Tag Archives: Transparency

TEPCO shareholders revolt about Fukushima

Southern Company might want to pay attention to this story about shareholders protesting the owner of the radiation-leaking Fukushima nuclear plants complaining in record numbers. Or SO shareholders might want to pay attention.

Mark Willacy wrote for Australia Network News, Fukushima report prompts anger at TEPCO meeting,

Anger against the company has intensified, after it released an in-house report into the disaster, in which it denies ever hiding information and blames the Japanese Government for confusion and delays.

In its 352-page report, TEPCO also claims that on March 13, less than 48 hours after a massive tsunami slammed into the Fukushima nuclear plant, it dispatched employees to the village of Namie, just a few kilometres north-west of the plant, and right in the path of the approaching radioactive plume.

But Tamotsu Baba, the mayor of Namie, has told the ABC’s AM that claim is a lie.

“TEPCO’s report says that on the 13th of March their employees visited our offices to explain the situation,” he said.

“We were never visited by anyone from TEPCO. Nor was the situation explained to us.

“I feel they are liars. TEPCO’s report makes me angry.”

TEPCO of course says it didn’t lie, however:

Continue reading →

Smart grid already in use due to heat waves

So if heat waves already require spot buys of electricity at high prices and is already enabling a market in demand responses to bring down, even while most electricity in the U.S. still comes from big baseload plants such as coal, nuclear, natural gas, and hydro, why is Southern Company saying we have to wait on a smart grid to deploy solar and wind energy?

This is from an EnerNOC Press Release of today that is all over the net:

…on Thursday, June 21, EnerNOC was dispatched by eleven grid operators and utilities across the US and Canada, including eight in Pennsylvania and New York, largely in response to a record heat wave across the northeast and mid-Atlantic regions that put strain on the grid and drove real-time energy prices in some regions to over $1,500 per megawatt hour, approximately 60 times higher than the previous week’s average prices. Demand response reduces the need for utilities and grid operators to procure additional supply at such high prices both by reducing overall demand on the grid and by targeting reductions in particularly constrained areas.

So demand response is energy conservation through energy distribution efficiency.

Well, maybe demand response duing that heat wave was on a small scale. Or not:

“Nearly 1,200 commercial, institutional, and industrial energy users in Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, Ontario, and other constrained regions responded to Thursday’s dispatch, providing valuable capacity to the grid that helped to stabilize prices and reduce system strain,” said Tim Healy, Chairman and CEO of EnerNOC. “Our DemandSMART application, which streams real-time energy data from thousands of sites, showed demand quickly drop from the grid as our network was activated and allowed our customers to see the contribution they were making to grid reliability and reduced prices.

So sure, this is a press release from the company that’s doing this electricity dispatch. But it’s verifiable, starting with the customer company contacts in the press release.

FERC Chairman Jon Wellinghoff pointed out years ago that Continue reading →

Lowndes County Budget Presentation, Details and Hearing @ LCC 2012-06-26

Your second (and final) chance to comment on the 2012-2013 Lowndes County budget is Tuesday, June 26th at 5:00pm. The Lowndes County Calendar indicates that the Budget Hearing will be immediately ahead of the County Commission Meeting. I suggest arriving at least 5 minutes early.

At the first hearing, on July 19th, Finance Director Stephanie Black gave a power point presentation overview of the budget. You can view a PDF of that presentation .

Videos of the first budget hearing are available here.

And, the details of the budget are available for review in the reception area of the Lowndes County Commissioners Office (3rd Floor – 327 Ashley Street) or you can check out the low quality photos I took of them after the meeting.

-gretchen

Appointments to four boards, road abandomnent, and community block grant @ LCC 2012-06-25

Budget amendments on the agenda for the Lowndes County Commission Work Session Monday at 8:30 AM 25 June 2012 and Regular Session 5:30 PM Tuesday 26 June 2012. See if you can find some clues to what those amendments might be in the the videos of last week’s budget hearing.

Also this week: appointments to four boards (Parks & Rec, Construction, KLVB, and Library), a public hearing on a road abandonment (Brinson Drive), and the County Manager has something to say about FY 2010 Community Development Block Grant. Plus a bunch of service contracts. Here’s the agenda for tomorrow and Tuesday.

-jsq

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, JUNE 25, 2012, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, JUNE 26, 2012, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
Continue reading →

New Georgia sunshine laws explained by VLCIA lawyer @ VLCIA 2012-05-22

New Georgia sunshine law explained by VLCIA attorney J. Stephen Gupton. Some highlights include:

  • Open meetings now include any time a quorum discusses business,
  • even if there was no scheduled meeting.
  • Committees now fall under open meetings.
  • Executive sessions have specific requirements.
  • Increased penalties from $500 to $100 for violating open meetings, plus potential criminal penalties up to $2,500.
  • A custodian of records needs to be appointed so people will know who is responsbile for satisfying open records requests.

Here’s the video:

New Georgia sunshine laws explained by VLCIA lawyer
Regular Meeting, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA),
Norman Bennett, Tom Call, Roy Copeland chairman, Mary Gooding, Jerry Jennett,
Andrea Schruijer Executive Director, J. Stephen Gupton attorney, Allan Ricketts Project Manager, Tom Davis, CPA, Lu Williams, Operations Manager, S. Meghan Duke, Public Relations & Marketing Manager,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 22 May 2012.
Video by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).

-jsq

Lowndes County budget public hearings are on the calendar @ LCC 2012-06-19

According to the online calendar of the Lowndes County Commission:

Budget Public Hearing (6/19/2012)

The Lowndes County Board of Commissioners will hold a Public Hearing for the purpose of adopting the FY13 Proposed Budget at 8:30 a.m. in the Commission Chambers, located on the 2nd floor of the Administration Building, 327 N. Ashley St. For questions please call County Clerk, Paige Dukes, at 229-671-2400.

Budget Public Hearing (6/26/2012)

The Lowndes County Board of Commissioners will hold a Public Hearing for the purpose of adopting the FY13 Proposed Budget at 5:00 p.m. in the Commission Chambers, located on the 2nd floor of the Administration Building, 327 N. Ashley St. For questions please call County Clerk, Paige Dukes, at 229-671-2400.

-gretchen

Transportation plan open house @ SGRC 2012-05-22

Received 1 June 2012 about the 22 May 2012 VLMPO Open House at SGRC. The “Transportation Improvement Program, or TIP, is the short-range plan approved by the VLMPO Policy Committee that allows federal funds to be spent on various transportation projects in the region.” -jsq

I attended the transportation plan open house on the day that anyone could come from early morning until 7:00 PM and when I went at 5, I was only the sixth person who had been there all day. Corey Hull showed me and four other people the plan, answered our questions, explained the difference between this long term plan and the TSPLOST and there was a discussion about how one might go about becoming a bus services provider in the area. The amount of money allocated to the city of Valdosta for transportation is not an amount that is near what a bus system would cost, so there still will have to be other funds available to make that possible. Even though our group brought the attendance for the day up to 10 citizens, it was a huge improvement over the last open house, when NO ONE showed. Corey Hull was very helpful and had a lot of information that probably would have been fascinating to others if they had attended, but once again there was virtually no input.

-Jane F. Osborn, MSSW
Valdosta, GA
229-630-0924

According to projects submitted for T-SPLOST, a bus system would cost about $7.5 million (startup and a few years run-time), but that got cut first pass, while $12 million for widening one road is still in the T-SPLOST list. I’m told that public transportation is not an issue around here. If people think it is, maybe they should show up at meetings like the one SGRC organized about the other transportation plan and say they want a bus system.

-jsq

Lack of agendas makes it hard for citizens to speak @ LCC 2012-06-12

Jimmy Hiers said at the Lowndes County Commission hearing on rezoning case REZ-2012-09 Copeland that the Planning Commission had their meeting two days before it was posted, thus making it difficult for people to appear to speak.

County Zoning Administrator Carmella Braswell noted at ZBOA that staff had met statutory requirements even though GLPC had moved its meeting ahead a week. She didn't mention that if those requirements are the same as for the County Commission they only require staff to send letters to immediately adjacent property owners, which would explain why those were the only neighbors who showed up at the Planning Commission. Plus GLPC doesn't publish its agenda in advance, Its chair Bill Slaughter has recently started sending agendas to LAKE for publication, at Gretchen Quarterman's request. Here's the agenda for that GLPC 21 May 2012 meeting. I suppose if the entire county starts reading this blog, problem solved. Or GLPC could publish its agendas on its website, or the county's website, or one or more of the cities' websites.

-jsq

REZ-2012-09 Copeland rezoning @ LCC 2012-06-12

How can a man with health care financial troubles make a living with a shop he’s had for decades when some of the neighbors complain about a rezoning that is now required? A controversial case that raised issues ranging from wetlands to public safety to Moody Air Force Base jets flying out of Valdosta Airport made its way through two appointed boards to a Solomonic rezoning decision by the elected Lowndes County Commission. Nobody wanted to deny a man a living, but many people wanted to limit potential commercial uses of the subject property. The Commissioners attempted to take all that into account, yet failed to incorporate two major considerations raised by neighbors, mentioning one of them only to disparage it. Even that isn’t the end of it, since it may head back to the Zoning Board of Appeals for a buffer variance. Here are videos of REZ-2012-09 Copeland at the Lowndes County Commission.

It had been to the Planning Commission for a recommendation on rezoning, it had been to the Zoning Board of Appeals for a buffer variance, Monday morning it had been to the County Commission Work Session at which we learned a bit more, and Tuesday evening it went to the Lowndes County Commission Regular Session for a vote on rezoning.

Monday 11 June 2012 Work Session

At the 8:30 AM Monday Work Session, County Planner Jason Davenport had several updates since Commissioners had received their packets the previous week.

  • An email from a Mr. Bradford in opposition.
  • Some open records requests to be filled after the work session.
  • Some opponents of the rezoning had hired a lawyer. (Those of you who watched Bill Nijem at the Zoning Board of Appeals meeting already would have guessed that. Nijem also spoke the next day at the Regular Session.)
  • Davenport had met with the applicant, Mr. Copeland, who had provided more materials because he believed there were some accusations about lack of continuous operations in the building.

Davenport summarized that he thought there were three camps:

  1. Those not supporting the case.
  2. Those supporting the case,
  3. Those supporting the case with conditions,

He said one possibility would be for he and the county attorney to meet with the opposition attorney to try to work out some conditions.

Tuesday 12 June 2012 Regular Session

The agenda item was

6. Public Hearings – REZ-2012-09 Copeland, 3258 & 3264 Loch Laurel Rd, R-A & R-1 to C-C, well & septic, ~5 acres

Here’s a list of every citizen speaking for, at any of GLPC, ZBOA, or County Commission: John A. Copeland (the applicant), Kevin Copeland (applicant’s son), Nancy Hobby, Charles Miles, Fuller Sorrell, Alan Davis, Robert Roffe, and Norman Bush, plus a petition for.

Here’s a list of every citizen speaking against, at any of GLPC, ZBOA, or County Commission: Bill Nijem (attorney for several neighbors), Jimmy Hiers, Gail Hiers, Greta Vargas, and Patty Haynes.

For the rezoning

Continue reading →

Appointments to 3 boards, a rezoning, and more: Video Playlist @ LCC 2012-06-11

Here are videos for the 11 June 2012 Lowndes County Commission Work Session. Including a speed zone ordinance they plan to pass this evening; we the public have no idea what's in it. Here's the agenda.

One item has already been blogged separately: Waste disposal has been decided: when?

Here's a video playlist:

Appointments to 3 boards, a rezoning, and more: Video Playlist
Work Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 11 June 2012.
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).

-jsq