the blog of LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange
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No county commission meetings this week.
According to LowndesCounty.com,
Current Events
May 21 Lowndes County Work Session CANCELLED
May 22 Lowndes County Regular Session Meeting CANCELLED
Why? Follow either of those links, and all it says is:
For questions please call County Clerk, Paige Dukes, at 229-671-2400.
The next meetings on their calendar are work session Monday 11 June 2012 and regular session Tuesday 12 June 2012.
-jsq
Funny how only the actions of the black activists who won school board seats got investigated by the GBI, and only they were charged with anything, despite a number of irregularities among the losers. If that doesn't seem right to you, this may be of interest: U.S. Justice Department - Eric Holder: Identify prosecutorial misconduct/voter suppression in Quitman 10 +2 case
Many voters in Brooks County are older African-Americans who are senior citizens in their 60's, 70's and 80's that witnessed first-hand the politics of Jim Crow in the last century, but had to deal with GBI agents coming to their doorsteps of their small rural town with guns strapped to their side asking questions. Some were voting for the first time or the first time in years in 2010, but there has been an ongoing effort by Republicans to present more obstacles and/or threats to eligible voters so they would be discouraged not to vote.
I think the Quitman 10+2's real crime was very simple: winning. Even worse, they used an innovative strategy (absentee ballots) for an end-run around their opponents. If that school board election in Brooks County had been a football game, the Q10+2 would be hailed as heroes by the local and state press for winning the game. Why is winning an election by legal means not accorded the same treatment?
-jsq
What's this AI everyone is talking about related to fair housing? Now you can see for yourself.
Copies of the Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing, City of Valdosta, are now available for 2006 and December 2011 on the LAKE website. I retrieved both of them today from Document Central on the the City of Valdosta's Document Central. It is my understanding that the 2006 version has been there for some time, and the 2011 version was put there today. The 2011 version is a draft that has not yet been approved by HUD.
I have not read either version of the document yet, so I don't have much to say about it yet. The point is that you can read it yourself. I've also pulled all the 2011 maps into separate web pages to make them easier to work with. No doubt the Valdosta City Council and staff, as well as the community steering committee formed by Council James Wright would be interested in feedback. Or you can comment on this post.
-jsq
The Valdosta-Lowndes County Chamber of Commerce's annual "economic summit" of invited participants has a report for 2012 called "Lowndes County by the Numbers" that compares our local area with fourteen other places. Curiously none of those places is known for Internet access speed or solar energy. I wonder what comparisons with places like Thomasville or LaGrange or Chattanooga or Lafayette or Bowling Green, Kentucky (all of which have fast community-wide Internet access) would have shown?
It looks like the peer communities may have been chosen for proximity to military bases. That's fair, but what about medical facilities, regional universities, or agriculture?
Establishing a plan for economic success and growth requires an unbiased knowledge of a community's endowments and economic indicators. While community endowments are the unique characteristics that arise from location and geography and therefore are not likely to change, economic indicators such as demographics and labor market structure can be cultivated and enhanced in ways to improve the economic growth and prosperity of a community. Progress toward achieving these desired outcomes can only be assessed by comparing oneself to peer and aspirant communities. This report identifies the peer and aspirant communities for Lowndes County and compares economic indicators that measure the strengths and opportunities for this community.
Why is economic growth listed before prosperity? Is growth a goal in itself? If so, why? Population growth without more jobs just results in
Continue reading "The Chamber reports on economic numbers without much leadership" »
When the world's biggest oil producer plans to shift to solar energy, maybe it's time for the rest of the world to realize there's money in solar energy.
Sarfaraz Khan wrote for Solar PV Investor 17 May 2012 Saudi Arabia, The Land of Plenty For Solar: Saudi Arabia's energy strategy plans to add 41GW to the national grid in 20 years through investments of $109B.
Ali Al Naimi, surprised the global solar stage with his grand announcement, “Saudi Arabia aspires to export as much solar energy in the future as it exports oil now.”
That was two years ago. This month Saudi Arabia held the fourth Saudi Solar Energy forum.
The summit turned out to be extremely successful, as by the end of the meeting, Saudi Arabia officially announced its ambitious solar energy strategy that plans to add 41GW to the national grid in 20 years through investments of $109B. The country currently produces just 3MW from solar. According to the plan, 25GW will be generated from solar thermal plants and 16GW from PV panels. The country aspires to generate a quarter of its total energy from the solar sector by 2032.
It seems the world's biggest oil exporter is planning for a future in which oil is much less important and the sun much more so.
And in that conference:
The companies that participated in the conference included First Solar (FSLR), Amonix, Areva Solar, Abengoa Solar, Novatec Solar, Siemens and Soitec Solar GmbH.
Not a U.S. company in that list. Of course, the U.S. doesn't need Saudi Arabia as a customer if we just get on with solar here at home. Georgia, for that matter, has two solar manufacturers Suniva of Norcross and MAGE SOLAR of Dublin) and more than 40 certified solar installers.
Where's our renewable energy plan?
-jsq
Tasty food, local community, and local economy, all on the grounds of the historic Lowndes County Courthouse: Downtown Valdosta Farm Days is here again this morning, from 9AM to 1PM.
-jsq
Today is Third Thursday in Hahira. I'd go, but I promised to be somewhere else. Maybe somebody can take pictures?
-jsq
Zachary Shahan wrote for CleanTechnica yesterday, Google-backed Offshore Wind Power Superhighway Moves Forward,
The Department of the Interior stated on Monday that there was “no overlapping competitive interest” for the areas where the $5-billion project would be constructed. This decision leads us to the next step in the process — environmental review of the Atlantic Wind Connection line.
The article notes that environmental review could take 18-24 months, with a projected power online date of end of 2017. Southern Company projects Vogtle Unit 3 online in 2016 and Unit 3 in 2017. And that's before the cost overruns that have already started. I'm guessing Google will have its Atlantic wind project up and running before Southern Company has any new nukes online, if they're ever online.
And remember, the Atlantic Wind Connection is privately funded:
Other than Google, companies funding the project include Good Energies and Japan's Marubeni Corp.
The cost is about $5 billion for 6,000 MW of wind energy generation.
Meanwhile, Southern Company has already overrun its nuke cost estimate by almost $1 billion within a few weeks of NRC go-ahead. It won't take long at that rate for the cost overruns to exceed $5 billion. That's on top of the perhaps $8.3 billion base cost. That's for two 1,100 MW reactors, for 2,200 MW total.
What if Southern Company and private investors quit wasting resources on nukes and funded a Georgia Bight Wind Connection instead? After all, Georgia's offshore waters are part of the East coast wind energy basket.
-jsq
Those cost overruns so far on the new nukes? How much solar and wind could that money buy?
John Hanger wrote on his Facts of the Day today, $913 Million Construction Overrun Hits Georgia New Nukes: How Much Gas, Wind, Solar Capacity Would That Buy?
Comparing the Vogtle initial $913 million cost overrun to the capital costs of gas, wind, and solar plants show just how big these cost overruns can be. The Vogtle $913 million cost overrun by itself could have paid for approximately 1,000 megawatts of natural gas generation; 450 megawatts of wind power; and 330 megawatts of solar power.
Don't forget that's just the first cost overruns on those nukes. When the current Plant Vogtle nukes were built, there were supposed to be four at a cost of $660 million; only two were built, at a cost of $8.87 billion. That's a cost overrun of 1300%. How much solar and wind could $8 billion buy?
Moreover, gas, wind, and solar generation could be up and running in 3-years or less from the first day to the last day of development, as opposed to the 10 years or more needed to build a nuclear plant.
Austin Energy's new 30 MW solar farm, for example, approved beginning of 2009, opened end of 2011, and cost less than originally projected.
Oh, and solar doesn't leak radioactive tritium like Plant Hatch and won't get shut down two days after an NRC clean bill of health like Plant Vogtle.
-jsq
Remember how Georgia Power customers get to pay for cost overruns on the new nukes? Well, the overruns have already started.
JoAnn Merrigan wrote for WSAV 15 May 2012, Environmental Groups: Plant Vogtle Reactors Almost One Billion Over Budget,
A group of nine national environmental groups says that the two new
nuclear reactors being built at Plant Vogtle (near Waynesboro in eastern Georgia) are over budget by up to $1 billion dollars. The opponents say Georgia Power's share of the cost overruns is currently $400 million and that may cost ratepayers as well as taxpayers who are guranteeing loans in the billions of dollars.
The nine environmental groups, Friends of the Earth, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, Center for a Sustainable Coast, Citizens Allied for Safe Energy, Georgia Women's Action for New Directions, NC WARN, Nuclear Information and Resource Service, and Nuclear Watch South, are also suing:
Continue reading "Cost overruns already starting for Georgia Power's new nukes" »
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