Tag Archives: Politics

Barnes and Richardson against Georgia Power’s CWIP

Two former big-time politicos join the fight against CWIP.

Melissa Roberts wrote for CBS Atlanta yesterday, Unlikely duo challenges Ga. utility over rates,

The unlikely duo of ex-Democratic Gov. Roy Barnes and former Republican House Speaker Glenn Richardson are heading to court to challenge Georgia Power over a surcharge they say has cost ratepayers as much as $100 million.

They're going after Construction Work in Progress (CWIP)!

Jim Galloway in the AJC yesterday noted the irony,

The gentleman knows of what he speaks, and that is only one of the ironies here. The legislation that has allowed Georgia Power, for the last 15 months, to charge ratepayers for financial costs associated with the construction of two new nuclear power plants, was passed in 2009 during Richardson’s final session as the second- most powerful man in the Capitol.

Maybe he can help undo the harm he helped do. Ditto Roy Barnes, who got coal-plant-building Cobb EMC former head Dwight Brown off on a technicality.

Melissa Roberts wrote:

The lawsuit contends the utility is charging sales tax on the finance surcharge and the franchise tax paid to cities. Richardson said in a phone interview he and Barnes are two "Davids against the Goliath."

Add those two Davids to the two Davids of Savannah, Drs. Sidney Smith and Pat Godbey and their Lower Rates for Customers LLC. Add a few more thousand Davids around the state paying their CWIP in separate checks with objections.

New Hampshire banned CWIP and their nuke-building utility went bankrupt. Missouri banned CWIP. Iowa is working on banning CWIP. Georgia can ban CWIP, too. Watch out Goliath!

-jsq

 

 

 

 

VDT picks up private prison national article: the news is not good for CCA

The VDT, after following the local private prison story, picked up a national story about CCA’s offer to 48 state governors to buy their prisons. CCA is not getting any takers.

AP wrote 10 March 2012, Firm offers states cash for prisons,

Despite a need for cash, several states immediately slammed the door on the offer, a sign that privatizing prisons might not be as popular as it once was.
Doesn’t seem very popular around here. Most people still don’t seem to have heard about the proposed local private prison, but once they do, by far most say they are against it.
Prison departments in California, Texas and Georgia all dismissed the idea. Florida’s prison system said it doesn’t have the authority to make that kind of decision and officials in CCA’s home state of Tennessee said they aren’t reviewing the proposal. The states refused to say why they were rejecting the offer.
Good for Georgia and the other states! Georgia, where the prison population is already plummeting.
“Knowing the state government, it has to have something to do with the potential political backlash,” said Jeanne Stinchcomb, a criminal justice professor at Florida Atlantic University who has written two books on the corrections industry. “Privatization has reaped some negative publicity, so I can only assume that despite the possible benefits, there would be a price to pay for supporting it.”
Do tell….

-jsq

Letting the foxes in the DNR henhouse —Katherine Helms Cummings

Guess who thinks letting regulated corporations contribute to the natural resources regulatory agency is a good idea?

Received yesterday on Stop Georgia Power from stopping you from affording solar. -jsq

And if GA Power having control over the grid here isn’t bad enough, now the General Assembly is considering letting DNR ask for donations from the corporations they issue permits to, and then enforce.

-Katherine Helms Cummings

She linked to this post on her blog, HB 887 gives corporate foxes the key to the hen house,
I have a hard time believing that the DNR is going to hold a bake sale to protect the rivers and streams of our state. Some House leaders, including Judy Manning (R-Marietta) and Debbie Buckner (D-Junction City) have said they are uneasy with HB 887. Rightly so.
OK, so who thinks it’s a good idea? Continue reading →

Stop Georgia Power from stopping you from affording solar

Why can’t you do this?
Say you own a coffee shop. You’d like to install solar panels on your roof but can’t afford them. A company offers to install and lease you the equipment, provided you sign a long-term contract. The company will sell you energy at a cheaper rate than you already pay Georgia Power. No longer would you be so susceptible to spikes in electricity prices. Nor would your money be helping to support burning coal or nuclear power.
Georgia law says you can’t do that.

That’s why SB 401 is in the Georgia Senate. It’s

a common-sense measure that would put people to work, create a new sector in Georgia’s economy, and promote clean energy. In addition, the legislation would help shield people from increases in electricity rates, which, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, have risen nearly 50 percent over the last seven years.
Why would Georgia Power not like that? Continue reading →

FVCS Final Meeting 15 November 2011

Former electoral opponents met Tuesday as FVCS held its final meeting, with Rusty Griffin, Vice-Chair of CUEE, watching at the MLK Monument as Sam Allen, President of Friends of Valdosta Schools (FVCS) announced the dissolution of FVCS.

Sam Allen, as he has before, called for reconciliation of opponents on the recent school consolidation referendum, and support of the two school systems, financially and otherwise.

In addition to FVCS regulars such as JC Cunningham, Chamber Chair Tom Gooding was there, as were current Valdosta Mayor Sonny Vickers and Mayor-Elect John Gayle, plus re-elected Valdosta City Council At-Large Ben Norton. Valdosta School Superintendent Cason was there. I didn’t see Lowndes Superintendent Smith, although various members of Continue reading →

T-SPLOST Lunch and Learn report by Matt Portwood

Received this morning. -jsq
Today’s [yesterday now] T-SPLOST Lunch and Learn was the final event in the city’s
community planning month. The event was hosted by Corey Hull who taught the basics of the state’s 1% transportation sales tax. Hull’s powerpoint presentation was apparently the same one he’d spoken on several times before. As a result there was no new information. However, the presentation was revealing to me, as I’ve not been following the state’s T-SPLOST plans.

Hull spoke for roughly 40 minutes then opened the floor for Q&A. The audience quickly split between enthusiastic supporters and opponents. One supporter, a member of the Berrien County Chamber of Commerce vented her frustration over the number of businesses that will be leaving her county due to crumbling roads and out of touch freight centers. As she argued, T-SPLOST would allow a smaller community like Nashville to reduce the need for its citizens to travel to Valdosta to shop, providing a much needed boost to the local economy. One man, a strong opponent of the tax plan, described it as simply a “redistribution of wealth.” As he explained, if the T-SPLOST plan were to pass following the July 2012 vote it would only hurt local business owners. Furthermore he claimed that if local municipalities were to take responsibility for state and federal highway management, local governments would retain the costs in the long term.

Hull seemed reluctant to challenge either audience member. Instead he focused on highlighting the basics of the plan. This included explaining the basics of the 75% regional revenue pot and the 25% local discretionary pot. The approved project list that Hull passed out included plans for improvements to the Five Points intersection, a St. Augustine Road overpass, and widening of Jerry Jones Road. Hull explained that this would include both Jerry Jones and Eager Road. I asked Hull about Larry Hanson’s statement concerning the City of Valdosta’s rule that all road widening projects include a bike lane. Corey Hull explained that the road improvements to Jerry Jones would include a bike lane which would link to the lanes already on Melody Lane and Lankford Dr. This would create a bike lane from St. Augustine Road to N. Oak Street.

-Matt

Corey’s slides are on the SGRC web pages. The problem with T-SPLOST is that it forces communities like Nashville and Valdosta to all vote on projects that don’t have much relation, with penalities for not voting yes. The mayor of Nashville is the chair of the steering committee, and even he complained that if they didn’t turn in a list of projects by a given time, there was a penalty for that. These penalties are reductions in state transportation funding for other existing projects. For that matter, why should the Jerry Jones bike lane be tied to the Old US 41 N widening boondoggle that went from $8M to $12M in two months? No one will tell us who raised it or why, nor who made all these other wild swings in estimated costs. Meanwhile $7.5M for a bus system from Wiregrass Tech to southside, from Moody to the Mall, by way of VSU, VHS, and LHS, has vanished from the list.

Anyway, regarding yesterday’s event, according to Corey Hull, the City of Valdosta was going to video it and Corey will advertise when it will appear on the City’s TV channel. For those of us who don’t get that channel, there is some unknown level of possibility the videos may be on the web.

-jsq

Occupy Valdosta Flyers

Already more people have signed up to march Friday than showed up at the Chamber’s event last night. Here are some flyers. There’s an Occupy Valdosta organizational meeting tonight; more in the blog after that. The traditional media are starting to flock around, as well.

-jsq

Occupy Valdosta

It’s spread from Wall Street to Valdosta, scheduled for noon-3PM Friday 14 October 2011:
It is time to Occupy Valdosta!

Friday October 14, 2011 BE AT DREXEL PARK @ 11:45am AND MARCH WITH YOUR FELLOW NEIGHBORS, CLASSMATES, COWORKERS, BROTHERS AND SISTERS!!!

We are the 99% and it is time to be heard!!!

Erin speaking at the organizational meeting today:

Y’all come!

-jsq

Georgia still in the solar shade

The 20th century with its coal and oil and nuclear was more than a decade ago now. It’s time for Georgia to see the 21st sunshine.

Jerry Grillo wrote for the July 2011 Georgia Trend, Partly Sunny In Georgia: The state’s solar industry is growing steadily, but slowly, as the national industry explodes

“Georgia is shackled to the 20th century,” Peterson says. “If all I did was look at Georgia, I’d think we were doing well. But I work all over the country, and I’m not kidding when I say we’re dealing with $500-million solar projects that have no chance of coming here because of systemic problems that keep Georgia from participating in the 21st-century economy, which has renewable energy as a major component.

“It’s disgusting, considering our potential, how much opportunity is lost, how much capital investment is passed up.”

All it would take to fix this is the political will.

Maybe if the people and elected and appointed officials look at the handwriting on the wall: Continue reading →

The end game is …. —Karen Noll

Received yesterday on “the qualified voters voting thereon in each separate school system proposed to be consolidated”. -jsq
Questions abound: Why is it that Lowndes County residents will not be voting on the most important issue to face their school system since its inception in 1950?

If I lived in the county I’d be mad that CUEE and the Chamber of Commerce chose to leave my vote out of such a very important decision.

Quick fact: Consolidation alone will not save money & Consolidation alone will not improve academic success, according to the Vinson Institute report commissioned by CUEE and the Chamber.

Further Query: Why would CUEE and the Chamber of Commerce spend $50 grand to collect the signatures for the petition causing the City of Valdosta to spend thousands of tax dollars (2 staff dedicated to task & 4 temps hired) to verify the signatures on the petition?

Continue reading →