anyway, by privatizing prisons for private profit of a few at taxpayer expense.

-jsq

Call Off the Global Drug War —Jimmy Carter

Jimmy Carter in the New York Times 16 June 2011, Call Off the Global Drug War said the Global Commission on Drug Policy:
… has made some courageous and profoundly important recommendations in a report on how to bring more effective control over the illicit drug trade. The commission includes the former presidents or prime ministers of five countries, a former secretary general of the United Nations, human rights leaders, and business and government leaders, including Richard Branson, George P. Shultz and Paul A. Volcker.

The report describes the total failure of the present global antidrug effort, and in particular America’s “war on drugs,” which was declared 40 years ago today. It notes that the global consumption of opiates has increased 34.5 percent, cocaine 27 percent and cannabis 8.5 percent from 1998 to 2008. Its primary recommendations are to substitute treatment for imprisonment for people who use drugs but do no harm to others, and to concentrate more coordinated international effort on combating violent criminal organizations rather than nonviolent, low-level offenders.

These recommendations are compatible with United States drug policy from three decades ago. In a message to Congress in 1977, I said the country should decriminalize the possession of less than an ounce of marijuana, with a full program of treatment for addicts. I also cautioned against filling our prisons with young people who were no threat to society, and summarized by saying: “Penalties against possession of a drug should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself.”

Imagine that! A drug policy meant to address the problem.

How did we go wrong? Continue reading →

Last day for advance rate at Solar Summit

The Georgia Solar Energy Association (GSEA) is holding a conference Friday a week from today in Atlanta, and you can still sign up at the advance rate today. Sounds like a good place for networking potential projects.

Announcing Solar Summit 2011! Join utilities and policy experts from around the country as we present a full day of panel discussions and presentations on solar renewables. With the theme, “Solar Works in Georgia” GSEA will layout the roadmap for success in Georgia.
Where: GTRI Conference Center- 250 14th Street, Atlanta, GA 30318
When: Friday, June 24th 8a-4p
How: Tickets on sale now
What: $79 before June 15th — EXTENDED TO FRIDAY, 6/17 $99 at the door
Coffee starts at 7:45 AM, with the Welcome session at 8:15 and keynote speaker Col. Dan Nolan (USArmy Ret.) speaking at 8:30 on “The Military’s integration of Green Energy”.

Another panel asks the question, “Will military and institutional adoption lead the way?” Hm, maybe municipalities should help pioneer solar with financing from banks and power companies.

Another panel notes, “A recent ASU study ranked Georgia 3rd in the nation for solar development potential.” That would be this study.

A wide range of speakers come from industry, military, finance, and government. Sounds like a networking opportunity. Maybe even a good place to pitch a municipal solar project.

-jsq

Ashley Paulk, Corey Hull, and Norman Bennett on T-SPLOST

Jane Osborn pointed us at a detailed list of T-SPLOST projects.

T-SPLOST regional executive committee chairman Ashley Paulk gave his opinion on T-SPLOST at a Lowndes County Democratic Party (LCDP) meeting a few months ago: He’s against it because he doesn’t like a law with a stick in it.

At the same LCDP meeting, Corey Hull of VLMPO explained T-SPLOST, which LAKE videoed in six parts,

  1. T-SPLOST Explained
  2. T-SPLOST Business plan
  3. T-SPLOST Project Lists
  4. T-SPLOST Penalties and LMIG
  5. T-SPLOST Projects to GDOT
  6. T-SPLOST referendum in 2012

Before that, Corey Hull explained T-SPLOST to VLCIA, and got a very interesting question about penalties from Norman Bennett.

VLMPO held an extended public participation period for T-SPLOST in May. Maybe some of you who went can report back on that.

-jsq

Birmingham U.K. municipal solar didn’t wait for larger governments

Banks and power companies can fund municipal solar projects; cities and counties don’t have to wait for state or federal governments to provide them grants. Or at least Birmingham, U.K. has done it for public housing. And Quitman, Georgia did it last year, too.

According to Larry Elliott in the Guardian, 3 October 2010, 10,000 Birmingham council homes to get solar panels: City agrees £100m scheme, partly funded by banks and energy suppliers, to meet target for cutting carbon emissions

Plans to fit power generating solar panels to council-owned properties in Birmingham will be pushed forward this week after the council agreed a “green new deal” scheme covering 10,000 homes.

In the biggest proposal for retrofitting houses through an energy efficiency upgrade yet seen in the UK, the council agreed a £100m proposal last week designed to create jobs and meet the city’s ambitious targets for reducing carbon emissions.

The plan – Birmingham Energy Savers – will be jointly funded by Birmingham council and investment from energy suppliers and commercial banks, and follows two successful pilot schemes conducted in Europe’s biggest local authority.

Energy efficiency and solar power to create jobs!

We have local proof of concept right next door Continue reading →

T-SPLOST Projects for Southern Georgia Region

This came in yesterday. -jsq
From: “Jane Osborn”
Date: Thu, 16 Jun 2011 15:32:19 -0400

Have you seen these proposed projects for our region if the transportation tax is passed? A few meetings have been held in local cities, mostly attended by elected officials with Ashley Paulk as the chair of our committee. Committee members are listed and projects proposed for each county in the region are outlined in great detail.

PDF

Jane F. Osborn, MSSW
Valdosta, GA
229-630-0924 cell

Georgia Power needs to expand solar —Lauren McDonald, Chairman, GA PSC

An unlikely ally in getting Georgia Power to do solar. Maybe too unlikely.

Kristi E. Swartz wrote in the AJC 8 June 2011, Regulator: Georgia Power needs more solar sources

Georgia utility regulator Lauren McDonald wants Georgia Power to come up with options in the next 30 days for expanding the tiny amount of electricity generated from solar power..

“I think we need to take an aggressive move and explore what we can do,” McDonald, a veteran member of the Public Service Commission, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “I don’t think the company and even our staff has been challenged to the degree that they should be.”

Georgia Power responded saying they would “comply”. Which doesn’t mean much since there’s nothing but one person’s opinion to comply with.

I tend to agree with Neill Herring on this one:

Neill Herring, a lobbyist for the Sierra Club, called the action “back scratching.”

“They both get to look responsible,” said Herring, adding that there’s a growing and vocal solar lobby in Georgia. “They have to deal with those people. That’s what this is about.”

So I guess we need to be more vocal to get them to scratch harder.

The article notes:

Georgia Power has resisted building solar and other alternative energy projects for years, citing cost and a cloudy Southeast as the two main issues.
Which of course are both bogus excuses, since solar already costs less than nuclear to deploy, and Georgia Power’s own web pages admit that:
…insolation values in Georgia are significant enough to support solar energy systems in our state, with the southern two-thirds of Georgia having equivalent solar insolation values to most of the state of Florida.
Also more sun than Houston, which is busily deploying solar, and the same amount as Austin, which is a national leader in solar.

Maybe some cities also could suggest Georgia Power do something.

-jsq

PS: Claudia Collier pointed out this AJC article.

Georgia solar incentives

Tim Carroll asked in a comment on Valdosta budget hearing: no citizens spoke
Do you know of any grant funds we could look at for solar panel conversion on some buildings?
DSIRE has most of what I know about GA solar incentives.

There’s also the Georgia Solar Energy Association They have a page on incentives.

You may also notice Hannah Solar among GSEA’s sponsors. Hannah Solar knows quite a bit about incentives; their CEO Pete Marte was at the governor’s signing of the recent expansion of state incentives. More about HB 346.

It might be worth talking to Georgia Power. Their new CEO claims to be “bullish on solar”, they just connected Wiregrass Solar’s plant in Valdosta, and they’re doing various “experiments” and “demonstrations”. Maybe they need to do a demonstration above Valdosta City Hall’s parking lot….

-jsq

Thomasville training for Georgia Crisis Response System —Jane Osborn

Received today from Jane Osborn:
From: “Jane Osborn”
Subject: Georgia Crisis Response system
Date: Thu, 16 Jun 2011 11:54:39 -0400

John, There was a Conversations that Matter group held here June 9th to discuss the changes coming with the closing of the state hospitals as it relates to persons with developmental disabilities. We had about 40 local people who were consumers, family members and some service providers in addition to officials from the Region 4 office that covers this area. The services for them will be drastically smaller than those planned for persons with a diagnosis of mental illness, but this training announcement has one session left in this area…June 28 in Thomasville. Scroll all the way to the bottom to find information for the Thomasville event.

The one we had here was sponsored by the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities and All About Developmental Disabilities, an Atlanta-based advocacy group. One of the things we learned was that these Crisis Response Systems supposedly have been in place since June 1, one based in Valdosta and one in another part of the region. You can go to the DBHDD website to see the counties included in our area.

The teams were formed by contracting with organizations from California and Indiana (instead

Continue reading →