by Dave Williams | Aug 2, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Environmental groups are challenging a state-issued permit to allow a wood pellet manufacturing plant in Telfair County to double its pollutant emissions without meeting federal requirements.
The Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) approved a modification of Telfair Forest Products’ air-quality permit last month without requiring the company to install legally required pollution controls or conduct air impact analyses.
“EPD got this one wrong,” said Jennifer Whitfield, a senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC), which filed the challenge with Georgia’s Office of Administrative Hearings. “Twice, we gave regulators detailed explanations about why this permit request is illegal and dangerous for citizens of Telfair County, and they chose to look the other way.”
The biomass industry is booming in Georgia, the nation’s No.-1 state for forestry. Wood pellets produced by cutting down trees are shipped overseas to countries in Europe and Asia, where they are burned for power.
Wood pellet plants often are located near low-income communities of color, to the dismay of environmental justice advocates. On the other hand, they create jobs in rural counties that typically struggle with high unemployment rates.
The SELC filed the challenge on behalf of Georgia Interfaith Power and Light (GIPL) and the state chapter of the Sierra Club.
“Clean air is a basic human right,” said Codi Norred, GIPL’s executive director. “It is unacceptable to harm the health and wellbeing of Georgians, especially those overburdened by the effects of climate change and pollution.”
by Dave Williams | Aug 2, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Georgia lawmakers are having second thoughts about switching the University System of Georgia from a quarter to a semester system back in 1999.
A state House study committee will begin meeting soon to take a fresh look at whether both the university system and the Technical College System of Georgia – which moved to semesters in 2011 – should switch back to quarters.
“There’s no preconceived outcome here,” said Rep. Chuck Martin, R-Alpharetta, chairman of the House Higher Education Committee and a member of the study committee. “It’s just to assess the situation and some of the things that could be impacted if we were to change this. … We know some significant work would have to go on.”
When the switch from quarters was made, arguments in favor of going with a semester system included aligning Georgia’s university system with the approximately 70% of the nation’s colleges and universities operating on semesters. That made transfers within and across systems easier.
Greater administrative efficiencies and reduced administrative costs also were anticipated.
But a quarter century later, legislative leaders say they see a downside to semesters.
“The conversion from the quarter system to the semester system has resulted in longer terms with more classes and fewer graduation cycles,” according to the language of a resolution the House passed unanimously in March to create the study committee. “Some question whether semesters are the better option for students or for workforce development.”
The ramifications a quarter system could have for Georgia’s workforce shortages is a key driver in the decision to revisit whether to switch back to quarters. The current semester system leads to two graduating classes each year, while a quarter system would yield at least three, thus getting graduating students into the workforce faster.
“An expeditious path to entering the workforce is an important consideration for those looking to graduate from one of our fine institutions of higher learning, as well as those looking to hire those graduates,” Rep. Shaw Blackmon, R-Bonaire, told the website State Affairs in June. Blackmon couldn’t be reached by Capitol Beat this week.
Switching from semesters to quarters couldn’t be accomplished overnight.
Martin said complications that would have to be worked out include how to coordinate the university and technical college systems’ quarters with Georgia’s high schools, which would continue to operate on the semester system.
University system administrators also would have to figure out how to handle the Christmas holiday break, which would occur during the middle quarter rather than between the first and second semesters, Martin said.
“There’s a lot of moving parts,” he said.
Besides Blackmon and Martin, the House study committee will include three other lawmakers: Reps. Mike Cheokas, R-Americus; Ginny Ehrhart, R-Marietta; and Stacey Evans, D-Atlanta. The panel also will include Ashwani Monga, the university system’s executive vice chancellor for academic affairs, selected last month to serve as interim president at the University of West Georgia; and Ray Perren, deputy commissioner for technical education at the Technical College System of Georgia.
by Dave Williams | Aug 1, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – A Georgia man and a co-defendant from Africa have been sentenced to prison for committing a string of armed robberies in the Atlanta area.
Kujo Duako, 35, of Ghana was sentenced Wednesday to 16 years in prison followed by three years of supervised release.
Sammetrius Brooks, 33, of Atlanta, had been sentenced previously to 11 years and nine months behind bars, also with three years of supervised release after completing his prison term.
According to Ryan Buchanan, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, the two were involved in a crime spree on Oct. 29 and Oct. 30, 2018, beginning with the botched robbery of a CVS store in the city of South Fulton.
During the robbery, Duako pointed a semi-automatic handgun at an employee and ordered her to walk to the cash register. Rather than comply, the clerk fled to the rear of the store and set off a fire alarm, thwarting the robbery.
Later that day, Duako robbed a Dollar General store in South Fulton, stealing both cash and personal property from an employee on duty.
On the following day, Brooks joined as Duako’s getaway driver, and the two robbed five businesses in South Fulton, Riverdale, College Park, and Fairburn, including a restaurant and bank.
Less than two hours after the bank robbery, law enforcement officers recovered more than $9,000 in cash in Duako’s possession as well as several cellphones stolen from a Sprint store.
“Duako and Brooks terrorized innocent victims and jeopardized their lives during this violent crime spree,” Buchanan said Thursday. “The men’s arrest and prosecution are an example of the excellent coordination that the FBI and our district’s local law enforcement partners routinely leverage to remove dangerous criminals from our communities.”
The case was part of Project Safe Neighborhoods, a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement to reduce violent crime and gun violence. In this instance, the Justice Department worked with the FBI, Clayton County Police Department, Clayton County Sheriff’s Office, South Fulton Police Department, and Riverdale Police Department.
by Dave Williams | Aug 1, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., introduced legislation Thursday that would provide federal funding to build 3 million new homes across the country and reduce rents by an average of 10%.
The bill, to be financed through changes to the federal estate tax, is aimed at filling a housing supply shortage that dates back to the Great Recession more than a decade ago.
“This bill aims to be transformational,” Warnock said Thursday. “The issue is too big to go small.”
In Georgia, 23% of renter households are made up of low-income individuals and families. There is an estimated shortage of 200,000 rental homes affordable for low-income renters.
The American Housing and Economic Mobility Act would create incentives for local governments to eliminate unnecessary land-use restrictions that drive up costs.
“These housing covenants, many of them old, have stayed in place,” Warnock said. “What we’re aiming to do is incentivize local communities to remove these unnecessary barriers.”
Earlier this week, Warnock joined forces with Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, to introduce related legislation to improve military housing.
“The housing crisis is a multi-faceted issue that must be attacked from different directions,” Warnock said.
Warnock grew up in public housing in Savannah and rose to become senior pastor at Atlanta’s historic Ebenezer Baptist Church before being elected to the Senate.
“This is not just a policy issue for me,” Warnock said. “This is personal.”
A companion to the housing bill Warnock introduced Thursday is being sponsored in the U.S. House of Representatives by Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo.
by Dave Williams | Aug 1, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – A newly formed state Senate committee will look to ensure that female athletes have the right to participate on an even basis with their males counterparts.
Republican Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, the Senate’s presiding officer, announced Thursday the creation of the Georgia Senate Special Committee on the Protection of Women’s Sports.
“We will not stand idly by while radical politicians, athletic associations, schools, and higher education institutions push policies threatening this right,” Jones said. “I created this committee to investigate policies athletic associations, schools, colleges, and universities have implemented regarding the protection of women’s sports.”
State policy makers already have been active on the issue. The Georgia High School Athletic Association’s executive committee voted two years ago to ban transgender athletes from participating on school sports teams that align with their gender identity rather than their birth gender.
The committee acted after the General Assembly’s Republican majorities passed election-year legislation authorizing the association to impose the transgender athletes ban.
Supporters argued that allowing transgender males to compete in girls’ sports gives them an unfair advantage over girls born female because transgender males tend to possess both greater strength and speed.
Legislative Democrats, transgender students and their parents countered that the policy discriminates against a group of students who already are victims of prejudice. They cited above-average suicide rates among transgender teens.
The new committee will include seven Republicans and two Democrats. The panel will have until Dec. 15 to issue findings and recommendations.
