{"id":3133,"date":"2013-04-28T12:00:18","date_gmt":"2013-04-28T16:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/?p=3133"},"modified":"2013-04-25T23:44:06","modified_gmt":"2013-04-26T03:44:06","slug":"how-can-we-get-georgia-to-move-ahead-in-solar-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2013\/04\/how-can-we-get-georgia-to-move-ahead-in-solar-power.html","title":{"rendered":"How can we get Georgia to move ahead in solar power?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nIf we\r\n\r\ncan’t expect Georgia Power or Southern Company to change their tune about solar power<\/a>,\r\nwhat can we do?\r\nLegislate and raise public pressure, while getting on with installing what\r\nsolar power we can.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nMaybe it’s time to pass something like\r\n\r\nHB 267<\/a> that would limit Georgia Power’s profits on\r\n\r\nthat 19-month-late and $1 billion over budget nuclear boondoggle at Plant Vogtle<\/a>.\r\nInstead of pouring more money down that broken concrete pit on the Savannah River,\r\nwe need something like\r\n\r\nGA SB 51, The Georgia Cogeneration and Distributed Generation Act<\/a>,\r\nto fix\r\n\r\nGeorgia’s special solar financing problem<\/a>,\r\nthe antique 1973 Territorial Electric Service Act.\r\nThat’s the 40-year-old antiquated law that SO CEO Thomas A. Fanning says\r\n“we need to protect”<\/a>.\r\nMaybe SO does, for Fanning’s \r\nhuge raises in compensation<\/a>.\r\nGeorgia Power and SO are not only defending that antique law,\r\nthey’re preventing \r\na Georgia Renewable Portfolio Standard (REPS) by stopping passage of bills like\r\nHB 503<\/a>.\r\nGeorgia Power, SO, and super-lobby ALEC\r\n\r\nsystematically oppose renewable energy standards<\/a>.\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nThey do this so successfully there are no REPS in Southern Company (SO)’s\r\nservice territory, nor in most of SO’s surrounding\r\n“Competitive Generation Opportunities” states.\r\nOne of the few exceptions is North Carolina, and\r\n\r\na bill was introduced there to eliminate NC’s REPS<\/a>.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nMaybe it’s even time to do something about\r\n\r\nGeorgia Power’s 11% guaranteed profit<\/a>.\r\nIsn’t Georgia Power supposed to be a utility operating for the good of\r\nGeorgians?\r\nWhy does it get a guaranteed profit to pass on to Southern Company\r\nshareholder dividends and SO executive bonuses?\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nGeorgia Power and even Southern Company could suddenly flip for solar power\r\nlike\r\nAustin Energy did in 2003<\/a>\r\nand Cobb EMC did in 2012<\/a>.\r\nBut that probably won’t happen without a lot of public pressure,\r\nlegal requirements by the Georgia legislature or PSC,\r\nor a shareholder revolt.\r\nSo let’s start with\r\n\r\nthe public pressure<\/a>….\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n -jsq\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If we can’t expect Georgia Power or Southern Company to change their tune about solar power, what can we do? Legislate and raise public pressure, while getting on with installing what solar power we can. Maybe it’s time to pass something like HB 267 that would limit Georgia Power’s profits on that 19-month-late and $1 […]","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[140,8,18,20,23,24],"tags":[8744,1249,6219,8818,8701,8708,8702,8710,12,7,158,8737,107,218,6218,8713,6217,8714,221,6],"class_list":["post-3133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alec","category-georgia","category-georgia-power","category-law","category-renewable-energy","category-solar","tag-alec","tag-austin-energy","tag-bonus","tag-cobb-emc","tag-georgia","tag-georgia-power","tag-lake","tag-law","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-north-carolina","tag-nuclear","tag-plant-vogtle","tag-profit","tag-raise","tag-renewable-energy","tag-renewable-energy-portfolios-reps","tag-solar","tag-thomas-a-fanning","tag-valdosta"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-Ox","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3133"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3133\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3165,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3133\/revisions\/3165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}