Tag Archives: Valdosta

New nukes increasingly bad business bet for Southern Company and Georgia Power

Harvey Wasserman wrote for HuffPost 9 April 2012, America’s 2 New Nukes Are on the Brink of Death,

The only two U.S. reactor projects now technically under construction are on the brink of death for financial reasons.

If they go under, there will almost certainly be no new reactors built here.

The much mythologized “nuclear renaissance” will be officially buried, and the U.S. can take a definitive leap toward a green-powered future that will actually work and that won’t threaten the continent with radioactive contamination.

Those are the stakes. And in that high-stakes poker game, it seems Southern Company is doing a little bluffing.

In Southern Company’s (SO) Q1 2012 Earnings Call 25 April 2012, its CEO Thomas Fanning revealed another little flaw in the project:

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Videos, Greater Lowndes Planning Commission March 2012-03-26 @ GLPC 2012 03 26

Here are videos of the entire March regular meeting of the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC). I would include a link to the agenda, but they don’t publish those anymore. They don’t even have a website anymore. So you’ll need to watch and try to figure out what’s going on.

They meet again tonight. For that meeting, we’ve got an agenda.

Here’s a video playlist for their March meeting:

Videos, Greater Lowndes Planning Commission March 2012-03-26
Regular Session, Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 26 March 2012.
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).

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Fixing the illusion of certainty in Georgia Power’s decision-making

Why is it so hard to get a company like Georgia Power or The Southern Company to get on with solar and wind power for clean energy, for national energy independence, and, most importantly to such corporations, for their own profit? Why instead do they keep investing in coal and natural gas and wasting our tax and customer dollars on nuclear financial boondoggles? Why did Cobb EMC back new coal plants until they had their nose rubbed in national shame about corruption and do nothing about solar until their shareholders revolted and changed a majority of their board? We don’t even need to wait for that forensic audit the new Cobb EMC board wants to get the big picture. Such companies consider what they’re used to to be low risk, and anything new to be risky. Why are they so stodgy, and how do we change that?

These companies have many decades of experience with coal and natural gas, so they consider them less financially risky. (Details like neighbors dying disproportionately from cancer cost a little bit to buy up property, but that’s nothing compared to readily predictable profits.) Even nuclear such companies consider not risky to them, since they’ve got the federal government and their own customers guaranteeing all the financial risk through Construction Work in Progress charges on their bills for power they’re not even receiving from the new nukes and agreement from Georgia PSC that cost overruns like those caused by concrete sinking into the dirt can be passed on to the customers.

Neal Stephenson wrote for World Policy Journal September 2011, Innovation Starvation,

The illusion of eliminating uncertainty from corporate decision-making is not merely a question of management style or personal preference. In the legal environment that has developed around publicly traded corporations, managers are strongly discouraged from shouldering any risks that they know about—or, in the opinion of some future jury, should have known about—even if they have a hunch that the gamble might pay off in the long run. There is no such thing as “long run” in industries driven by the next quarterly report. The possibility of some innovation making money is just that—a mere possibility that will not have time to materialize before the subpoenas from minority shareholder lawsuits begin to roll in.

But if the old ways turn out to be suddenly risky, change can come. Funny how Cobb EMC changed its tune after subpeonas started raining down for its former CEO Dwight Brown. Sure, he got off on a technicality, but it turns out Cobb EMC shareholders didn’t like Continue reading →

VLMPO seeks comments for Transportation Project List

Received today. -jsq

Please find attached a press release to announcing a public comment period for the Draft Transportation Improvement Program for the Valdosta-Lowndes Metropolitan Planning Organization.

Corey Hull, AICP
MPO Coordinator
Valdosta-Lowndes MPO

A copy is on the LAKE website. Here is an excerpt:

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. The projects are selected from the 2035 Transportation Plan that was adopted in September 2010. Projects in this year’s draft TIP include: the construction of an overpass on West Hill Avenue, the widening of Forrest Street, from Park Avenue to Bemiss Road, and the purchase of right-of-way at several I-75 interchanges ahead of future construction activities.

VLMPO will be accepting comments by phone, email, or fax all the month of May.

The VLMPO staff will also host an Open House on May 22, 2012 from 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. at the Southern Georgia Regional Commission office located at 327 W. Savannah Ave. in Valdosta. Hull says, “VLMPO staff will be on hand to answer questions from the public about their transportation concerns. The open house format allows people to quickly get their questions answered without having to sit through a long meeting.”

Transparency by a local government agency!

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Glynn County live video streaming

Local governments around here seem reluctant to post videos of their own meetings, or even to post board packet items on the web. We’ve seen examples of how to do it from Travis County, Texas and Leon County, Florida, but those are other states; maybe our Georgia local governments don’t want to look at such examples. How about Glynn County, Georgia?

Found on Glynn County’s facebook page:

Did you know…Glynn County now offers live streaming and archived videos of BOC meetings ONLINE! No cable? No problem! Join us tonight at 6:00 p.m. Glynn County, GA — Official Website — Media Center

Looks like their 24 April 2012 Work Session lasted more than two hours.

And they live-stream and archive videos of their planning commission, as well. It’s 18 April 2012 meeting lasted about 24 minutes.

Back on the Glynn County web pages, they have their proposed budget online more than a week before their budget public hearing which is a special called meeting that they will put on cable channel 99 and live stream online.

Meanwhile, they have Board of Commissioners minutes online that include Continue reading →

History should reward all research —George Boston Rhynes

Received yesterday on Georgia Governor Nathan concerning this alleged suicide. -jsq

Ms Barbara Stratton!

Thanks for the info along the lines of

"getting beyond racial bias and discussing issues honestly as friends, respect each other's opinons and not be afraid of reprisal from racial antogonists?"

History should reward all all research and to better understand or overstand the racial bias in America one only need to study what happened in our world before todays religious belief systems infected hate under the name of religion and the elites.

-George Boston Rhynes

Doing what I do because its all about us; collectively as we travel the righteous path in and among those that does not want for their neighbor; the same things that they want for themselves and their own families. It is what it is…

Valdosta confused about water uses

Is there an outdoor water restriction in Valdosta, or isn’t there? The city and the newspaper seem confused about that. Also remember much of Lowndes County gets its water indirectly from Valdosta through the county’s utility system. And that with groundwater levels at all-time lows, we need to be conserving all the time anyway, and thinking about how much and what kind of growth we want.

The City of Valdosta front page says:

In the Spotlight

The City of Valdosta has issued an outdoor water restriction suspending all outdoor water uses for 72-hours, or until further notice. Click here for more.

Yet if you click there, you get this error page:

Error The page you have requested does not exist. Please click here to go back to the home page.

Similarly, there was a VDT article on that subject, but that link also goes nowhere now.

Stephen Abel wrote for WALB yesterday, Temporary water restrictions in effect for Valdosta,

Folks in Valdosta need to think twice about washing their cars, or doing anything else that uses much water, this weekend.

“The city of Valdosta is urging all citizens to immediately cease outdoor irrigation use and all other nonessential uses of water. Now and throughout the weekend,” said Public Information Officer Sementha Mathews.

Severe vibrations in the water pumps is what put them out of commission. “The city’s water treatment plant experienced some mechanical issues this week with two of its raw water well pumps which caused the low levels in water,” said Mathews.

So, did the city fix its pumps? Or is it just confused about what to do?

WCTV posted this update, and seemed to indicate the water restrictions were still in place:

The City of Valdosta sincerely thanks the citizens who responded quickly to its request today to cease all outdoor irrigation and non-essential use of water. Currently, there are no water quality issues in the system, and the water provided by the city is safe for all purposes.

People should be conserving all the time anyway. These suggestions from the city are pretty good for a start:

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Surely a thorough investigation should be conducted to determine the facts. —Barbara Stratton

Received Thursday on Georgia Governor Nathan concerning this alleged suicide. -jsq

With all due respect to Mr. Rhynes, who I consider a friend, no one knows all the facts in this hanging death of an inmate and yes all prisoners should be protected even against themselves for liability and ethical reasons. However, if I had just committed and confessed a murder I personally might prefer suicide, probably because I would think I did not deserve to live if the shooting was not in self defense. Perhaps Mr. Rizer was of that opinion, and if so he should have the freedom to make his own choices. Yes, I know about the Baker Act, know all the correct answers to pass suicide prevention training, and I have the Wingman card with rules for suicide prevention in my wallet. However, I am still a believer in free will including suicide. If there were any circumstances that contributed to his ending of his life against his will then surely a thorough investigation should be conducted to determine the facts.

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Planning Commission agenda for Monday 2012-04-30

Here is the agenda for Monday’s meeting of the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC). It was faxed to Gretchen Quarterman of LAKE by GLPC chair Bill Slaughter, at her request.

Does anyone volunteer to transcribe it or OCR it?

There appear to be four cases for final action by Valdosta Mayor and Council on 10 May 2012, and three cases for final action by the Lowndes County Commission on 8 May 2012. GLPC itself is advisory: it votes on recommendations, but it does not decide.

You may wonder why we don’t just point to the official copy of the agenda on the GLPC website. That’s because that website no longer exists (try the above link; you’ll see). It’s still linked to from the City of Valdosta web page for GLPC. More on all that later.

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Someplace worse than here

Eric Stirgus wrote for the AJC 25 April 2012, PolitiFact: For the record, it’s OK to record council meetings,

Meetings of the Cumming City Council rarely make the evening news, but that changed last week with video of a woman being tossed out of the public gathering.

The woman, Nydia Tisdale, was attempting to film the council’s meeting April 17, but she was told that was not going to happen.

“We don’t allow filming inside of the City Hall here,” Mayor H. Ford Gravitt said, “unless there is a specific reason.”

Hm, what does state law say?

Title 50, Section 14 of the Georgia Open Meetings Act:

“[v]isual, sound, and visual and sound recording during open meetings shall be permitted”

Stirgus notes some irony:

In a strange bit of timing, Tisdale was tossed from the council meeting on the same day Gov. Nathan Deal signed House Bill 397, a revised state law on open meetings and records aimed at providing greater access to documents and public meetings.

The Georgia Attorney General’s Office is investigating, as well it should. The investigation shouldn’t take long, since the entire incident is on video. Meanwhile, the mayor keeps digging:

Gravitt also explained that he had concerns that allowing one camera and tripod in would embolden multiple people to bring in cameras and tripods into a meeting.

Then people might know what’s going on!

Here’s the video:

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