\nModerator Chuck Eaton asked if there was any movement in the legislature\nfor a Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) such as many states including\nNorth Carolina had passed?\n
\nDon Parsons said there wasn’t, and he didn’t even know where anybody would\nget the data to see whether an RPS was being met (apparently he didn’t\nhear the NCSC presentation in which we learned that NC passed a law requiring\nthe power companies to provide the data).\n
\nDoug Stoner said “we’re not going to be doing it next year,”\npartly because most of the legislature didn’t even know what that was.\nHowever, later he added that the Senate was quite interested in taking\na serious look at a PPA.\nHe even said he wished the major power companies were part of the solution.\nHe said one way to get people to pay attention was to introduce legislation;\nthat could get people at the table to have discussion.\n
\nScott Holcomb said he reluctantly agreed that we wouldn’t see an RPS\nsoon, because as Stoner said most\nthere was a legislative education issue. Holcomb said he would support it.\n
\nHolcomb invited the audience to help write policies that would make\nsolar more economically viable.\n
\n“I just know that especially the younger people,\nthe young lady I have working for me as an aide, they don’t look\nat this like older people do, they look further down the line.\nIt’s not just about profits for the power company.\nWe as legislators represent the people of the state.\nThe profits of the power company are not as important to me\nas the citizens of my district and of the state.”\n<\/blockquote>\nHe said we needed to look beyond the power companies’ understandable\nfocus on the bottom line, farther down the line, 100 years, 200 years.\nHe said the industry knows it’s something he and the other panelists\nare serious about.\nHe said he wasn’t going to back down on it.\n\nSeems to me if he’s for coal he already backed down.\nBut that he was on that panel at the Southern Solar Summit\nmay indicate that he’s asking to be further educated.\n
\nModerator Eaton added he used to not listen to solar advocates\nbecause they said it was the cheapest power.\nBut he kept hearing more from more pragmatic proponents who\ntalked about the things that needed to be done.\nHe said he thinks there’s a way to do it to balance interests\nso we’re diversified.\n
\nHm, so his interest in diversified energy sources is to “balance interests.”\n
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![](\"http:\/\/www.psc.state.ga.us\/pscinfo\/bios\/images\/eaton.gif\")
<\/a>\nChuck Eaton, Georgia Public Service Commissioner,\nmoderating a panel of Georgia’s Policy Makers at\n<\/a>\nDon Parsons, chair of the energy committee of the Georgia House of Representatives,\nwants to write an energy plan for Georgia.\nHe remarked that he was not apologetic about still supporting coal.\nHe says the legislature recently increased the amount of solar power\nGeorgia Power has to buy back, but gapower told him that few people\nhad signed up for that.\n
![](\"http:\/\/www1.legis.ga.gov\/legis\/2011_12\/house\/images\/members_web_images\/holcombScott.jpg\")
<\/a>\nScott Holcomb, Georgia State Representative,\nsaid\n