The sun is finally rising on Georgia, and if that is possible,
Florida can follow, and the southeast, the U.S., and the world.

Today is a historic day, when even a governor
who took campaign finance funds from
a long list of fossil fuel pipeline companies,
the governor of the most corrupt state
(least stringent ethics laws),
when that governor
finally signed a law that even the
most corruption-prone legislature,
after squelching similar bills for a dozen years,
finally passed as HB 57 unanimously in both houses.

Dave Williams, Atlanta Business Chronicle, 12 may 2015,

Gov. Deal signs bill letting solar installers offer customers third-party financing,

Georgia property owners will get more affordable options for
installing solar panels at their homes and businesses under a bill
Gov. Nathan Deal signed into law Tuesday.

The legislation, which sailed through the General Assembly
unanimously, will let solar installers offer customers third-party
financing of installations. That’s a major change from the old law,
which required customers to pay up front.

Already two years ago the Georgia Public Service Commissioners,
even though overwhelmingly campaign-funded by the industries they regulate,

required Georgia Power to buy twice as much solar energy as it wanted.
This year Georgia Power’s parent Southern Company’s annual report says
its main source of new revenue for both 2013 and 2014 was solar power.
And Georgia has already leaped from far behind to become the fastest
growing solar market in the nation,
with numerous Georgia Power solar utility-scale installations
and smaller ones like
for Alton Burns in Thomas County
and
today for George Bennett in Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia.
This new law Gov. Deal just signed will accelerate that growth even more.

Luis Martinez, NRDC, 12 May 2015,
The Sun Also Rises in the Southeast, Continue reading →