{"id":6285,"date":"2013-10-23T14:35:35","date_gmt":"2013-10-23T18:35:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/?p=6285"},"modified":"2013-10-23T14:33:07","modified_gmt":"2013-10-23T18:33:07","slug":"columbus-against-georgia-power-solar-tariff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2013\/10\/columbus-against-georgia-power-solar-tariff.html","title":{"rendered":"Columbus against Georgia Power solar tariff"},"content":{"rendered":"

\r\nGetting an earful across the state about\r\n\r\nthat proposed solar rate hike<\/a>:\r\nGeorgia Power and the Georgia Public Service Commission,\r\nfirst in Savannah<\/a>,\r\nthen in Columbus.\r\n

\r\nMike Owen wrote for the Ledger-Enquirer 21 October 2013,\r\n\r\nGeorgia Public Service Commission: Public decries Georgia Power rate hike, solar power fee<\/a>,\r\n

\r\n

\r\nA crowd of about 50 people gave Georgia Public Service Commission\r\nChairman Chuck Eaton an earful Monday night concerning a proposed\r\nGeorgia Power rate hike and controversial proposal to charge solar\r\npower users a new fee.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nAt a public hearing in the auditorium of the Coca-Cola Space Science\r\nCenter, Eaton heard several audience members call the rate hike “bad\r\nbusiness practice” and “unconscionable,” while calling the solar\r\nproposal “a step backward” and a “disincentive” for modern, clean\r\ntechnology.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nAt issue is a two-pronged proposal before the PSC. Georgia Power is\r\nasking the commissioners to approve a $482 million rate hike that\r\nwould add almost $100 a year to average residential electric bills,\r\nsaid Seth Gunning, an organizer for the Sierra\r\nClub of Georgia, one of the meeting’s sponsors.\r\nIt [Georgia Power] is also asking the PSC to allow it to levy a fee\r\non those who install solar panels on their homes or businesses.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

The story continues with quotes from local people who object to\r\nthose proposed rate hikes.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nNobody from Georgia Power was there, but one Public Service Commissioner,\r\nChuck Eaton, was:\r\n

\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nEaton addressed the audience by first stressing that he has not yet\r\ndecided how he will vote on any aspect of Georgia Power’s proposal.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nWhile no representative of Georgia Power was present, Eaton\r\nexplained the company’s rationale for levying the fee of solar power\r\nusers.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n“They’ve proposed that if you have solar panels that you would pay a\r\nsurcharge,” he explained. “You would be using them only as a backup,\r\nbut you would still have to have access to electricity.”\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nEaton said a large percentage of electric bills pay for maintenance\r\non electrical infrastructure.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n“Those assets have to be available to you, so you should have to pay\r\nfor it,” Eaton said, again stressing that that is the utility’s\r\nposition, not his.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n“It seems to me that this is asking the commission to take a step\r\nbackwards,” said Mary Drake of Columbus.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nIndeed, a step backwards based on\r\n\r\nbs Austin Energy already disproved<\/a>.\r\nCharging solar generators to connect was a bad idea\r\n\r\nwhen Dominion Power did it in Virginia<\/a>\r\nand it’s a worse idea now that Austin Energy has done that study\r\nand demonstrated that electric utilities should pay their solar-generating\r\ncustomers more, because of savings on line use, less need for new power plants,\r\nand other benefits the utility receives.\r\n

\r\nDear GA PSC: stop acting as a PR firm for Georgia Power,\r\nand vote no on both of Georgia Power’s rate hikes.\r\n

\r\n -jsq\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getting an earful across the state about that proposed solar rate hike: Georgia Power and the Georgia Public Service Commission, first in Savannah, then in Columbus. Mike Owen wrote for the Ledger-Enquirer 21 October 2013, Georgia Public Service Commission: Public decries Georgia Power rate hike, solar power fee, A crowd of about 50 people gave […]","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":[18,23,24],"tags":[1544,6371,8707,8701,8708,379,8702,12,7,1396,8713,960,34,8714,7009,60,6],"class_list":["post-6285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-georgia-power","category-renewable-energy","category-solar","tag-chuck-eaton","tag-columbus","tag-ga-psc","tag-georgia","tag-georgia-power","tag-georgia-sierra-club","tag-lake","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-rate-hike","tag-renewable-energy","tag-seth-gunning","tag-sierra-club","tag-solar","tag-tariff","tag-tax","tag-valdosta"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-1Dn","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6285","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=6285"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6285\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6310,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6285\/revisions\/6310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}