April 25th, 2013 () Wind energy › Simon Mahan › No Comments
Georgia Power has just joined other southern electric utilities by announcing a decision to buy wind energy. If the Georgia Public Service Commission agrees to the deal, the Peach State will be receiving up to 250 megawatts of wind power – enough power for about 50,000 Georgia homes – from Oklahoma around the 2016 timeframe . In doing so, Georgia Power will follow in the footsteps of the Tennessee Valley Authority, Alabama Power and the Southwestern Electric Power Company in buying wind energy from the midwest.
April 16th, 2013 () Coal, High Risk Energy › Angela Garrone, Esq. › No Comments
Saturday, April 13, was set to be the day for the Environmental Protection Agency to release final regulations limiting carbon pollution from new power plants. April 13 came and went, however, with no final regulations from EPA. Instead, on Friday April 12, EPA announced that it would delay issuance of the final rule – but gave no [...]
March 28th, 2013 () Energy Efficiency, Utilities › John D. Wilson › No Comments
With energy efficiency, of course! A couple of weeks ago, we showed you how Southern Company “squirrels” the energy efficiency debate. One of our fantastic readers sent us an ad from the New Yorker, in which Southern Company tries to persuade its customers in New York City that it is promoting energy efficiency by selling [...]
March 26th, 2013 () Clean Energy, Coal, Coal Ash, Energy Policy, High Risk Energy, Utilities, Water › Amelia Shenstone › 2 Comments
Last week I had the privilege of accompanying experts from the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) on a three-day tour of Georgia and Alabama to highlight coal plants that should be considered for retirement. UCS is a national, science-based non-profit that advocates for policy decisions that are based on credible research. UCS’s report, Ripe for [...]
March 21st, 2013 () Offshore Wind, Wind energy › Anna Cayce Smit › 3 Comments
Yesterday, SACE hosted the first ever Wind Energy Day at the Georgia State Capitol. This event was sponsored by Senator Lester Jackson (D-Savannah). The first day of spring started with the senator speaking about the benefits of wind energy from the Senate floor and letting other Senators and gallery attendees know about the exciting presentations we had planned for the day. Senator Jackson also used this opportunity to give recognition to SACE and the National Caucus of Environmental Legislators (NCEL) for our participation in Wind Energy Day. Several days before Wind Energy Day, Senator Jackson introduced a resolution lauding the benefits of wind energy – a first of its kind in Georgia.
March 14th, 2013 () Coal, Energy Policy, Environmental Justice, High Risk Energy, Water › Joan Walker › 1 Comment
Over the last few weeks several Southeastern states introduced coal ash-related legislation. Presumably these actions are in response to the ongoing delay of the Obama Administration to direct the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to finalize national coal ash rules. The lack of guidance from EPA actually led North Carolina Representative Pricey Harrison (D-Greensboro) to testify [...]
March 11th, 2013 () High Risk Energy, Nuclear › Mandy Hancock › No Comments
UPDATE: On today’s 2-year anniversary of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, a landmark decision occurred here in the U.S. that squelches the so-called nuclear renaissance even further. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Commissioners today upheld last summer’s licensing board denial of a construction/operating license for the proposed Calvert Cliffs-3 nuclear reactor in Maryland. The decision [...]
February 27th, 2013 () Climate Action, Coal, High Risk Energy › Angela Garrone, Esq. › No Comments
There’s nothing like a heaping serving of data to really drive a point home – and that’s exactly what the Environmental Protection Agency does with its most recent report of plant-by-plant emissions data. EPA’s 2011 Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program report is loaded with emissions data from 1,594 fossil fuel plants across the nation. The resoundingly [...]
January 8th, 2013 () Coal, High Risk Energy › Amelia Shenstone › No Comments
Southern Alliance for Clean Energy applauds Georgia Power’s January 7 announcement that it will seek approval to retire several of its least economical, oldest, and dirtiest electric generators – 2061 MW worth of mostly coal-fired units, plus a handful of smaller oil-fired units. We’re glad the company is finally seeking retirement of these units; the [...]
December 17th, 2012 () Offshore Wind, Wind energy › Anna Cayce Smit › 1 Comment
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) announced that it will be preparing an environmental assessment (EA) for a potential meteorological data collection facility offshore from Tybee Island, Georgia. The EA is the next step in advancing Southern Company’s potential plans for building meteorological tower and/or meteorological buoy to gather data to help determine the feasibility of [...]
