{"id":4183,"date":"2013-06-20T18:39:51","date_gmt":"2013-06-20T22:39:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/?p=4183"},"modified":"2013-06-20T18:48:04","modified_gmt":"2013-06-20T22:48:04","slug":"putnam-county-manager-wants-solar-to-replace-coal-ga-psc-2013-06-18","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/putnam-county-manager-wants-solar-to-replace-coal-ga-psc-2013-06-18.html","title":{"rendered":"Putnam County Manager wants solar to replace coal @ GA PSC 2013-06-18"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=F3D8JYO0XWs&#038;list=PLshUv86fYkiFU0cmuLEetkftFsBG2DQkV&#038;index=12\">\r\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;border:none;\" src=\"https:\/\/i3.ytimg.com\/vi\/F3D8JYO0XWs\/default.jpg\"><\/a>\r\nPutnam County sent a delegation to\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/videos-of-ga-psc-on-georgia-power-coal-plant-closings-ga-psc-2013-06-18.html\">\r\nthe Georgia Public Service Commission meeting Tuesday 18 June 2013<\/a>.\r\nYou&#8217;ve already seen\r\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/rep-rusty-kidd-urged-ga-psc-to-ask-ga-power-for-solar-to-replace-coal-plant-branch-ga-psc-2013-06-18.html\">\r\nRep. Rusty Kidd<\/a>; next up was the Putnam County manager.\r\n<p>\r\n\r\nCounty Manager\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=F3D8JYO0XWs&#038;list=PLshUv86fYkiFU0cmuLEetkftFsBG2DQkV&#038;index=12\">\r\nPaul Van Haute<\/a>\r\nsaid \r\n$175,000 in SPLOST money from\r\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.putnamcountyga.us\/index.php\">\r\nPutnam County<\/a>\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/98706376@N00\/9094876345\/sizes\/z\/\" title=\"Paul Van Haute, Putnam County Manager\">\r\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;border:none;\" src=\"http:\/\/farm6.staticflickr.com\/5491\/9094876345_91409f6943_n.jpg\" alt=\"Paul Van Haute, Putnam County Manager\"><\/a>\r\nUnfortunately we had budgeted\r\n$275,000,\r\nso we&#8217;re about\r\n$100,000 a year short\r\nbased on our estimates.\r\nThat is directly attributable to the loss of coal sales from Plant Branch.\r\nAlso on top of that we&#8217;re losing about $950,000 to $980,000 of property tax.\r\nThat is about one seventh of our property tax receipts.\r\nThis is a very big impact to the community.\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p>\r\nAbout then he was interrupted by Chairman Chuck Eaton, who asked:<!--more-->\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/98706376@N00\/9097107378\/sizes\/z\/\" title=\"Chuck Eaton, GA PSC Chairman\">\r\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;border:none;\" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.staticflickr.com\/2822\/9097107378_3b95bfa6be_m.jpg\" alt=\"Chuck Eaton, GA PSC Chairman\"><\/a>\r\nHow does that work that\r\nyou&#8217;ve got a functioning coal plant, and then you shut that coal plant down,\r\nI mean, so, at that point it&#8217;s time to reassess; the property&#8217;s simply \r\nworth less&#8230;.\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p>\r\nVan Haute remarked that after the removal of turbines, pumps, etc.,\r\n<blockquote>\r\nUltimately it will be a hulking superstructure that will be rusting for years.\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p>\r\nHe then asked the GA PSC to require Georgia Power to do something\r\nto remediate that property within five years,\r\nsaying Georgia Power typically was very slow to get such properties\r\noff their books,\r\nciting\r\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/98706376@N00\/9094842919\/sizes\/z\/\" title=\"Job security at Plant Arkwright\">\r\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;border:none;\" src=\"http:\/\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7342\/9094842919_4a33585543_m.jpg\" alt=\"Job security at Plant Arkwright\"><\/a>\r\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/georgia-powers-plant-arkwright-site-still-unused-11-years-later.html\">\r\nPlant Arkwright in Macon<\/a> as an unacceptable precedent.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<p>\r\nVan Houte then translated that $100,000 SPLOST tax loss to\r\nspecifics on an annual\r\n<\/p>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li>\r\n8 sheriff&#8217;s cars\r\n<li>\r\n1 ambulance remount\r\n<li>\r\n1 piece of fire apparatus\r\n<li>\r\n$500,000 in funding for the Putnam General hospital\r\n<li>\r\n$80,000 in improvements to the rec department\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<blockquote>\r\nThat is a public safety, life safety, health and wellness component\r\nto the county that is detrimental.\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p>\r\nVan Houte concluded by again urging the PSC to encourage Georgia Power\r\nto do something economically beneficial with the property.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<p>\r\nChairman Eaton remarked:\r\n<\/p>\r\n<blockquote>\r\nSolar would make up some if not all of the property tax,\r\nbut it wouldn&#8217;t really help out with the SPLOST.\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p>\r\nVan Houte agreed that was correct.\r\nHe praised Georgia Power for telling the county in advance this\r\nplant closing was likely to happen.\r\nBut he&#8217;s still got a problem in Putnam County.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<p>\r\nSure, Eaton has a point that Putnam County should revalue and rebudget,\r\nBut the county can&#8217;t even easily go ahead and do solar on its own,\r\nbecause of\r\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2012\/12\/financing-solar-energy-georgias-special-problem.html\">\r\nthat antique 1973 Territorial Electric Service Act\r\nthat makes private financing hard to come by<\/a>.\r\nGA PSC could just reinterpret that law not to apply to solar power,\r\nas rumor has it it almost did later in these same hearings.\r\nOr it could require Georgia Power to at least get on with solar on that site.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<p>\r\nHere&#8217;s\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=F3D8JYO0XWs&#038;list=PLshUv86fYkiFU0cmuLEetkftFsBG2DQkV&#038;index=12\">\r\nthe video:<\/a>\r\n<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align:center;font-size:80%\">\r\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/F3D8JYO0XWs\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\r\n<br>\r\nPutnam County Manager wants solar to replace coal\r\n<br>\r\nGeorgia Power proposed closing of coal plants,\r\n<br>\r\nAdministrative Session, GA Public Service Commission (GA PSC),\r\n<br>Doug Everrett (1: south Georgia), Tim Echols (2: east Georgia), Chairman Chuck Eaton (3: metro Atlanta), Stan Wise (5 north Georgia), Bubba McDonald (4: west Georgia),\r\n<br>\r\nVideo by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),\r\n<br>\r\n244 Washington Street SW, Atlanta, GA, 30334-9052, 18 June 2013.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<p>\r\n -jsq\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Putnam County sent a delegation to the Georgia Public Service Commission meeting Tuesday 18 June 2013. You&#8217;ve already seen Rep. Rusty Kidd; next up was the Putnam County manager. County Manager Paul Van Haute said $175,000 in SPLOST money from Putnam County Unfortunately we had budgeted $275,000, so we&#8217;re about $100,000 a year short based [&hellip;]","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":[216,14,17,8,2,6124,104,24],"tags":[6459,6470,6469,6461,372,6467,6465,8753,1094,6463,8704,272,8707,6462,8701,6460,8699,6475,548,8702,12,562,8737,6478,4927,1592,8714,6466,6464],"class_list":["post-4183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-coal","category-economy","category-ga-psc","category-georgia","category-government","category-natural-gas-2","category-nuclear","category-solar","tag-18-june-2013","tag-244-washington-street-sw","tag-30334-9052","tag-administrative-session","tag-atlanta","tag-bubba-mcdonald-4-west-georgia","tag-chairman-chuck-eaton-3-metro-atlanta","tag-coal","tag-county-manager","tag-doug-everrett-1-south-georgia","tag-economy","tag-ga","tag-ga-psc","tag-ga-public-service-commission","tag-georgia","tag-georgia-power-proposed-closing-of-coal-plants","tag-government","tag-irp","tag-john-s-quarterman","tag-lake","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-natural-gas","tag-nuclear","tag-paul-van-haute","tag-plant-branch","tag-putnam-county","tag-solar","tag-stan-wise-5-north-georgia","tag-tim-echols-2-east-georgia"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-15t","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4183","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=4183"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4190,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4183\/revisions\/4190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}