Tag Archives: Chip Rogers

Chip Rogers out at GPB



What’s really not sustainable?
Promoting

the “Agenda 21” talking points as an elected official,
even in

the most corrupt state in the union (Georgia).

Chip Rogers was top of the heap as the Senate Majority Leader,
voting for all sorts of stuff to hold Georgia back, from

eorgia Power’s nuke rate hike (CWIP) SB 31 in 2009
to sponsoring

putting two constitutional amendments on the state ballot in 2012,
including one
for charter schools that would siphon off public school money).

Then he was caught

promoting showing an “Agenda 21” talking point movie to legislators in the
state capitol.
He decided Continue reading →

Georgia’s ALEC local cheap labor law

Did you know in 2005 Georgia passed a cheap labor law
even more draconian than its ALEC model Local Minimum Wage Preemption Act?

Here’s the law,
2005-2006 Regular Session – HB 59
Minimum wage mandates by local governments; change certain provisions,
sponsored by who else but

resigned-in-disgrace
for

promoting an Agenda 21 talking points film at the statehouse
Chip Rogers,
who nonetheless also sponsored the successful

charter school and
multi-year contract constitutional amendments.
HB 59 took effect 1 July 2005.
Here’s the part that matches the

ALEC model Living Wage Mandate Preemption Act:


ALEC Living Wage Mandate Preemption Act
34-4-3.1(a)(6)(b)

(1) Any and all wage or employment benefit mandates adopted by any local
government entity are hereby preempted.

(2) No local government entity may adopt, maintain, or enforce by charter, ordinance,
purchase agreement, contract, regulation, rule, or resolution, either directly or indirectly,
a wage or employment benefit mandate.

Here’s the part that goes beyond even what ALEC proposed: Continue reading →

Renewable Portfolio Standards: GA, NC, and ALEC

Renewable Energy Portfolio Standards (RPS) are being proposed
in Georgia and ALEC is trying to do away with them in North Carolina.
If ALEC doesn’t like them, there must be something good about RPS.
Let’s get on with real renewable energy in Georgia.



In Georgia,

HB 503,
sponsored by Karla Drenner, Carol Fullerton, Debbie Buckner, Scott
Holcomb, Spencer Frye, and Earnest Smith,
would create a Renewable Energy Credits Trading program as part of
renewable portfolio standards,
as Kyle wrote for Spencer Frye’s blog 10 March 2013,

Let the Sunshine In.
Unfortunately, HB 503 includes biomass as a renewable energy source.
Maybe they just mean landfill gas, which I consider a special case
since it’s being produced anyway, and since methane is worse as
a greenhouse gas than CO2, burning landfill gas makes some sense.
Nope, in

the actual bill, 46-3-71 (1):

‘Biomass material’ means organic matter, excluding fossil fuels and black liquor,
including agricultural crops, plants, trees, wood, wood wastes and residues, sawmill
waste, sawdust, wood chips, bark chips, and forest thinning, harvesting, or clearing
residues; wood waste from pallets or other wood demolition debris; peanut shells; cotton
plants; corn stalks; and plant matter, including aquatic plants, grasses, stalks, vegetation,
and residues, including hulls, shells, or cellulose containing fibers

The barn door in there is “harvesting”, which can mean whole trees,
but the rest isn’t much better.
We don’t need to be burning things that increase atmospheric CO2
and end up stripping our forests.
In

North Carolina they staretd with just tops and limbs and then tried to escalate
to whole trees.
We already
fought off the biomass boondoggle here in south Georgia;
let’s not have it encouraged statewide.
Especially when we have better solutions: solar and wind power.
HB 503 isn’t going to get passed this year, since it didn’t make
crossover day, so maybe its sponsors can clean up that biomass mess
before they submit it again.

Speaking of North Carolina,

Continue reading →

Georgia statehouse and the anti-sustainability astroturf talking points (aka “Agenda 21”)

Somebody wrote me a week or two ago:



I saw in todays paper Chip Rogers and other Senate leadership was changed yesterday.
Thank goodness!

Well, don't cheer too soon.
According to Jim Galloway in the AJC

15 November 2012,

"Senate Majority Leader Chip Rogers of Woodstock withdrew his re-election
bid and endorsed Ronnie Chance of Tyrone, the governor's floor leader,
for the position."



Ronnie Chance is not only

also ALEC,
Chance is

the other ALEC state Senator
who put both the charter school amendment
and the multi-year amendment on the ballot.
Is this leadership "change" improvement?
Meet the new boss; same as the old boss.

Why must we get fooled again?
When will the people of the state of Georgia get tired of government
by astroturf and elect some legislators who will represent the people?

-jsq

ALEC and the anti-sustainability astroturf talking points (aka “Agenda 21”)

Why do I keep associating the anti-sustainability astroturf talking points
with ALEC?
Because ALEC's "our state legislators" were promoting them at Georgia's Capitol.


ALEC logo

Chip Rogers
Two out of three of
the Georgia legislators Jim Galloway named in

Georgia's own 52-minute video on the ‘Agenda 21’ conspiracy,
namely

Chip Rogers and Barry Loudermilk,
are associated with ALEC.

Senate Majority Leader (now former) Chip Rogers (R-21)
has been ALEC's State Chaimran for Georgia and received ALEC's
2011 State Chair of the year Award.
Surely you remember him!
Rogers

sponsored both misleading amendment 1 ("charter schools") and
misleading amendment 2 ("multi-year contracts") on this year's ballot.


Barry Loudermilk
Rep. Barry D. Loudermilk (R-14) is on ALEC's
Telecommunications and Information Technology Task Force.
How convenient that Loudermilk is the

Secretary of the Georgia
Energy, Utilities & Telecommunications Committee!

So there is at least a convergence of ALEC's "our state legislators"
and those pushing this anti-sustainability agenda.
This is not surprising, since ALEC is opposed to clean, sustainable energy,
as confirmed by

ALEC's own attempt to rebut that point.
A rebuttal that brought to light ALEC's phrase "our state legislators".

I see Loudermilk is a sponsor of a bill called the

Georgia Government Accountability Act,

Continue reading →

Vote No on Amendment 2 —Charlie in Peach Pundit

Let's cut to the chase on what Charlie

wrote for Peach Pundit 18 Oct 2012:

Georgia needs significant ethics reforms. There needs to be greater
transparency for those who do business with the state. Trust must be
restored. Good governance must be demonstrated.

Paying slightly higher rates for a few more years is a small price
to pay to avoid giving away 20 year favors to today's patronage
class. Vote no on this amendment. That is the best way to save
Georgians money.

Georgia is the worst state for legislative corruption.
Do we want those legislators committing us financially
for 10 or 20 years?
If knowing

it's an ALEC bill wasn't enough for you, maybe this will be.
Vote No on amendment 2.

-jsq

ALEC’s “our state legislators” behind multi-year GA constitutional amendment referendum


Ronnie Chance
Look who sponsored

Georgia Senate Resolution 1231 which put
the second referendum question on the ballot!
Two of ALEC’s “our state legislators”,
Senators Ronnie Chance of the 16th,
and
Senate Majority Leader Chip Rogers of the 21st,
are among the sponsors (Chance is the first sponsor).

SourceWatch’s ALEC Exposed

found Ronnie Chance on ALEC’s International Relations Task Force.
Rogers himself told CBS News how much he values ALEC,

Who is ALEC?
By Mark Strassmann and Phil Hirschkorn 30 June 2012.
Rogers spelled out the same thing ALEC itself told me:
it considers people like Chance and Rogers
“our state legislators”.
“Our” as in belonging to ALEC, not representing you the voters and taxpayers.


Chip Rogers
Guess who sponsored the bill that put the charter school amendment on the ballot,
HB 1162 in its Senate form?

Chip Rogers.
And who sponsored the companion bill that would suck money out of public
schools and give more per pupil to charter schools, using our local tax dollars,
HB 797 in the Senate?

Chip Rogers.
And House sponsors Jan Jones (R 46th) and Edward Lindsey (R 54th) of both bills

are also ALEC’s “our state legislators”.

I don’t always agree with Adam Smith, but when I do, I quote The Wealth of Nations from 1776:

Continue reading →