{"id":6451,"date":"2013-10-31T11:14:04","date_gmt":"2013-10-31T15:14:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/?p=6451"},"modified":"2013-10-31T12:06:32","modified_gmt":"2013-10-31T16:06:32","slug":"no-solar-tax-citizens-in-gainesville-ga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2013\/10\/no-solar-tax-citizens-in-gainesville-ga.html","title":{"rendered":"No solar tax –citizens in Gainesville GA"},"content":{"rendered":"

\r\nSolar advocate PSC Commissioner Bubba McDonald joined Tim Echols for this one.\r\nCitizens said no to\r\n\r\nGeorgia Power’s proposed solar tax<\/a>,\r\njust like in\r\n\r\nSavannah<\/a>\r\nand\r\n\r\nColumbus<\/a>.\r\n

\r\nSarah Mueller wrote yesterday for Gainesville Times,\r\n\r\nPublic gives thumbs-down to Georgia Power rate hike<\/a>,\r\n

\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\n\r\nThe Georgia Power Co. rate hike proposal and suggested fees on solar\r\nenergy installation didn’t get a lot of support from residents who\r\nattended a town meeting in Gainesville on Tuesday night.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nThe Georgia Public Service Commission is reviewing a $482 million\r\nthree-year rate increase request from the energy company that would\r\nadd about $7.84 to the average ratepayer’s monthly bill. The Georgia\r\nSierra Club and Georgia Watch has sponsored town meetings around the\r\nstate this month to let commissioners hear public input on the\r\nrequest. Commissioners Tim Echols and Lauren “Bubba”\r\nMcDonald participated in the meeting at the Brenau Downtown Center.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nPursuing solar energy as state policy was also a hot topic at the\r\nmeeting, which was lightly attended. About 10 people spoke,\r\ncriticizing the proposed hike, the company’s proposed guaranteed\r\nprofit increase to 11.5 percent and a fee that would be charged to\r\nresidents who want to install solar panels on their homes,\r\nbusinesses and farms if they use any electricity from the company.\r\nThe commission is a five-member board that regulates utility rates,\r\nincluding electricity, telephone and natural gas, for the state.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nThe Sierra Club is an environmental organization and Georgia Watch\r\nis a consumer advocacy nonprofit. The last town meeting is scheduled\r\nin Athens tonight, and the commission is expected to hear two days\r\nof testimony next week in Atlanta. Board members will decide in a\r\nDec. 17 meeting.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nCarol Boatright, spokeswoman with Georgia Power, said the current\r\nrate plan expires on Dec. 31. The commission has already heard some\r\ntestimony from the company.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n“A lot of (the rate increase) is for our work with pollution\r\ncontrol equipment that we are installing on our generation\r\nplants,” she said. “Much of that is required by the\r\nenvironmental laws that have been passed.”\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nWell, that’s a little better than a couple of years ago when\r\n\r\nGeorgia Power’s parent the Southern Company said it was incompetent\r\nregarding EPA coal plant pollution rules<\/a>.\r\nRolling blackouts!\r\nPower rationing!\r\nThat’s what they tried to scare us with back then.\r\nMaybe Georgia Power should use some of its guaranteed 11% profit\r\nto clean up\r\n\r\nPlant Scherer, the country’s dirtiest coal plant<\/a>.\r\n

\r\n

\r\n“I am just amazed at the unmitigated gall of Georgia Power to\r\nwant us to pay in advance for equipment they may install somewhere\r\ndown the line to actually clean up coal,” said Debbie Dooley,\r\nGeorgia Tea Party Patriots state coordinator. “Equipment that\r\nthey have not purchased.”\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nIt’s not like this is the first time.\r\nGeorgia Power annually raises rates\r\n\r\nfor natural gas plants<\/a>\r\nand\r\n\r\nnuclear plants<\/a>,\r\nboth rate hikes charged before the plants are built<\/em>.\r\n

\r\n

\r\nCustomers started paying financing charges in 2011 for the Alvin W.\r\nVogtle Electric Generating Plant, which is a two-unit nuclear power\r\nplant under construction in Burke County.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nYou can protest\r\n\r\ndirectly to Georgia Power about that CWIP stealth tax on your bill.<\/a>\r\nOr you can contact\r\n\r\nthe GA PSC or the state legislature.<\/a>\r\n

\r\n

\r\nMcDonald said solar technology advancements and the price have made\r\nsolar energy attractive, especially because of the amount of sun the\r\nstate gets.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\n“Georgia Power has a monopoly over selling electricity, they\r\ndon’t have a monopoly over generation,” McDonald said.\r\n“You can put in all the solar you want to in your own home\r\nright now if you want to and they can’t do a thing in the world\r\nabout it. But, if you’re going to use them as a base, then you’ve\r\ngot to deal with it because right now solar is not base\r\ngeneration.”\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nMcDonald said the issues are important to everyone, but urged\r\nresidents to grade the commission on its overall average, not just\r\none subject.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nWell, sometimes voters do grade elected officials on one subject,\r\nespecially if their elected body fails that grade.\r\n

\r\n

\r\nEchols said he was going to take the feedback to the other commissioners.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nAnd maybe they’ll listen.\r\nIf not, elections are coming.\r\n

\r\n -jsq\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Solar advocate PSC Commissioner Bubba McDonald joined Tim Echols for this one. Citizens said no to Georgia Power’s proposed solar tax, just like in Savannah and Columbus. Sarah Mueller wrote yesterday for Gainesville Times, Public gives thumbs-down to Georgia Power rate hike, The Georgia Power Co. rate hike proposal and suggested fees on solar energy […]","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":[141,216,142,14,8,18,2,6124,104,22,32,23,24],"tags":[8704,8707,243,8701,8708,8699,7181,8702,12,7,562,8737,1396,34,8714,7180,108,6],"class_list":["post-6451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-co2","category-coal","category-cwip","category-economy","category-georgia","category-georgia-power","category-government","category-natural-gas-2","category-nuclear","category-politics","category-pollution","category-renewable-energy","category-solar","tag-economy","tag-ga-psc","tag-gainesville","tag-georgia","tag-georgia-power","tag-government","tag-guaranteed-profit","tag-lake","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-natural-gas","tag-nuclear","tag-rate-hike","tag-sierra-club","tag-solar","tag-solar-tax","tag-southern-company","tag-valdosta"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-1G3","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6451","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=6451"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6451\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6465,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6451\/revisions\/6465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}