The Friday Photo
A weekly photo inspired by art, community and spontaneity
July 5, 2013
The photo on the left is all that remained of the Ogeechee River last fall.
The photo on the right is the same view taken late yesterday.
Category: Georgia
Caution: threatened, straight, Bible-thumping, white men working
My head just exploded, again, over the narrow-minded, blinders on, knuckle-dragging, Conservative Christian, threatened white man’s mentality trotted out on The Georgia Gang yesterday by Phil Kent, Gov Nathan Deal’s appointee to the state’s Immigration Enforcement Review Board. Dick Williams suggests an S-Corp “solution” to same sex marriages to further demonstrate just how ass-backwards some people can be when their Stone Age values are being rolled back.
http://vimeo.com/69431536
Coming full circle
President Obama’s announcement about carbon pollution controls Tuesday at Georgetown University closed the circle in some ways on the future of Plant Washington. It won’t matter whether Plant Washington belches carbon into the air as a new source or an existing source, it will have to reduce and control the amount of Greenhouse Gases (GHG, or most commonly called carbon) it emits.
And that won’t be cheap.
Plant Washington has never modeled for carbon control, so the already doubled price tag 
just to construct it won’t be going down.
We have a surplus supply of cheap electricity on the market. Power generated from Plant Washington won’t be any “better” than what we can get today. All we’ve heard about buying power from this plant is a lot of talk about getting a “preferred position” for future power contracts.
I am willing to bet that anyone who might consider financing this carbon fueled project will not just prefer a sound business plan with realistic returns on their investment, they will require it.
When that happens, Plant Washington will be nothing more than a failed hot air project in an economy and country already moving away coal.
Put out to dry
The Friday Photo
A weekly photo inspired by art, community and spontaneity
June 14, 2013
We paddled with our grandson (who turns five today!) last weekend.
Hooks that held up a porch swing long-ago make a perfect drying rack.
Move over Broun, Price, and Gingrey
The loudest Republican members of the Georgia Congressional Delegation have managed to make our state the laughing-stock with jewels that have included:
- Paul Broun, MD (Medical College of Georgia) saying to the Baptist Church Sportsman Group over dinner last September, “All that stuff I was taught about evolution and embryology and the Big Bang Theory, all that is just lies straight from the pit of Hell.”
- Phil Gingrey, MD (Medical College of Georgia) defended former Senator Todd Akin
(R-Missouri) after Akin said that pregnancies only result from “legitimate” rapes. Even Scientific American had to weigh in on exactly how wrong Gingrey’s medical information is.
- Tom Price, MD (University of Michigan) said in regards to making birth control accessible for low-income women through Obamacare, which he opposes, that he isn’t aware of one woman who can’t afford birth control. Price said, “Bring me one woman who has been left behind. Bring me one. There’s not one.” (Price voted to defund Planned Parenthood and eliminate funding for contraceptive three times in 2011. )
And now, Senator Saxby Chambliss, who has decided not to run for a third term in the Senate, showed his true colors on the crime of rape in the military forces during a hearing earlier this week. According to a report issued by the Pentagon, three rapes occur every hour across our military forces. Every hour. Every day. 24/7. The Enemy Within is an eye-opening article on the expanse of rape culture within our armed forces.
Chambliss wants to explain away the criminals who rape by saying the problem is due to a “hormone level created by nature.”
That’s like telling a child things happen “just because.”
Rape occurs for all kinds of reasons, but none of them are acceptable, and all the men who carry out these crimes of violence are criminals. Rape is rape. Plain and simple. It is a crime whether it happens on our streets, in office buildings, parking lots, a woman’s home (Saying No to your husband is ok. Marriage isn’t a license to have sex when your spouse says No. It is called spousal rape, and it is a crime), and in our armed forces.
Chambliss also said, “We’re not doing our job” in regards to military rape. That’s obvious. Attributing the fact that three violent crimes of rape occur every hour in our armed forces as the result of “hormones” is not going to adequately address this problem.
A culture change, among both our civilian and military communities, is required to reduce these stunning crime rates. Suggesting that testosterone pollution is the cause is not going to solve the problem.
And in doing so, Chambliss insults and minimizes every victim of rape.
Both oars in the water
The Friday Photo
A weekly photo inspired by art, community and spontaneity
May 31, 2013
Late last summer my friend Jenny Craigie Riffe gave me a kayak she no longer uses and my adventures as a beginner paddler began. I missed the Georgia River Network (GRN) 12 in 2012 Challenge to paddle 12 rivers in Georgia, but this year I have decided to do last year’s challenge (this is not the first time I have been late to the starting line).
Last weekend we got out on the Ogeechee and Oconee Rivers, in addition to the lake at Hamburg State Park. We saw carp bedding down in a shallow cove, along with longnose gar, on the Oconee where Putnam and Hancock Counties meet on Hwy 16. We also learned that anyone and everyone can get out on a noisy, gasoline smelling jet ski by late in the morning on a Saturday holiday weekend.
The Savannah and Ocmulgee are at the top of our list now, plus the Augusta canal. This year GRN’s challenge is to get 13 people out to paddle who wouldn’t have been out on one of Georgia’s rivers or streams. Since I convinced my husband to buy a boat so we could paddle together. I think my work is done for the 2013 challenge. Two down, ten to go.
It takes two people to do Chip Rogers’ job
Today at Better Georgia:
It turns out that Chip Rogers can’t do the job he was hired to do at GPB.
The new radio show that Gov. Nathan Deal created for Chip Rogers was scheduled to begin airing in April. But it’s now been pushed back to July.
After Better Georgia released three videos to call attention to the Chip’s missing work product, Georgia Public Broadcasting told the AJC that they needed to hire a new executive producer to work with Chip — who is the second-highest paid employee at GPB, drawing $150,000 per year in taxpayer funded salary.
GPB hired former B98.5 FM “Morning Show” producer Jessica Forkel to do the work that Chip Rogers hasn’t been able to do over the past 130 days.
GPB has not disclosed Forkel’s salary, which will only add to the cost.
In December, Chip Rogers called this new gig his “dream job.” Now we know why.
Thanks, Gov. Deal.
A chip off the ole block
Better Georgia has issued a job performance review for former State Senator Chip Rogers since he was handed a $150K per year job at GPB by Governor Nathan Deal. Rogers has over seven months of taxpayer funded paychecks under his belt. Let’s see how he is doing.
from Better Georgia:
Gov. Nathan Deal created a job for Chip Rogers at GPB more than seven months ago.You’ll remember that Gov. Deal didn’t have a job description for Chip at that time.But Gov. Deal was sure Chip would do a swell job at something to earn his $150,000 taxpayer-funded salary.You’ll also remember that what little Gov. Deal did tell us about the job he created for Chip Rogers was that it would be “a statewide weekly radio program examining current economic development trends and highlighting companies that are growing and creating jobs.”
Well, a funny thing has happened since.
Nothing.
Chip Rogers has been on the job 128 days but hasn’t broadcast his new radio program once, much less weekly.
Chip has already been paid more than $50,000 from taxpayers’ pockets but hasn’t managed to do the one thing he was hired to do.
We thought we would lend a hand.
We created a series of radio shows to highlight Chip Rogers’ own economic development track record. (Watch all three videos: Oglethorpe Inn, Agenda 21 and Will the Winner).
Last week, Gov. Deal gave some good advice about a government that doesn’t listen to voters:
“I think too often when government oversteps its bounds,somebody simply resigns or somebody’s hand is slapped with the hope that maybe the public would forget about it,” Gov. Deal told the Tea Party.
In Gov. Deal’s administration, he doesn’t even ask for a resignation. He doesn’t slap anyone’s hands. Gov. Deal simply doesn’t care when he over steps the bounds again and again.
Gov. Deal thinks you’re not paying attention.
Tell Gov. Deal that we won’t forget about Chip Rogers. Sign and share the petition asking Gov. Deal to fire Chip Rogers today.
Sincerely,
Executive Director
Better Georgia
P.S. Make sure your friends see our videos. Take a minute to share them on Facebook. If you’ve already signed the petition to Fire Chip Rogers, please ask your friends to sign it.
Disenchantment spreads to Conservatives, last call for King America permit comments
Displeasure with the state’s “protection’ of our natural resources, specifically the Ogeechee River, has found strong voices among leading Conservatives in the last few weeks. Now State Senator Buddy Carter has joined the choir.
Yesterday the Albany Journal ran a letter from Carter in which he said the EPD has “earned a vote of no confidence” from the public and from him as well.
This week the volume was turned up by the Statesboro Herald in a strongly worded editorial. The paper spared no criticism for the EPD or King America Finishing, closing with, “We believe the EPD rightfully has earned a ton of distrust for its handling of King America’s role in the 2011 fish kill. The state agency can begin to regain its credibility as a responsible steward of the environment by demonstrating the health of the Ogeechee River is more important than the sustainability of the King America plant.”
Governor Nathan Deal took his head out of the sand long enough to tell the Statesboro paper that, “We know that we don’t want anything that’s going to pollute our waterways. We don’t want anything that’s going to make our state a worse place from the standpoint of environmental degradation.”
Make our state worse from the standpoint of environmental degradation? We are competing for the bottom of the list. I am afraid to say we can’t get any worse, but with the track record in the last few years, ineptitude among state leaders seems to rise to the challenge every time.
Tuesday the Peach Pundit weighed in with this, “Given the recent history, I find it difficult to be anything but cynical about the state’s ability to protect life in and along the river. My guess is that many who are calling now for stricter oversight will soon be demanding that King America Finishing be forced to shut down.”
Wednesday, May 15 is last call for comments on KAF permit!
Citizens can comment on the latest King America permit through today at 5:00 p.m. Email your comments to: [email protected], with the words “NPDES permit reissuance King America Finishing (Dover Screven County)” in the subject line.
You don’t have to make it fancy, you just need to speak up. “Deny the NPDES permit reissuance for King America Finishing in Dover, Screven County, GA” is just fine. Make sure you get your name and contact info on the email.
After the rains
The Friday Photo
A weekly photo inspired by art, community and spontaneity
May 10, 2013
Rivers and streams are full, and the grass is green again.
Why the Georgia EPD is toothless
This week started with Mary Landers at the Savannah Morning News reporting that employees at King American Finishing (KAF) were told to drink bottled water at work for the past six months. Tests of two wells at the company’s textile and chemical plant in Screven County found unacceptable levels of cadmium and phenanthrene (known to cause cancer, cardiovascular disease and other serious health problems). An attorney for KAF told Landers in an email that Georgia’s Environmental Protection Division (EPD) ordered the company to switch to bottled water.
Landers contacted EPD Director Jud Turner, who said that the EPD had not issued that requirement.
Someone isn’t telling the truth.
Both the state and the Chicago based company keep telling concerned citizens that everything is okey dokey. But it isn’t.
Last night the Statesboro Herald reported that King America now says the initial water test results were wrong. Why should we believe KAF or, for that matter, the EPD? Both have talked in circles for two years when tens of thousands of fish died in the Ogeechee, and people ended up in the hospital after swimming in polluted water.
What did the EPD tell 200 citizens during Tuesday night’s public comment session on a proposed permit for the plant? The Savannah Morning News reports that EPD official Jane Hendricks said, “Please understand that under the law EPD has a very limited ability to deny the permit.” The paper goes on to say that Hendricks said that the special conditions that can trigger a denial don’t apply in this case.
Based on newspaper and television coverage, that didn’t quell citizen outrage. They went ahead and took the EPD and King America to task for polluting the river, setting unreasonable discharge limits, failing to respond quickly to citizen complaints, making a mess of the water and wildlife, driving down property values, and hurting businesses based on river activities like boating and fishing.
But Ms. Hendricks’ statement that the EPD can’t easily deny a permit is telling on both EPD and state leaders. If the EPD was really in the business of proactively protecting our natural resources, they would be all over state legislators each session asking them to put some teeth in their enforcement abilities.
And if state legislators wanted the EPD to protect our water and air, wildlife, drinking water, land, and swimming holes, they’d pass some laws that would empower the EPD to do just that.
In the end, they continue to do nothing. It doesn’t seem to matter how many fish die, how many citizens end up in the hospital after swimming in polluted water, how many people continue to boil water from their wells out of fear of the poisons that may be in it, or how many small businesses are crippled due to boaters, fishermen, and families who just don’t want to chance getting sick from whatever is lurking in our rivers and streams.
It does matter to the citizens and taxpayers. And we are tired of hearing, and feeding, a toothless guard dog barking on our porch.
‘Tis but a scratch
Five years ago there were 10 EMCs backing Dean Alford’s Plant Washington coal project. Now Alford has announced that there aren’t any EMCs left in the group, EMCs that had originally announced that they would own, operate, and buy power from the plant.
The little that we do know about Alford’s plans is that he still has Colorado based Taylor Energy Fund, LLC as a partner, but he won’t name any others. Nor has he announced any completed Power Purchase Agreements, which are critical to financing the project. Yet Alford continues to believe this project is viable.
I am reminded of the limbless Black Knight, who says to the sword yielding King Arthur,” ‘Tis but a scratch.”
Parade prep
The Friday Photo
A weekly photo inspired by art, community and spontaneity
May 3, 2013
Parade preparations underway in Swainsboro, GA
This isn’t pixie dust
The Friday Photo
A weekly photo inspired by art, community and spontaneity
April 26, 2013
I don’t know if I have ever seen pollen collect on
the air vents in my car. No wonder I can’t get any relief.
Do your duty
Last week I was called for jury duty, but unlike other times, I was chosen to serve. It was an interesting exercise in listening, thinking critically, and respectfully discussing ideas.
Our trial involved multiple robbery and battery charges, and we knew a young man’s life would be forever changed by our decisions. We also discussed our obligations to be respectful of the victims and what they had experienced.
We worked through the charges and reached agreement with the exception of two charges 
stemming from the same incident. The respect for those in the minority was palpable.
When we returned for our third day together and started anew, only two were in the minority. We suggested listening to some of the recorded testimony in hopes of resolving any reasonable doubt about the defendant’s innocence or guilt.
We sensed a unanimous decision as we filed back to deliberate. We acquitted the defendant because we found an accumulation of gaps in testimony, questions asked, and the evidence. Reasonable doubt does not mean those found innocent are not guilty. The obligation to reach a decision based only on the information we learned in the courtroom shaped and informed our verdicts.
What we also learned in our 2.5 days together, was in our busy-busy hurry up lives, we miss so many small details as we dash through the day, that can, if necessary, change lives forever.
Who will you sign for?
The deadline for comments to the State Department on Keystone XL’s tar sands pipeline is today. I signed for them. Who will you sign for?
Now the real work begins
The fight to stop Plant Washington is going to get very interesting because developer Dean Alford’s filings with the EPA will be subject to Open Records sunlight.
Alford claims he met EPA requirements to “commence construction” by midnight April 12 when he signed a boiler contract with IHI Corporation in Japan and a site erection contract with Zachry Industrial in the United States.
EPA “commence construction” requires more than signing a contract. Georgia EPD staffer Jac Capp told the Macon Telegraph earlier this month that commence construction, “means that the source has both ‘begun a continuous program of actual on-site construction’ and ‘entered into binding agreements or contractual obligations which cannot be canceled without a substantial loss.’
Last Saturday, a day drenched in brilliant sunlight, I drove past the plant site. There was a dead armadillo in the road, but except for some March storm damage, not much has changed on either side of the Mayview Road, which divides the plant site, since January 2008. The dirt roads crossing the plant have no tracks indicating heavy equipment has moved in for construction work ahead.
Meeting the requirement of a “substantial loss” will now require more than Alford saying there are “several” entities lined up for this project, which is all he offered to the Atlanta Journal Constitution in January 2012 when his largest backer, Cobb EMC walked from the project. Earlier this month Alford told the Macon Telegraph he has “way over the amount of money I need for this project.” Hopefully the contract documents will soon be made public so that we’ll finally get a chance to see what all this talk is made of, and who is willing to invest in it besides the latecomer to the game, designated hitter Taylor Energy Fund.
There are brand spanking new coal plants, some built and owned by EMCs, like Spiritwood in Minnesota, which have never powered a single light bulb because the operating costs were prohibitive. Other plants, like Prairie State in Illinois, have saddled ratepayers with higher rates before supplying them with any power.
Sure, I wish Alford had called it a day late last Friday night, but I am not surprised. He doesn’t live here, he doesn’t rely on the local groundwater when he wants a drink of water, and his grandchildren won’t be breathing Plant Washington toxins into their lungs when they play outside.
For those of us who have real skin in the game, the work has just begun.
Wilcox County students say ‘Love has No Color”
The students in Wilcox County are tired of segregated private proms, so they are doing what their parents and school leaders won’t do: organizing an integrated prom so everyone can get dressed up and have fun, together. It will be the colors of their dresses and bow ties that matter the night of April 27, not the color of their skin. They set up a page on Face Book and are raising money for their dance, which will be held in Cordele.
Bran Long at Better Georgia sent out this email yesterday:
If you haven’t already heard, Wilcox County high school students have said they won’t go another year with a segregated prom.
It’s 2013 and integration is long overdue.
Since they couldn’t get the support of their high school or many of their parents, they’re just going to do it themselves.
The AJC just reported on Better Georgia’s challenge to elected officials in Georgia to support Wilcox County’s student-organized integrated prom.
It’s pretty simple: love has no color.
So while we’re waiting to see which elected officials publicly or financially support this integrated prom, here are two things you can do to help right now:
1. Get on Facebook and ‘Like’ their page. Then share it on your page and spread to your friends.
2. Use the Twitter hashtag #integratedprom to spread the word and encourage your elected officials to support this simple effort.
Lot’s of Georgia’s problems are big and too difficult for one person or one group to fix alone. Broken roads and schools. Defunded health care. Rampant corruption under the Gold Dome.
But this problem is both big — and easily fixed.
Don’t just sit on the sidelines. Support these brave kids as they teach the adults in their community a lesson in compassion and love.
This one is easy.
Thanks,
Executive Director
Better Georgia
You can’t take “way over” to the bank
Last Wednesday’s Macon Telegraph included coverage of the long-lingering proposed Plant Washington and developer Dean Alford’s race to meet an April 12 “commence construction” carbon pollution rule deadline set by the EPA almost a year ago.
Should someone call or email Alford? Maybe he missed exactly what the EPA said when it announced the carbon rule (see section 2.2.4). Maybe he hasn’t seen the EPA filings specifically about Plant Washington, or the news coverage and numerous web site postings in the past year pointing out that beating the clock on the April 12 deadline won’t help his no-bid project.
When the EPA announced the deadline, the agency said very clearly that to be exempt from the carbon rule, new coal plants had to have a final permit in hand.
Plant Washington didn’t have a final permit when the rule was announced.
So it isn’t exempt from the carbon emission rules when you get right down to what the EPA said. We all know from past playground experience, whoever makes the rules also gets to enforce them.
The EPA knows exactly when Alford got a final permit because last spring in another set of court filings pertaining to mercury emissions, the agency refers to Plant Washington’s lack of a final permit at the time the carbon rule was announced. The EPA’s filing included this, “The Power 4 Georgians’ (“P4G”) Project (Case No. 12-1184): Movants submit a declaration stating that “as of April 9, 2012, P4G has a final PSD permit and all other required permit approvals necessary to commence construction of Plant Washington.” Mot. Ex. H ¶ 5. This assertion is incorrect, inasmuch as state administrative challenges to the P4G permit remain pending.”
Ooops.
Other coal developers did get the news. They ran the numbers again for their projects as natural gas, and even wind and solar, gained more ground in the power generation market.
Like dominoes, developers began cancelling proposed plants, even in coal friendly states like Texas. The math just didn’t add up any longer. They couldn’t finance, build, and then sell coal-generated power for a profit. They said new coal can’t compete, and existing coal isn’t so cheap either. Beating an April 12 deadline wouldn’t help them. They couldn’t afford to go forward.
Despite the fact that the carbon rule does apply to Plant Washington (and Alford said that having to meet carbon rules would kill the project), Alford has continued talking up his project and making a lot out of meeting the April 12 deadline.
Earlier this week Alford continued the charade when he told the Telegraph “If I add up everybody I’m talking to, I’ve got way over the amount of money I need for this project.”
“Way over” must be A LOT of money, because conservative 2011 estimates, without carbon controls, put Plant Washington at a whopping $3.9B, almost doubling the original $2.1B estimate in 2008. I can’t imagine how many zeros would be added to a price estimate to engineer and control for carbon.
Alford is “talking to” utilities, private investors, pension funds and independent power producers. (Never mind that one doesn’t “talk to” pension funds, it is the fund manager who must be convinced to invest.) Power4Georgians (P4G) and Washington EMC also think there is no reason to be burdened by a pro forma study or independent market analysis to make the case to investors, so at least they aren’t having to trot out tried and true methods of return on investment to funders.
Oh yeah, “talking to” is also not the same as having power purchase agreements, contractors, an EPA approved boiler design, county issued bonds, or all the financing confirmed.
And in all this “talking to,” who is Alford saying will own this plant which will not only supply power to the power purchase customers, but also repay the debt owed in a timely manner?
When Alford announced Plant Washington in January 2008, he said it would be owned and operated by the EMCs in P4G. I heard it with my own ears because I was in the room. Alford even said that under oath in September 2010.
That all changed when his former employer, Cobb EMC, abandoned the project in January 2012. Alford made a final pitch at that meeting to keep his largest funding source engaged. The Marietta Daily Journal’s coverage last year included this from the Cobb EMC minutes, “Power4Georgians owns the permits but he (Dean Alford) stated that P4G never intended to build Plant Washington. He stated P4G’s goal has always been to obtain the permits needed and then sell them to any interested party that could build the plant.”
In January 2012 Alford told the AJC there were “hundred of entities” interested in this project. If the contracts were real, investors were lining up to get a piece of this project, and an owner had been secured, wouldn’t they have been paraded out by now?
The time for Alford and the four remaining EMCs to call it a day on Plant Washington is “way over.”
There’s no need to wait until April 12.
When the unthinkable happens, who will step up?
There is no hiding behind the fact that the explosion at coal-fired Plant Bowen yesterday could happen at any of the power plants in Washington County. Accidents happen.
Plant Washington developer Dean Alford has never actually built a coal plant. Should we be checking his firefighting credentials too? How about the firefighting credentials of local business owners who are banking on tidy profits associated with the plant? How many elected leaders will suit up in fire gear? Will Washington EMC Board Members and Senior Management race in to help?
The EPD told citizens that plant operators would be required to handle a fire or accident should there be one at Plant Washington. We can’t get them to show up for a fish kill, so my confidence in assurances about public safety are zero.
Local volunteer firefighters have told me there is no way we have adequate fire fighting capacity to fight fires at the two natural gas peaker plants here or a coal-fired plant. They also told me they won’t suit up because a fire at any of these plants would be more than our local folks could handle.
Just how far are local leaders willing to go at the expense of our health and safety? And if they wouldn’t risk their lives, or those of their families, to protect Plant Washington, how can they expect anyone else to do the same?