Tag Archives: Law

Citizens for solar power; GA leg. not so much

Utility backers in the Georgia legislature tried scare tactics to stop HB 657 (or anything else) from requiring more solar power from Georgia Power. Still no solar tax, said citizens in Savannah, Columbus, Gainesville, Athens, and now Atlanta.

Walter C. Jones wrote for the Florida Times-Union 31 October 2013, Outlook for solar bill isn’t bright in Georgia. Not sure why this picture of me illustrates this story on facebook (I wasn’t at the hearing in Atlanta), but hey, why not.

Claudia Collier with Green Georgia drove from Savannah to speak at the hearing.

“This bill will give us direct choice in where our electricity comes from,” she said.

Rep. Mike Dudgeon, R-Johns Creek, pointed to the amount of solar generation the Public Service Commission ordered Georgia Power to acquire this year.

“It looks like the PSC is already managing the situation,” he said.

As Southern Company CEO Tom Fanning and Georgia Power CEO Paul Bowers well know, Continue reading →

Videos: Special bid review meeting @ VLCIA 2013-10-29

With a bare quorum of 3 out of 5, VLCIA Chair Mary Gooding said they had finally purchased their own office space and would henceforth pay neither lease nor rent using our tax dollars. I’d like to congratulate them for a thorough public bid review.

Project Manager Allan Ricketts reviewed the project including the bids on “the second document in front of you” that the taxpaying public didn’t get to see. He did summarize the bids, and they even showed them on a slide:

$273,595Cauthan
$232,445Kellerman
$274,900Quillian Powell
$262,557Taylor
$244,000True North

Bids

A board member wanted to know if the bids were all local. Ricketts said they were.

Mr. Matt Hart, with IPG, project manager on the project, clarified Continue reading →

Meeting with EPA about Seven Out Superfund Site in Waycross 24 Nov 2013

Facebook event by Joan Martin McNeal:

When: Thursday, November 14, 2013 6:30pm
Where: City Hall, 477 Pendleton St., Waycross, GA

Will we get help Or will it be just another story? EPA Meeting Scheduled for Thursday, November 14 at 6:30 PM Waycross City Hall to give us an update on Seven Out Superfund Site. They will also have on hand the Georgia Dept of Health. PLEASE MARK YOUR CALENDAR NOW!


View Larger Map

-jsq

Special bid review meeting @ VLCIA 2013-10-29

The Industrial Authority’s new office is urgent enough for a special called meeting. Inquiring reporter Gretchen is going to see what the fuss is about.

Maybe it’s just because this office search has had more episodes than Star Wars. Before Roy Copeland was appointed to the VLCIA board, they were considering buying the old Board of Elections site from him. Now he’s even been Chairman twice and given that up, and they still don’t have a new office. Or maybe it’s something to do with who owns 103 Roosevelt Drive.

Interestingly, HG Pinnacle Properties, Inc. also owns the much larger surrounding lot, 2318 N Patterson Street, on which a Valdosta Electric trailer has been parked across from the hospital for so long it shows up on Google Maps.

On VLCIA’s website and facebook page (although oddly not in their current news page:

There will be a Special Called Meeting of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority 12 noon Tuesday, October 29, 2013 at the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority Offices.

The purpose of this meeting is to review bids regarding the renovation and construction of 103 Roosevelt Drive.

-jsq

From fracking to pipelines –Michael G. Noll

LTE in the VDT today. I added the images and the links. -jsq

Albert Einstein once said that “the world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything.” This philosophy can be applied to countless social and political issues and speaks of the dangers of apathy. Add to this situation a lack of information and our society is truly in danger, as companies like SPECTRA Energy not only count on our apathy, but will also try to hoodwink us.

The Sabal Trail Pipeline currently discussed in our community is really part of a larger story, a process known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. Fracking allows companies like Halliburton to free oil and gas trapped in geologic formations, but in a fashion that is extremely dangerous to our environment (especially groundwater aquifers) and human health. Exempt from the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act, fracking has created countless problems for communities from Pennsylvania to Texas, and may soon be coming to north Georgia.

The gas pipeline under discussion is literally a tentacle Continue reading →

Third Sabal Trail pipeline route misses Georgia entirely

Andrea Grover of Sabal Trail Transmission has been telling Florida landowners about another proposed pipeline route that completely bypasses Georgia. Received yesterday on Request pipeline town hall –Tim Bland to LCC:

For those that are against having the pipeline run through their property, go to Ocala Star Banner on the web where there is a map with the proposed route for the pipeline from Alabama to Florida. This route barely touches the southwest corner of Georgia (if at all). Why did Sabal change the route? I don’t either. The newspaper is dated October 24, 2013.

-Ronald Kicklighter

Contracts for natural gas pipeline through Florida get initial OK, by Morgan Watkins for Ocala StarBanner picked up a story first run in the Gainesville Sun,

A $3.5 billion, 600-mile natural-gas pipeline system that will stretch from Alabama into Florida is still in the planning stages, but homeowners near the Ichetucknee and Santa Fe rivers are concerned because the routes being proposed might run through their neighborhoods.

 

Landowners in Georgia don’t want it crossing their land or the Flint or Withlacoochee Rivers, either.

Florida Power & Light selected Continue reading →

Transparency not a problem –Bill Slaughter @ VLMPO 2013-10-23

Defining away another problem, like he already did Internet access, Lowndes County Chairman Bill Slaughter said:

I can’t honestly just buy into the real problem of transparency in this community.

This was after numerous people in the room at the VLMPO Open House on Common Community Vision at Mildred Hunter 23 October 2013 expressed concerns about needs to video local government meetings and put them online, and to make various processes more open.

Regarding videoing, Slaughter trotted out former Valdosta Mayor John Fretti’s old chestnut about allegedly in cities where meetings are televised citizens grandstand and the meetings drag on forever. Nevermind that there are numerous ways to do it, such as putting videos on the web and not simulcasting, and in places like Tallahassee that do both not many citizens usually show up. The people I’ve seen grandstanding consistently at local government meetings around here are Continue reading →

Spectra to answer questions about pipeline @ LCC 2013-12-09

Received yesterday. Good first step. Will the Commission also have Spectra speak at the Regular Session, like they did ADS back in February? Will it make that a public hearing?
Update 11:30 AM: Pipeline meeting set: Commissioner gathers opposing views by Matthew Woody, front page of the VDT this morning. -jsq

From: Demarcus Marshall <marshall at lowndescounty.com>
Date: Friday, October 25, 2013 7:51 AM
To: Tim Bland
Cc: Matthew Woody
Subject: Sabal Trail Pipeline

Tim and Residents along the Proposed Sabal Trail Pipeline,

Brian Fahrenthold of Sabal Trail Pipeline contacted me yesterday and requested an audience with the Lowndes County Commissioners. I have submitted to the chairman a slot for him to address the commissioners at our December 09, 2013 work session. I am writing you to ask Continue reading →

Schedule of Open Houses required by FERC for Sabal Trail

After the series of divide-and-conquer landowner meetings Spectra just held, another series of Open Houses starts in December: here’s the schedule. Later, FERC may hold and sponsor Scoping Meetings. Local counties can hold public hearings in addition to all these, and Andrea Grover said in front of multiple witnesses that Spectra would speak and answer questions at such a county public hearing.

Update 3 Dec 2013: Brooks County, Georgia already had a citizen speak. Lowndes County, Georgia is having Sabal Trail speak. See the calendar. See also Sabal Trail’s own list of open houses.

There’s also a meeting of the corporate cast of characters with FERC on November 5, 2013. I wonder if intervenors could attend that meeting, at least by telephone?

The Open House roadshow gets to Albany Dec 11, Moultrie Dec 12, and Clyattville Dec 16, interleaved with meetings in Alabama and Florida.

Here’s FERC’s definition of Open Houses: Continue reading →

Florida Southeast Connection pipeline preliminary filing with FERC

What costs less than a latte or a slice of pizza? A day’s electricity from Florida Power and Light, according to FPL VP Pam Rauch who also is NextEraEnergy VP and President of yet another pipeline company shell that wants to pull a 100 foot gas pipeline through Georgia for the benefit of Florida.

Still more names in the pipeline shell game: Pamela Rauch who filed FP14-2 for Florida Southeast Connection LLC (FSC), is Vice President, Development and External Affairs for NextEraEnergy and Vice President of External Affairs for Florida Power & Light Company (FPL) in January since 2008; on her LinkedIn profile she has the NextEra logo next to the FPL name. Here’s a nice picture of her making a case for an FPL rate increase for, among other things,

“our ability to finance the billions of dollars in improvements that keep reliability high and bills low, and that create thousands of jobs for you and your neighbors.”

Those would include “modernizations” as Spectra rep Andrea Grover put it in Moultrie like closing coal plants and building this pipeline through Georgia by Spectra Energy, a company with a corrosive-record of property damage and PCB-spilling environmental damaga for neighbors like hers in Florida. We could have more jobs for people right here through rooftop solar, and we’d get energy, reduced bills, and no risk of PCB or other spills.

What do you think about this, neighbors in Georgia? Maybe you’d like to get the Lowndes County Commission to get Spectra and maybe FSC to come explain themselves?

FERC file list for FP14-2 and text of the preliminary filing approval for Florida Southeast Connection: Continue reading →