Tag Archives: Economy

MLK and pipeline opposition

The fossil fuel opposition is the child and grandchild of Mohandas K. Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.


With their nonviolence, truth, and action as a model, we shall overcome.

Bill McKibben, The Guardian, 25 August 2011,

Martin Luther King’s legacy and the power of nonviolent civil disobedience:
In opposing the Keystone XL oil pipeline, demonstrators are getting a sense of the civil rights leader’s courage,

Preacher, speaker, writer under fire, but also tactician. He really
understood the power of nonviolence, a power we’ve experienced in
the last few days. When the police cracked down on us, the publicity
it produced cemented two of the main purposes of our protest: First,
it made Keystone XL “ the new, 1,700-mile-long pipeline we’re
trying to block that will vastly increase the flow of “dirty” tar
sands oil from Alberta, Canada, to the Gulf of Mexico “ into a
national issue. A few months ago, it was mainly people along the
route of the prospective pipeline who were organising against it.
(And with good reason: Continue reading →

South Georgia Growing Local at Pine Grove Middle School this Saturday

Update 2015-01-20: Actually that’s Wednesday 21 January 2015 for Gretchen on the Chris Beckham radio show, 105.9 FM, still at 8AM.

Gretchen Quarterman will be

on the radio


7:30 AM this morning on the Scott James show 92.1 FM and 8:00 AM tomorrow January 21st on the Chris Beckham show 105.9 FM,
talking about

South Georgia Growing Local 2015,
a full day of five parallel tracks of talks about soil, planting, fruits, vegetables, oils, permaculture, hydroponics, bees, bugs, invasive plants, citrus, chickens, goats, hams, cooking, water, and solar power, all here below the gnat line in our loamy soil and above our Floridan Aquifer.
The conference is 9AM to 5PM Saturday January 24th 2015 at Pine Grove Middle School, on River Road north of Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia.
See you there!

-jsq

Solar financing bill HB 57

You won’t have to mortgage the farm to install solar power if this bill passes,


because you’ll be able to get

reasonable financing.

Update 2015-02-07: HB 57 was favorably reported out of the
House Energy, Utilities & Telecommunications Committee 28 January 2015,
first time such a bill has ever cleared that hurdle.

The actual solar leasing bill in the Georgia House as of 14 January 2015
is

HB 57 “…to provide for financing of solar technology by retail electric customers for the generation of electric energy to be used on and by property owned or occupied by such customers or to be fed back to the electric service provider”, aka the “Solar Power Free-Market Financing Act of 2015.”
It includes the same old generation limits from the 1973 Territorial
Electric Service Act (10 Megawatts per individual and 100 MW per company),
but it blows a huge hole in the prohibition on power purchase agreements (PPAs).

Georgia Power and the Electric Membership Corporations have reportedly

already agreed on this bill.
If so, it should sail through the legislature.
Still, it won’t hurt to call your Georgia House member and ask them to vote for it,
and maybe become a co-sponsor.

Here’s PDF
of the bill, and
here’s the key provision: Continue reading →

Quail Hunt and Project Cold @ VLCIA 2015-01-20


And a City Council Retreat Presentation.

Valdosta-Lowndes Development Authority

Tuesday, January 20, 2015 5:30 p.m.

Development Authority Conference Room

103 Roosevelt Drive

Monthly Meeting Agenda

Continue reading →

Expanded agenda, VLDA appointment, jail, taxes, water @ LCC 2015-01-12

Whose terms are up and who’s being considered for
appointment (Teri Lupo for VLDA again),
who
bid and how much (including



showers and

roofing
for the jail),
and some detail about

two
tax

rates:
these are all big improvements to the agenda!
I do wonder where the agenda item for the Water Trail resolution is.

However, there’s room for improvement.
Even though you get this same extended agenda when you select “packet”
for download, it is not the complete board packet.
For example, each agenda item has a one or more page agenda item
form, and each proposed agreement or contract typically is include
in the paper packets the Commissioners get.
There are no rezoning cases on this agenda, but when there are,
those always contain several maps in the board packet, and often
other information.
There’s an HTML version of the agenda, in addition to PDF:
that’s another big improvement!
The HTML code includes this at the end of each item:


<div class="documents"> </div>

So it looks like the website software the county is using is prepared
to include such documents.
Maybe the county will actually include them soon.

Here’s the agenda
in HTML
and in PDF on the county’s website,
and I’ve also included it inline below. Continue reading →

Solar boom charts

When a power source grows 66% a year on average
people start taking notice.
Few had heard of

the Internet in 1993:
now it’s in your pocket.
In less than a decade, by 2023,

solar power will generate more energy than any other U.S. source.
To keep Georgia from being left behind, this is the year to

change a 1973 law.

If charts like this one aren’t familiar yet,
they will be in the next year or two:



Tim McDonnell, Mother Jones, 7 November 2014,

Here Comes the Sun: America’s Solar Boom, in Charts:
It’s been a bit player, but solar power is about to shine.

At 66% more per year, solar power’s current 1% of U.S. electricity
next year will be 1.66%, then 2.76%, then Continue reading →

Housing, paving, appointments, solar, packets, wells, pipeline, and trash! @ Town Hall Meeting 2014-12-15



Very respectable turnout and impressive interaction
at the first-ever Town Hall by an individual Lowndes County Commissioner:

Demarcus Marshall, Super District 4, 15 December 2014.
See and read his

State of District 4 address.
You can read his

summary of issues and concerns,
and you can watch citizens express those concerns in
the

LAKE video playlist: Continue reading →

Topics and Highlights @ Town Hall Meeting 2014-12-15

“
There were overwhelming complaints about Advance Disposal Sanitation
customer service.” Many other issues and concerns are listed in this text published by Demarcus Marshall (PDF)
of feedback received and
and
LAKE videos
of the Town Hall Meeting 5 December 2014. -jsq

Lowndes County Board of Commissioners

Commissioner Demarcus Marshall

Super District 4


Post Office Box 1349 ● Valdosta, Georgia 31603-1349 ● Phone (229) 671-2400 ● Fax (229) 245-522

Super District 4 and Concerned Citizens,


300x388 Thanks to those who came, in Topic and Highlights @ Town Hall Meeting, by Demarcus Marshall, 15 December 2014
I want to thank those who came to my Town Hall Meeting on December
15, 2014. It was a pleasure to hear from you. Your presence made the
event a success and I look forward to another one in the near
future. I have listed the “Topics and Highlights”
addressed at the Town Hall Meeting below for your review. As well, I
have released my State of the District Address for the public. It is
my sincere hope that you will remain actively involved in our local
community. In the meantime, I want to wish everyone Happy Holidays
and a blessed New Year!

Sincerely,

[signed] Demarcus A. Marshall Continue reading →

State of District 4 Address –Demarcus Marshall @ Town Hall Meeting 2014-12-15



Text published by Demarcus Marshall (PDF)
and LAKE video of his address at the
Town Hall Meeting 15 December 2014. -jsq

For those unaware, Super District 4 was a newly created district in
Lowndes County two years ago. I assumed this office without a
predecessor to this district seat. It was my understanding of this
district to compliment the other districts by adding more
responsiveness and accountability for the citizens of Lowndes
County.

Upon being elected and occupying the seat, I inherited a wonderful
staff; however, the county faced several challenges. The economy was Continue reading →

Zero percent down solar installations for Georgia? Change a 1973 law first

Who would pass up cutting their monthly electric and transportation
costs by 60%?
Well, people in Georgia will get passed by unless
we change an antique 1973 law.

Chris Mooney wrote for Washington Post 24 December 2014,

How solar power and electric cars could make suburban living awesome again,



…the solar-EV combo may just be too good for suburbanites to pass
up — no matter their political ideology. Strikingly, the new
paper estimates that for a household that buys an electric vehicle
and also owns a solar panel system generating enough power for both
the home and the electric car, the monthly cost might be just $89
per month — compared with $255 per month for a household
driving a regular car without any solar panels.

I’m
no fan of sprawl, Continue reading →