Tag Archives: Economy

Planning Commission on subdivision next to Moody AFB, REZ-2013-08 MFH Tract A @ GLPC 2013-07-29

Now you can see what they were looking at: those documents are on the LAKE website for REZ-2013-08 MFH, for a subdivision on Roberts Road immediately next to Moody AFB.

First County Planner Jason Davenport said a few words about the TRC recommendation.

Commissioner Ted Raker (Hahira) wanted clarification about this application would require additional changes to meet the requirements of the Unified Land Development Code (ULDC), specifically that it would not help with safety, fire, health, general welfare, etc. “In fact seven out of the eleven were negative.”

Davenport confirmed that that was correct, and that was staff’s analysis. Staff paid by your tax dollars, so you shouldn’t have to file an open records request and pay ten dollars when staff could just put it on the web with the GLPC agenda, which they also don’t now but could easily put on the web.

Nobody spoke for the request. Numerous people spoke in opposition.

Tom Kurrie said in 38 years of practicing law Continue reading →

Documents for REZ-2013-08 MFH Tract A on Roberts Road

What the TRC recommended, who the TRC is, the parcel numbers, the Planning Commission board packet, and other related documents are on the LAKE web server for REZ-2013-08 MFH Tract A, 0181 025B & 0181 027, Roberts Rd, 123.45 ac., MAZ I to Residential PD, 184 lots, County Utilities, the rezoning next to Moody AFB that has been withdrawn. The parcel numbers above were not in the GLPC agenda but are in the recommendations of the Technical Review Committee (TRC).

Lowndes County Planner Jason Davenport to TRC 23 July 103, July 29th GLPC Lowndes County Rezoning Update,

Good afternoon Planning Commissioners.

Based on the TRC meeting this morning please find this month’s TRC rezoning recommendations and current analysis below or attached to this e-mail. Continue reading →

Proposed development next to Moody AFB has been withdrawn (REZ-2013-08)

Received in response to an open records request to Lowndes County, here is the developer’s withdrawal letter, and correspondence between Lowndes County Zoning and Planning with Moody AFB confirming that this was indeed REZ-2013-08 MFH Tract A on Roberts Road that was withdrawn. It seems the U.S. Air Force would also like to see GLPC minutes online; that request came from Deputy, Housing Division, Air Force Civil Engineering Center, located in San Antonio, Texas.. Also, doesn’t Georgia open meetings law require a summary of actions taken within a few days of a Planning Commission meeting? -jsq

Date: Mon, 29 Jul 2013 19:56:40 -0400
Subject: MAZ-1
From: Roger Sevigny <rsevigny@alleneng.net>
To: Jason Davenport <jdavenport@lowndescounty.com>, <bslaughter@lowndescounty.com>
Cc: Mike Fletcher <mfletcher@lowndescounty.com>, Joe Pritchard <JPritchard@lowndescounty.com>

Gentlemen,

I had no idea of the county anger with MFH LLC. I thought Continue reading →

Southern Company backed off on cost overrun request

Fitch reaffirmed SO’s and Georgia Power’s (and Mississippi Power’s) ratings today after Southern Company backed off a week ago from risking losing the larger cost overrun request to GA PSC. Beware: SO will be back, when maybe fewer people are looking. Or maybe that tiger team will issue its summer report and the titanic Southern Company ship will finally change course towards distributed solar and wind power.

Jonathan Shapiro wrote for AP 31 July 2013, AP: Georgia Power To Waive Request for Extra Vogtle Costs

[Southern Company] CEO Thomas Fanning told analysts Wednesday that the Atlanta-based company reached a preliminary deal with Georgia officials.

Under the plan, the company would only seek right now to collect the $209 million that it spent building the two new reactors at Plant Vogtle from July to December.

The company would waive Continue reading →

The Korean nuclear mafia: power companies, vendors, and testers

Document-forging Doosan was just the tip of the Korean nuclear corruption iceberg.

It’s different stateside, right? San Onofre 2 and 3 Oh, wait: U.S. NRC is refusing to supply Congress with safety documents related to the closing of San Onofre. But Plant Vogtle is much safer, right? Southern Company CEO Tom Fanning told us so. Of course, he also told us Kemper Coal would come in on budget, and now SO is writing off $611 million after taxes. But that bad concrete pour, the misplaced reactor vessel, the leaking tritium; those are all flukes, right? Meanwhile, solar panels don’t leak tritium, and if you misplace one, you only lose money, not risk lives.

By Choe Sang-Hun in NY Times yesterday, Scandal in South Korea Over Nuclear Revelations,

Korean nuclear reactor Weeks of revelations about the close ties between South Korea’s nuclear power companies, their suppliers and testing companies have led the prime minister to liken the industry to a mafia.

The scandal started after an anonymous tip in April prompted an official investigation. Prosecutors have indicted some officials at a testing company on charges of faking safety tests on parts for the plants. Some officials at the state-financed company that designs nuclear power plants were also indicted on charges of taking bribes from testing company officials in return for accepting those substandard parts.

Worse yet, Continue reading →

Nuclear an economic boon despite high costs –Tim Echols

Some of the “stuff” that happened before and after GA PSC Tim Echols cheered nuclear Friday.

GA Public Service Commissioner Tim Echols wrote in the Athens Banner-Herald Friday Echols: Nuclear power can be economic boon to Southeast,

Just when we thought nuclear power might be on a comeback, well, stuff happened. Only time will tell if Georgia and South Carolina can “jump-start” a nuclear renaissance. Let’s hope we can, because low-cost base-load energy — the amount of electricity available 24 hours a day — is a key to economic growth.

Stuff like this happened:

EDF exits nuclear, focuses on solar and wind

EDF is moving to solar and wind, despite its excuse of shale gas for leaving the U.S. nuclear market. EDF already has almost twice as much solar and wind in the U.S., 2.3 gigawatts, as the 1.2 gigawatts Southern Company plans by 2016. Maybe this means Calvert Cliffs is finally dead maybe along with NRC’s attempt to change foreign ownership rules to accomodate EDF. EDF is the operator of France’s fleet of nuclear reactors, including caught-on-fire Cattenom and many others that drain over-hot water into French rivers in the summer.

Reuters in Climate Spectator 31 July 2013 EDF exits US nuclear, focuses on renewables,

French utility EDF, the world’s biggest operator of nuclear plants, is pulling out of nuclear energy in the United States, bowing to the realities of a market that has been transformed by cheap shale gas.

Several nuclear reactors in the US have been closed or are being shuttered as utilities baulk at the big investments needed to extend their lifetimes Continue reading →

Duke ends Levy County nuke

No nukes in Levy County, Florida, Duke Energy just announced, six months after it terminated Crystal River 3.

Terminating the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) agreement for the Levy nuclear project.

Duke is also going to write off $295 million in investments in already-closed Crystal River 3 “and $65 million related to the wholesale allocation of investments in the Levy nuclear project, as well as accelerate the recovery of $135 million in cash flows related to CR3.” In other words, Duke still wants somebody else to pay for part of Crystal River 3’s debts. But Crystal River 3 and Levy County 1 and 2 will never be built.

Duke PR today, Duke Energy reaches revised multi-year settlement with Florida consumer advocates, Continue reading →

The Economist answers Paul Bowers about carbon tax

Back in May someone asked Georgia Power CEO Paul Bowers what he thought about a carbon tax, and he answered, “Why would anyone want that?” The Economist answered his question, 29 June 2013, Tepid, timid: The world will one day adopt a carbon tax—but only after exhausting all the alternatives,

Winston Churchill famously said America would always do the right thing after exhausting the alternatives. The right thing in climate You can always count on Americans to do the right thing, after they ve tried everything else. --Winston Churchill policy for all the big countries is a carbon tax, which is simpler and less vulnerable to fluctuations in emissions than cap-and-trade schemes. For years, such a tax has been a non-starter politically. But as the alternatives are tested to destruction, it deserves to be looked at again. Current environmental policies will not keep the rise in global temperatures to below 2°C—the maximum that most climate scientists think safe. A carbon tax, if stiff enough, could. Big polluters should assume that such a tax will one day arrive, and start planning for it now.

Dear Paul Bowers,

Stop being tepid and timid. Go beyond Continue reading →

Sabal Trail natural gas pipeline letters to Lowndes County

No letters from Lowndes County back to Sabal Trail were included in the open records response of last week, so should we conclude the county has not authorized surveys on any of its properties? The request to Lowndes County was for correspondence with Sabal Trail Transmission LLC about the proposed natural gas pipeline from Anniston, Alabama to Orlando, Florida, and the response included survey authorization forms for a list of parcels owned by Lowndes County, plus assorted descriptions and maps with very little detail. Sabal Trail still didn’t have a contract with Florida Power and Light, yet expected:

“Field survey work is scheduled to begin in September 2013.”

It looks like Sabal Trail sent letters about a bunch of parcels and then more about another one later. First they sent an introduction 19 June 2013 listing parcels 0146A-074-A, 0171 178, 0172 119, 0204 001, including a map. This appears to be the same map we’ve seen before posted by various news media:

[Map: 36" Greenfield Pipeline Approx. 465 Miles]
Map: 36" Greenfield Pipeline Approx. 465 Miles

Then they sent a letter 22 June 2013 with a survey authorization form for the same parcels. Then they sent separate letters 25 June 2013 for parcels 0146A-074-A, 0171 178, and 0172 119, 0204 001.

Also on 25 June 2013 Lowndes County Chairman Bill Slaughter informed us:

Lowndes County does not benefit from this proposal and has no responsibility for the approval other than that of a property owner potentially impacted by the proposed route as any other property owner in Lowndes County would be.

Apparently Sabal Trail thought of another one, because a few weeks later they sent a cover letter 15 July 2013 for Parcels 0098 003, 0098 004 with a slightly more detailed map, followed a few days later by a survey authorization form 19 July 2013.

[Map of Options A and B]
Map of Options A and B

Scans of all these letters are on the LAKE website.

-jsq