Tag Archives: Planning

KLVB report —Aaron Strickland @ LCC 2012-09-10



In

the 10 September 2012 Lowndes County Commission Work Session,
Aaron Strickland of
Keep Lowndes-Valdosta Beautiful (KLVB)
said there were two applicants for appointement to the
KLVB board: Emily Preston and Deanna Wagner.
They did not speak;
Emily Macheski-Preston and Deanna Wagner.
Ms. Macheski-Preston spoke (included below); Ms. Wagner did not;
maybe tonight.

He gave a brief verbal report, which he said
was a summary of a report he submitted last week
(which we the taxpayers haven’t seen).
He said at their Rivers Alive event last year
they had a record number of sites cleaned: seven.
Great American Cleanup, KLVB’s signature event
used to be 1 day, but this year was 3 days.

  1. Valdosta asked for help with a creek project.
  2. Helped emergency management after the

    tornadoes,
    through

    Ashley Tye     and a group called Vision 388(?).
  3. Traditional cleanup day in Valdosta, Lowndes County, and Lake Park.

He read some

statistics on numbers of volunteers and things cleaned up.
He listed some

future events.
There’s more in the video.

Commissioner Richard Raines wanted to know how much time commitment was involved.
Answer: an hour per board meeting and helping out with events and committees.

Here’s

the video: video of Aaron Strickland’s aural report:

Continue reading →

Citizens plead for Strickland Mill, then a surprise offer @ RCC 2012-09-10



Haley Hyatt videoed
yesterday’s Remerton City Council
decision about Strickland Mill.
Citizens pled, unsuccessfully, for it to be saved.
Then the owners made a surprise offer.

Here’s

Part 1 of 3:



The final plea

was made by Celine H. Gladwin.

Continue reading →

Fracking water

Yet another reason why we should take water into account in
any development plan:
fracking for shale gas
uses huge amounts of water, competing with everything else,
maybe even using more than power plants and cities.

Delaware Riverkeeper and Protecting Our Waters wrote for Waterkeeper Alliance today,

The Water Footprint of Shale Gas Development,



Recent studies examining potable water supplies on a global scale,
the current trends in American water consumption and the causes of
depletion of this essential resource are helping us to understand
that the footprint of shale gas development expands indefinitely
when measured in water….

Of the seven nations where the groundwater footprint is greatest,
the U.S. is one of the fastest speeding towards disaster. According


to Cynthia Barnett’s Blue Revolution, scientists say the 20th
century was the wettest in a thousand years and now drier times are
ahead.[3] This means that many of the management schemes we use
now—based on 20th C planning—need to be changed to avoid
catastrophe. So the 410 billion gallons of water America uses every
day will suck the nation dry if we don’t stop over-tapping nearly
every river and aquifer.

The biggest U.S. users are power plants and agriculture with private

Continue reading →

Remerton City Council votes today @ RCC 2012-09-10


Strickland Mill For Sale
Tonight the Remerton City Council votes on

the old Strickland Mill at

1853 West Gordon Street,
same item as

discussed 4 June 2012
and

postponed 11 June 2012.
Also, Remerton doesn’t play mysterious about
the Haven.
All that plus signs, water, and alcohol.

I will be there for about half an hour, after which I have to go video
something else.
Could someone else video the rest of tonight’s Remerton City Council meeting?


City Clerk Rachel Tate
Here’s

the agenda,
which for some reason (I’m guessing City Clerk Rachel Tate not being available)
is a scan instead of a text-extractable PDF.
I’ve transcribed it below this time.

CITY OF REMERTON

REGULAR SESSION AGENDA

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2012

COUNCIL CHAMBERS

5:30 PM

Continue reading →

Open Records Officer at Lowndes County Commission @ LCC 2012-09-10

Apparently the Lowndes County Commission has noticed the


new provisions of the Georgia Open Records and Open Meetings laws
that

VLCIA’s lawyer explained to the Industrial Authority back in May,
seeing these two items on the agenda for Monday morning and Tuesday evening:

5.a. Adopt Resolution Appointing an Open Records Officer

5.b. Resolution Regarding Review & Approval of Minutes of Executive Sessions

Plus infrastructure for two subdivsisions,
one of them the famous

Glen Laurel,
several well/septic rezonings,
approval of
USGS Funding Agreement for HWY 122 Stream Gauge
(one of the four that

let us know about river flooding in Lowndes County
less than a month ago),
a beer license, and approval of the

changes to the ULDC that were discussed in the recent Planning Commission meeting,
in the public hearing the public didn’t know about.
And more.



Here’s

the agenda.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

PROPOSED AGENDA

WORK SESSION, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2012, 8:30 a.m.

REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2012, 5:30 p.m.

327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

Continue reading →

Germany Added 543 MW of Solar Power Capacity in July

While we in Georgia were still pouring money down that nuclear pit near the
Savannah River, Germany has been getting on with real renewable energy.
We could have deployed almost that much solar power with just the cost overruns
so far at Plant Vogtle.

Nicholas Brown wrote for Clean Technica 8 September 2012,

Germany Added 543 MW of Solar Power Capacity in July,



According to Matt McDermott of Treehugger: “[In] the first
half of 2012 Germany has installed just over 4.37 gigawatts of
grid-tied solar power. Remarkably just about 1.8 GW of that happened
in June alone (perhaps even more remarkable, this isn’t even a
record amount for one month in Germany).”

The amount of solar power capacity added in June was much more than
July’s, but July’s was still impressive. July’s addition brings
Germany’s total installed capacity for the first half of 2012 to
4,900 MW (4.9 GW).

This impressive solar installation rate had a lot to do with Germany’s
famous Feed-in Tariffs (FIT), but it also had a lot to do with
Moore’s Law, illustrated by that graph of cost per kilowatt rapidly
going down.



543 MW?
That’s more than the 330 MW of solar
the $913 million cost overrun at Plant Vogtle in the
first half of 2012 could have bought.
1800 MW in June and 543 MW in July?
That’s 2343 MW, which is more than the entire rated 2200 MW output of Plant Vogtle 3 and 4 put together, if they ever get built.
Sure, the sun doesn’t shine all the time, but in the years until the nukes ever
get built (if ever), how much solar could we deploy at the rate of one Vogtle unit equivalent a month?

Hey, maybe we should cancel Plant Vogtle and deploy solar instead!
Maybe Georgia Power and Southern Company will realize their big bet
has already gone bad.
Or maybe we should elect some Public Service Commissioners and legislators
who will get them to realize it.

-jsq

 

Industrial Authority goes solar, broadband, and conversational!

The Industrial Authority apparently listened to its focus groups,
and discovered that broadband and solar energy are important
to attract industry.
Andrea Schruijer even recommends conversation,
which has been sorely lacking in recent years.
Congratulations, Industrial Authority!

Jason Schaefer wrote for the VDT today,

Authority analyzes Valdosta business:
Broadband, solar power, professional services targeted for growth,



The Authority also plans to work toward the availability of more
broadband Internet service and solar power in Valdosta and
surrounding communities. These amenities would help support local
industries as well as draw new ones to the greater Valdosta area for
the creation of new jobs.

That’s a good start. Although it’s not clear from the writeup that VLCIA quite got it about
Internet access.

As part of presenting Valdosta as an attractive package for


prospective industries, the Authority attempts to ready the land set
aside for development before beginning the recruitment process. This
means investing in infrastructure, including broadband internet.

“It’s not that we don’t have broadband,” Schruijer said.
“What we’re looking at is the technology behind the broadband.
We have it in certain areas, but in order for us to grow some of
these core targets, such as professional services, we need that
infrastructure.”

Well, actually, no,



we don’t have broadband.
6Mbps is the fastest most people can get around here,
and 30Mbps is the slowest you can even buy in many countries.
Plus, it’s not just fast Internet to industrial sites that’s needed:

it’s fast Internet access everywhere knowledge-based employees
may want to live.

But they’re on the right track:

Because the Authority can’t “buy” industries into coming
to Valdosta—though it can offer tax abatements—it is
necessary to make sure that new businesses have what they will need
before ground is even broken, Schruijer said. To this effect, the
Authority will “stimulate the conversation” to actively
attract more broadband companies to the area.

A conversation!
Now there’s something we’ve been needing around here.
And it’s a refreshing change from only
a year ago when all we heard was



“Debate is not allowed.”

Maybe the Industrial Authority will be the organization that will show the
rest of us how to hold civil discussions about things that affect all of us!

The VDT’s writeup skips quickly over another big change:

Continue reading →

Change the Atomic Energy Act? How about change the Georgia Electric Territorial Act?

In reaction to

the NRC denying a nuclear permit for Calvert Cliffs,


some nuclear backers suggest

changing the
Atomic Energy Act of 1954 to permit majority foreign ownership
of nuclear reactors.
What will they suggest next?
Asking Iran to invest in U.S. nukes?

Steve Skutnik wrote for http://theenergycollective.com 5 September 2012,

A cost-free way to open up nuclear investment,

If this seems entirely backward in a world of global production and
investment, that’s because it is. The current regulation is an


artifact of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, which first authorized
private ownership of nuclear facilities. (Prior to this—per
the Atomic Energy Act of 1946, all nuclear technology was considered
a state secret, during the short time in which the U.S. enjoyed a
monopoly on the technology.)

Is there any real compelling reason for restrictions on foreign
ownership and investment in nuclear facilities to exist at a time
when the U.S. holding a monopoly on the technology has long since
passed? Issues of safety here of course are irrelevant—the
facilities would be licensed and regulated by the NRC, just as any
other nuclear facility is now. About the only salient objection is
the political one—i.e., the implications of a foreign entity
maintaining controlling ownership in key infrastructure. (Although
it’s hard to see anyone getting particularly upset about the
reverse—U.S. entities owning a controlling stake in
infrastructure in other nations.)

Yeah, sure, strict regulation
will deal with that, just like it prevents fracking from setting
drinking water on fire, or BP from poisoning the Gulf.
The new NRC head is

maybe well-meaning,
but it’s the same NRC

that gave Vogtle 1 a clean bill just before it had to shut down
and the same NRC that’s ignoring

cancer in Shell Bluff.

Oh, by the way, the article gets to the main point eventually:

Continue reading →

NRC rejects nuke permit for EDF in Maryland

French nuclear operator Électricité de France (EDF)



was denied a license last week for the proposed Calvert Cliffs
nuclear reactor in Maryland, because the
Atomic Energy Act of 1954 prohibits majority foreign ownership
of nuclear plants.
EDF now has 60 days to find a U.S. partner, or give up the project.
Who could the possible suitors be?
Hint: think southeast.

The handwriting was on the wall two years ago when
Constellation Energy pulled out of the project.
Jim Polson and Alan Katz wrote for Bloomberg 10 October 2010,

Constellation Drops Nuclear Plant, Denting EDF’s U.S. Plans,

Constellation Energy Group Inc. pulled out of negotiations on a $7.5


billion loan guarantee to build a nuclear reactor in Maryland with
Electricite de France SA, potentially damaging the French utility’s
U.S. expansion plans and the companies’ partnership.

The cost of the U.S. government loan guarantee that the companies’
joint venture, UniStar Nuclear Energy, would need to build the
Calvert Cliffs 3 reactor is too high and creates too much risk for
Constellation, the Baltimore-based utility said in a statement
yesterday. The statement said the next step is up to EDF. Enlarge
image U.S. Deputy Energy Secretary Daniel Poneman

In a letter Oct. 8 to Daniel Poneman, deputy secretary of the U.S.
Department of Energy, Constellation said it received a government
estimate that the venture would have to pay about $880 million to
the U.S. Treasury for the loan guarantee, “dramatically out of
line with both our own independent assessments and of what the
figure should reasonably be.”

Constellation’s decision may make it more likely that the U.S.
utility will exercise a put option forcing EDF to buy as much as $2
billion of Constellation’s non-nuclear power plants, said Ingo
Becker, head of utilities sector research at Kepler Capital Markets.

“EDF very clearly said if they exercise the put, this thing is
over,” Becker said. “Constellation may have just turned
around the calendar and pulled out of the new build before
exercising the put, anticipating EDF’s reaction.”

In a letter Oct. 8 to Daniel Poneman, deputy secretary of the U.S.
Department of Energy, Constellation said it received a government
estimate that the venture would have to pay about $880 million to
the U.S. Treasury for the loan guarantee, “dramatically out of
line with both our own independent assessments and of what the
figure should reasonably be.”

Meanwhile, Southern Company

is still trying to reduce what it has to pay for its
$8.3 billion federal loan guarantee.

Back in Maryland, the news got worse for the nuke last year.
EDF

asked for the state’s help,
but didn’t get the answer it wanted.
Scott Dance wrote for Baltimore Business Journal 16 December 2011,

EDF: Constellation-Exelon settlement hurts Maryland nuclear industry,

Continue reading →

Energy experts making excuses for fracking

Numerous eminent current and former regulators, governors,
and legislators’ best advice for how to keep fracking from
polluting our aquifers and drinking water: “strict regulation”.
As Gandhi reputedly said about western civilization: that would be a good idea.
But in Georgia and many other places, where the regulatory agency
(GA PSC) and the legislature are pretty much captured by the utilities
they pretend to regulate, how will we get that “strict regulation”?

This was at a Politico event, sponsored by American Wind Power,
called Energy & the Presidency.

Join POLITICO for a lunch conversation with energy experts and
policy leaders

Energy & the Presidency panel
as they discuss current energy legislation, the
energy debates facing the nation, policy options and what’s ahead in
the year to come. Speakers include: ClearView Energy Partners’ Kevin
Book; former Administrator of the EPA and former Director of the
White House Office on Climate Change, Carol Browner; Rep. Ed Markey
(Mass.); former Gov. Bill Richardson (NM) and former Gov. Bill
Ritter (Colo.).

When: Wednesday, September 5, 2012 at 12:00 pm ET



This event was in North Carolina, where the late John Blackburn, Ph.D.
already reported two years ago that

the whole state could be powered by wind, sun, existing hydro, landfill gas, and less natural gas than is already in use,
why do we need fracking at all?

Georgia has similar real renewable energy potential,
plus studies by

Georgia Tech
and Duke
indicate that Georgia doesn’t need any additional total electric power
anyway, if it gets on with energy efficiency.
Add

solar and

wind instead of natural gas, and we can retire a lot of
coal plants.
With no need for fracking.

I have an idea:
let’s elect Public Service Commissioners and legislators who are not
beholden to the utilities they will regulate!

-jsq