Tag Archives: debt

Southern Company sells off gas assets second time this year 2018-11-07

For the second time this year, Southern Company sells off gas-fired assets.
Could it be to service debt for those way-late and over-budget Plant Vogtle nukes?

Southern Company, PR, 7 November 2018,

Southern Power Reaches Agreement to Sell the Mankato Energy Center,


Southern Power, a leading U.S. wholesale energy provider and
subsidiary of Southern Company, today announced that it has entered
an agreement to sell the Mankato Energy Center to Xcel Energy for
$650 million.

Mankato, a natural gas combined-cycle generation facility, will have
a maximum capacity of approximately 760 megawatts upon completion of
an ongoing expansion project. The completion of the sale, subject to
regulatory approval and other closing conditions, is expected to be
mid-2019.

“The Mankato Energy Center is a valuable part of the local community
and the regional energy infrastructure,” said Southern Power
President and CEO Mark Lantrip. “This transaction is a great
opportunity to deliver value for the benefit of Southern Company
shareholders.”

Proceeds from this transaction will be used to strengthen the
balance sheet of Southern Company and position Southern Power to
continue providing clean, safe, reliable and affordable wholesale
energy to its customers across the U.S, including the expansion of
one of the nation’s largest carbon-free renewable energy portfolios.

What does “strengthen the balance sheet” mean? Continue reading →

Solar price drops setting invisible price limit for ever-dirtier fossil fuel extraction

A fairly insightful piece on the how oil price rises drive more fossil fuel production,


currently fueled by debt because wages of most workers have been falling, still misses two big points: solar prices continually plumetting now undercut all fossil fuel prices, and dirtier fossil fuel extraction and its massive colonial invasion of pipelines are meeting resistance everywhere, including at the regulatory-captured puppet agencies like FERC.

“Tyler Durden”, ZeroHedge, 13 May 2016,
Submitted by Gail Tverberg via Our Finite World blog,

The Real Oil Limits Story – What Other Researchers Missed, Continue reading →

Brad Lofton leaving Myrtle Beach, SC



Looks like Horry County, SC stuck to its
initial three-year offer, both for Lofton, and for millage
to fund his development authority there.
There are things the

newly-renamed Valdosta-Lowndes Development Authority
could do to let sunshine turn Lofton’s local land legacy green.

Jason M. Rodriguez and Amanda Kelley wrote for Myrtle Beach Online yesterday,

Brad Lofton leaving Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development Corporation,

Membership to the EDC increased earlier this year, but revenue from
the membership decreased by nearly $60,000, impacting the
organization’s marketing services and more.

Loton has had many projects succeed, and met some challenges during
his time in Horry County.

Earlier this month Continue reading →

Harrisburg just keeps getting worse

After Harrisburg, PA

defaulted on its incinerator bonds,
started

selling off pieces of itself, and

threatened bankruptcy
(twice),
now the SEC is suing the city for fraud.



James O’Toole wrote for CNN Money 6 May 2013,

SEC sues financially troubled Harrisburg,

The Securities and Exchange Commission has sued the city of
Harrisburg for fraud, alleging that officials in the Pennsylvania
capital misled the public about the city’s financial condition.

The SEC says the misleading statements came in the city’s 2009
budget report, its annual and mid-year financial statements and a
“State of the City” address. The case marks the first time the SEC
has charged a municipality with misleading investors in statements
made outside of securities documents.

Harrisburg has been mired in

Continue reading →

HB 267 Financing costs; construction of nuclear generating plant






As promised,
a bipartisan bill was filed Thursday to stop Georgia Power from
charging for nuclear cost overruns on Plant Vogtle; this could free up some financing for Georgia to move ahead on solar and wind power.


2013-2014 Regular Session – HB 267
Financing costs; construction of nuclear generating plant; change calculation that utility can recover from customers,

A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Code Section 46-2-25 of the
Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to the procedure for
changing any rate, charge, classification, or service and the
recovery of financing costs, so as to change the calculation used
under certain circumstances to determine the costs of financing
associated with the construction of a nuclear generating plant that
a utility may recover from its customers; to provide for related
matters; to provide an effective date; to repeal conflicting laws;
and for other purposes.

The bill would add this text to Georgia Code:

…provided, however, that in the event the amounts recorded in the
utility’s construction work in progress accounts plus the amount of
all financing costs accrued on any construction work in progress
accounts exceeds the costs approved by the commission in the
original certificate of the nuclear generating plant granted under
Code Section 46-3A-5, the cost of equity portion of the financing
costs shall be calculated using a rate no higher than the utility’s
actual cost of debt.

Let’s see what Georgia Power does to fight this one.
So far, it’s

Continue reading →

Rep. Austin Scott (R GA-08) @ VLCoC 2013-01-10




Ron Borders
introduced

Congressman Austin Scott (R GA-08) who

made some remarks
on the front porch at the Chamber of Commerce Thursday 10 January 2013.

Bookended by some formulaic remarks about debt
(without mentioning
that
it’s already mostly solved),
the Congressman noted he is on the Committee on Armed Services.
He said there is no current

BRAC (Base Realignment and Closure Commission),
although one has been asked for.
He said a BRAC wouldn’t do anything for near-term debt, anyway
(but he didn’t say anything about ending the war in Afghanistan
or stopping funding for un-needed weapons systems as ways of saving money).

He said he is the chair of a House Agriculture Subcommitee
(Horticulture, Research, Biotechnology, and Foreign Agriculture).
He said he was for research, for the agricultural extension,
and for agricultural exports.

Here’s

the WCTV news report, with responses by Gretchen Quarterman,
Chair of the Lowndes County Democratic Party (LCDP).

Here’s

a video playlist:

Continue reading →

Land Development For Future Industries —Andrea Schruijer of VLCIA

Executive Director Andrea Schruijer explained the Industrial Authority’s
theory behind all those industrial parks.
And she mentioned market analysis for a sustainable local economy.
Nothing about market analysis about whether industrial parks actually
bring in new businesses….

Valdosta CEO posted 28 NOvember 2012,

Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority Invests in Land Development For Future Industries,



Andrea Schruijer, Executive Director of the Valdosta Lowndes County
Industrial Authority. A few years ago the community had the
foresight to approve a mill that they would set aside for the
Industrial Authority to provide for economic development. And
because the community did that, the industrial authority is able to
better plan for the future in growing our opportunities for economic
development. One of the things that we noticed a few years ago is
that we didn’t have enough land for development. And we didn’t have
the right sized tracks in case we had a large user coming in looking
at the community, where would we put them?



She says “the community did that”?
That’s funny,

Gary Minchew said he organized that.
Kari L. Sands wrote for VDT 20 June 2007,

Lowndes preps for vote on budget,

Continue reading →

Importing illegal immigrants into private Georgia prisons

Ocilla, about an hour north of here,
took the private prison gamble, and now is scrambling to import
enough prisoners to fill it.

Jim Galloway wrote for the AJC 11 April 2012,

Importing illegal immigrants — into private Georgia prisons
quoting
Hannah Rappleye and Lisa Riordan Seville in The Nation 10 April 2012,

How One Georgia Town Gambled Its Future on Immigration Detention,



Deportations have reached record levels under President Barack
Obama, and demand for detention facilities has increased. Starting
in 2002, ICE had funding for 19,444 beds per year, according to an
ICE report. Today, ICE spends about $2 billion per year on almost
twice the number of beds.

ICE’s reliance on facilities like the Irwin County Detention Center
has put small rural towns at the center of one of today’s most
contentious policy arguments—how to enforce immigration law. A
yearlong investigation by The Nation shows how much politics has
come to rule detention policy. Even as Georgia and Alabama passed
harsh new immigration laws last year designed to keep out
undocumented immigrants, documents obtained through the Freedom of
Information Act reveal that politicians from both states were
lobbying hard to bring immigrant detainees in. ICE succumbed to the
pressure, sending hundreds of detainees to the financially unstable
facility in Georgia that promised to detain immigrants cheaply. That
promise came at the expense of the health, welfare and rights to due
process of some 350 immigrants detained daily in Ocilla.

Marvelous.
Pass a low to eject illegal immigrants, except it really locks up
a bunch of them, but not enough to keep Ocilla’s private prison full,
so import a bunch of them back in as prisoners.

Aren’t you glad we didn’t accept a private prison in Lowndes County, Georgia?

Ocilla and Irwin County didn’t just make that bad bet once,
they doubled down on it:

Continue reading →

Support Public School education! —Karen Noll

Received today. -jsq

Dear Friends,

After learning abut the for-profit charter school issue from and the tax credits for private school tuition, I interpret today’s VDT articles as part of a political agenda to further dismantle a Georgia Constitutional right to Free Public School Education. Here we are again, let’s paint the schools as failing and then try to legitimize further defunding of the schools. And instead of Free Public Education the students from poor families will continue to get what ever is left when the well-to-do take their large piece of the public school education pie.

CHARTER SCHOOLS SERVE STUDENTS ALREADY SERVED WELL IN PUBLIC EDUCATION:

It is important that we understand that Free Public Education is clearly being

Continue reading →

SGMC asks Lowndes County Commission to guarantee $100 M in bonds 10 October 2011

Commissioners asked some perceptive questions
two weeks ago at their work session,
as well they should, when South Georgia Medical Center
was asking the county to guarantee a hundred million dollars in bonds.
Some questions may remain.

Representatives from SGMC gave a two part presentation


about expansion of SGMC facilities, to include 96 new
private rooms in the Dasher Heart Center, the 5 story
parking deck, now under construction and due to be completed
in early 2012, and Life Safety and Generator Equipment updates.

Additionally, they spoke briefly on the acquisition of Smith Northview
Hospital on September 1, 2011. Smith Northview operates
as a campus of SGMC and all Smith Northview employees are now
SGMC employees.

The second part of the presentation was about the financial

Continue reading →