by Dave Williams | Sep 25, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Creative thinking could help offset the growing impact of solar farms in rural Georgia, a state environmental regulator told a state Senate study committee Wednesday at a hearing in Moultrie.
Jim Cooley, director of district operations for the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD), outlined a series of alternatives for siting solar farms in locations other than productive farmland.
Cooley’s list included solar projects on rooftops and at industrial parks, brownfields, closed landfills, closed coal-burning power plants, and reclaimed surface mines.
For example, Georgia Power is currently installing solar panels at Plant McIntosh in Rincon, Cooley said.
“This is a really good idea for reuse,” he said. “You’re already at the power plant.”
While solar farms are eating up far less productive farmland in Georgia than residential encroachment, the number of large solar farms cropping up across the state has raised concerns. The Houston County Commission this month rejected a proposed 4,000-acre solar farm near the state-owned Oakey Woods Wildlife Management Area, citing environmental issues.
The study committee was formed this year to look for steps the state could take to preserve Georgia’s farmland.
Cooley said a particularly creative way solar project developers could help offset the impact of solar farms is to co-locate them with farms, a concept known as “agrovoltaics.” Solar panels could be built on pastureland to shade livestock or on farmland to shade crops, he said.
“It’s a different way of looking at farming and solar as a symbiotic relationship,” he said. “This might be a way to supplement income on a farm to keep the farm going.”
Cooley said the EPD isn’t currently tracking the number of solar farms in Georgia or the acreage they take up, which surprised the study committee members.
“We need to know how many solar acres we’ve got and how many are coming down the line,” said Sen. Russ Goodman, R-Cogdell. “It’s hard to make policy if you don’t have accurate information.”
by Dave Williams | Sep 25, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – For the seventh year in a row, Georgia public-school students outperformed their counterparts in the nation’s public schools on the SAT, the state Department of Education reported Wednesday.
Georgia public-school students recorded a mean score of 1030, 35 points higher than the national average for public-school students of 995.
Georgia’s public-school class of 2024 recorded a mean score of 527 on the Evidence-Based Reading and Writing (ERW) portion of the test and a mean score of 503 on the math portion. That beat the averages of 507 and 488, respectively, for students in the nation’s public schools.
“I am so proud of the class of 2024 and their teachers, parents, families, and the communities who supported them,” state School Superintendent Richard Woods said.
“We continue to see Georgia students outpacing the national average on the SAT and ACT and that’s a testament to the work we’ve done in Georgia to invest in our students’ academic recovery post-pandemic and create opportunities in our public schools that prepare every child for life.”
On the down side, Georgia students’ mean score in 2024 was down from 1045 last year. The national mean score also decreased from 1003 in 2023.
Participation in the SAT in Georgia increased, which sometimes leads to moderate drops in performance. The participation rate of 52% of the class of 2024 who took the test at some point during their high school career was down from 50% last year.
by Dave Williams | Sep 24, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Gov. Brian Kemp declared a state of emergency in Georgia Tuesday with Tropical Storm Helene expected to make landfall along Florida’s Gulf Coast as a Category 3 hurricane Thursday night.
The fast-moving storm is expected to travel northeast into Georgia late Thursday or early Friday, producing damaging winds, four to eight inches of rain, and flooding across significant parts of the state.
Kemp’s executive order calls for deploying up to 500 Georgia National Guard troops to help with preparation, response, and recovery efforts.
Federal rules and regulations limiting operating hours for commercial truck drivers will be suspended to let an uninterrupted supply of goods and services be dispatched to areas in need of assistance.
The executive order also prohibits price gouging on any goods or services needed for preparation, response, and recovery operations, including gasoline and diesel fuel.
The emergency declaration will run through Wednesday, Oct. 2, unless Kemp renews it.
by Dave Williams | Sep 24, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – A group of property owners who stand to lose their land to Sandersville Railroad Co. in an eminent domain proceeding filed a lawsuit Tuesday seeking to overturn a decision allowing the taking.
The Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) voted unanimously early this month to uphold a hearing officer’s recommendation declaring a proposed spur the freight rail line plans to build would be for a legitimate public purpose.
The Institute for Justice (IJ), an organization representing the property owners, argued unsuccessfully that the spur would be used only by a few private companies.
“What Sandersville is proposing is not a public use under the U.S. and Georgia constitutions,” IJ Senior Attorney Bill Maurer said Tuesday. “If a private company can take people’s land for the benefit of just a few private businesses, nobody’s property is safe.”
The case began in March of last year when Sandersville moved to condemn and take land owned by Don and Sally Garrett, which has been in Don Garrett’s family for generations.
In May of last year, the Garretts, Blaine and Diane Smith, and Marvin and Pat Smith teamed up to challenge the condemnation. In July 2023, more property owners joined the suit.
Robert Highsmith, a lawyer representing Sandersville Railroad, argued last month during a hearing before the PSC that eminent domain reform legislation the General Assembly passed in 2006 law states that business conducted by railroads qualifies as a public purpose. Five business owners who plan to use the spur provided testimony to the hearing officer.
The Hanson Spur is expected to generate more than $1.5 million in annual economic benefits for Hancock County and the city of Sparta, Sandersville Railroad wrote in a news release following the Sept. 4 commission vote approving the eminent domain order.
The property owners’ appeal was filed in Fulton County Superior Court.
by Dave Williams | Sep 24, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Former President Donald Trump vowed Tuesday to make the United States a “manufacturing powerhouse” if voters return him to the White House.
At a rally in Savannah devoted primarily to the economy, the Republican nominee for president said he would restore manufacturing jobs through substantial tariffs that would stop foreign countries from enticing U.S. companies and their jobs overseas.
“We’re not going to let that happen,” Trump said as the crowd roared its approval. “Under my leadership, we’re going to take other countries’ jobs.”
Trump said he would boost America’s economy by lowering the corporate tax rate to 15% for companies that locate their manufacturing operations in the U.S. Businesses would be further incentivized through reduced regulations and lower energy costs made possible by stepping up drilling for fossil fuels, he said.
“We have more energy under our feet than any other country,” he said. “I call it liquid gold.”
Voters have consistently told pollsters they trust Trump to handle the economy more than Vice President Kamala Harris, his Democratic opponent. He also has polled better than Harris on the issue of illegal immigration and tied the two issues together on Tuesday.
Trump said economic development won’t be possible without reducing the flow of illegal immigrants over the U.S. border with Mexico. He blamed illegal immigrants and the smuggling of illegal drugs including fentanyl into the country for much of the nation’s crime.
“We have to have a safe country or nobody’s going to want to come here,” he said.
Trump doubled down on claims he and U.S. Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, have made about an influx of Haitian immigrants into the small town of Springfield, Ohio. Even though other Republicans – including Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine – have said the Haitians came to this country legally, Trump called for them to be deported.
“You have to move the people back to the country from which they came,” he said.
Trump sought to bury the hatchet in a long-running feud with Gov. Brian Kemp, who refused to go along with the then-president’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. While Trump supported former Sen. David Perdue’s unsuccessful primary challenge to Kemp two years ago, the governor is backing Trump’s bid to return to office.
“He really has been fantastic,” Trump said.
Trump also vowed to push to end taxes on tips, overtime, and Social Security.
Harris also has promised to end taxes on tips. On Tuesday, the Harris campaign responded to Trump’s speech in Savannah by asserting the higher tariffs he is advocating would cost middle-class taxpayers $4,000 a year.
Trump didn’t raise the issue of abortion during his nearly 90-minute speech. But that didn’t prevent the Harris campaign from bringing it up.
“Donald Trump is coming to Georgia as reports are uncovering the horrific legacy he left behind: women denied care and losing their lives because of the Trump abortion bans,” said Adelaide Bullock, Georgia communications director for the Harris campaign.
While Harris has said Trump would sign a national abortion ban if he’s elected, Trump has countered that he supports the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that left the issue to the states.
