Tag Archives: jobs

High-Voltage Grid of the Future — Daniel E. Frank

No new grid is needed

to profit by becoming electrical generators on your own rooftops,
but with a smarter grid south Georgia can export power to Atlanta and beyond.

I found this over in

NO COAL PLANT IN BEN HILL COUNTY!
with this comment by Dan Corrie:

This Georgia Tech announcement emphasizes how quickly technology is
changing toward healthier energy production and away from coal. I would
hate to see our South Georgia stuck with a contaminating, health-harming
coal plant for 50 years while so much progress would be going on during
that time.

The article by Daniel E. Frank dated 18 May 2011
appears on a law firm’s page,

Georgia Tech Clean Energy Speaker Series: “High-Voltage Grid of the Future”:

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Renewable Energy Network at Opportunity Central

Renewable energy for jobs: that’s something that would interest
a Chamber of Commerce.

Partly due to

MAGE SOLAR at Lowndes High School


(thanks, Jerome Tucker!), the Valdosta – Lowndes County Chamber of Commerce (VLCoC) has taken an interest in renewable energy.
ReKasa Deen,

Business Development Director,
already heads the Chamber’s

Opportunity Central:



The Valdosta-Lowndes Chamber is positioning Metro Valdosta as Opportunity
Central with opportunities for business to grow and thrive, career
opportunities for well-educated young professionals and opportunities
for cultural interests and active lifestyles.



The key phrase I keep hearing from

VLCoC president Myrna Ballard
is

“knowledge-based businesses and jobs.”
As it says on a recent

Opportunity Central blog post:

New jobs follow bright and creative professionals…

Ms. Ballard and Ms. Deen have repeatedly said they see renewable energy
as a source of jobs for graduates of our local high schools and colleges.

What do they mean by renewable energy?

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“It’s an anti-American law” —Carlos Santana in Georgia

Carroll Rogers wrote in the AJC 15 May 2011,

Santana blasts Georgia immigration bill before Braves game:



Legendary rock guitarist Carlos Santana, in town to be honored for a
“Beacon of Change” award at Sunday’s MLB Civil Rights Game at
Turner Field, called the state’s new immigration law “anti-American.”

Santana took his turn at the podium on the field in a pre-game ceremony
before the Braves-Phillies game to criticize the immigration bill just
signed into law by Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal Friday.

“I represent the human race,” the Mexican-born Carlos Santana
said. “The people of Arizona, the people of Atlanta, Georgia, you
should be ashamed of yourselves.”

The Georgia immigration law, HB 87, cracks down on illegal immigration
by increasing enforcement powers and requiring many employers to check
the immigration status of new hires.

And this is just the start of

what’s going to happen to Georgia as long as that law is in effect.

But what do you really think, Carlos?

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The backfire effect, and how to leapfrog it

If you have evidence against something that will harm public health
or waste money, just tell everybody and they’ll understand and stop it, right?
Nope, humans don’t work that way.
More likely you’ll provoke the backfire effect,
reinforcing beliefs in the bad information that caused the problem
in the first place. Here are some ways to jump over that effect to get at solutions to the problem.

Shankar Vedantam wrote in the Washington Post 15 Sep 2008 about

The Power of Political Misinformation,
illustrating with a couple of well-known examples of misinformation
(you’ll recognize them), and continuing:



Nearly all these efforts rest on the assumption that good information
is the antidote to misinformation.

But a series of new experiments show that misinformation can exercise
a ghostly influence on people’s minds after it has been debunked —
even among people who recognize it as misinformation.

Countering bad information directly just reinforces it.

Chris Mooney wrote more about why that is in Mother Jones 18 April 2011,

The Science of Why We Don’t Believe Science:

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Wiregrass Solar is the first of several projects —Sonny Murphy

Let’s look at Sterling Planet’s own press release about the
Wiregrass Solar commissioning.
What’s this about a first phase?
And what’s the second phase?


Sterling Planet announces completion of one of Georgia’s largest solar generating projects:
First phase of Valdosta solar project now supplies green energy to Georgia Power.



Sterling Planet, the leading national retail provider of renewable
energy and other clean-energy assets, today announced at a commissioning
ceremony the completion of a 200 kWAC output solar generating project
in Valdosta. One of the largest solar arrays in the state of Georgia,
the Wiregrass Solar, LLC project began commercial operation on April
6 and is now generating annualized output of approximately 350,000
kilowatt-hours. This is enough clean, emission-free electricity to power
350 Georgia homes using the average amount of 1,000 kilowatt-hours of
electricity monthly.

Developed by Sterling Planet, Wiregrass Solar supplies green power for
the Georgia Power Green Energy program, an option for the utility’s
customers who voluntarily choose to support renewable power and help
generate more of it in Georgia.

OK, that’s all good. Congratulations!

Also notice Sterling Planet doesn’t make the mayor’s mistake
in saying this is the largest solar array in Georgia, like

WCTV after Pete Marte of Hannah Solar corrected it,
Sterling says “one of the largest”.

But what’s this about “first phase”?

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Do you miss him yet? Brad Lofton in SC



He may be gone, but he’s still up to his old tricks, and he’s using us for a reference.

Adva Saldinger wrote in The Sun News 8 May 2011,

Lofton hits ground running in new post; CEO asking taxpayers for $1.6 million:

The new Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development Corp. president and
chief executive is by many accounts aggressive and personable, and he
says, ready to take charge and bring much needed jobs to the area quickly.

Brad Lofton said he will bring 500 jobs in the first 18 months, and an
average of 500 jobs each year over the next five to 10 years.

And a pony!

Has anybody verified the jobs Lofton claimed he brought to Lowndes County?

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Dialog and VSEB —John Robinson



Mr. John Robinson pointed out that school board problems and biomass
are not the only issues around here, and for example the south side
of town needs money so people there can become more productive citizens.
At the 21 April 2011 Valdosta City Council meeting,
He specifically recommended getting
Valdosta Small Emerging Business (VSEB) up and running.

Here’s

the video:




Let us try to come together and find some method —John Robinson

Regular monthly meeting of the Valdosta City Council (VCC),

Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 21 April 2011,

Videos by George Boston Rhynes for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

George Rhynes posted

a complete transcript.
Here are a few excerpts:

Continue reading →

Everyone agrees there’s a problem with education — pro and con CUEE @ LCDP 2 May 2011

Pretty much everyone agrees there are problems with the two local
school systems in this county, those of Lowndes and Valdosta.

Proponents and opponents of school unification even agree on many
of the details.
They just don’t agree on the solution.
CUEE believes that unification will somehow lead to solutions to all this,
and

believe is the word they use,
because they have no evidence.
Opponents such as me

don’t see any plan to get to better education, and some think that unification
will cause problems that CUEE is not even considering,

just like integration did in 1969.

Here’s a pair of pie charts from 2008 from

Who’s losing in Winnersville?
a project unification opponent Dr. Mark George was involved in:


And here is a similar comparison

from CUEE using data from 2009-2010.:

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Consolidation won’t be the magic bullet —Leigh Touchton

This comment by Leigh Touchton, President,

Valdosta-Lowndes NAACP,
came in last night on

“I don’t see a separation”. -jsq

What NAACP has advocated for is cultural competency from our teachers,
this is not necessarily a black or white issue. Often it’s more a matter
of class than race; for example, far too many middle class teachers
expect middle class behavior from children who are living in poverty
and this is an unfair expectation. There are also deep-seated issues
regarding black males that cultural competency won’t address: namely,
that many black teenaged males don’t see any benefit to a high school
education because so many of their family members cannot find work here
in Valdosta. What’s the point to an education if one is still shut out
of most successful careers?

Consolidation won’t be the magic bullet that solves these problems,
there aren’t even any CUEE representatives speaking to these issues. To
most of our members, we think these issues will get worse rather than
better if the two systems were to merge.

-Leigh Touchton

Wake-up and break off the spell of the Leviathan —George Boston Rhynes

This comment from George Boston Rhynes arrived just now,
on “Talk to my chairman”. -jsq



I was at

the last LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS MEETING when
Chairman Ashley Paulk shared information about the Biomass Project
extension being denied and the alleged secrecy surrounding keeping the
general public ignorant.

“Because certain people won’t share with you and I think it’s
unfair. We were approached about three weeks ago, Mr. (Joe) Pritchard
(County Manager) was, by the Industrial Authority, and we were tentatively
asked to make a move to ask that they not extend the contract.”
(Chairman Paulk!)

Chairman Paulk words prove that there is an apparent pattern and practice

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