An aerial view of Georgia Power’s Plant Scherer (File photo)
ATLANTA – The Sierra Club filed an appeal Friday to a court decision upholding Georgia Power Co.’s plan to collect from customers $525 million in coal ash pond closure costs.
The state Public Service Commission (PSC) gave the Atlanta-based utility permission to pass along those costs as part of Georgia Power’s 2019 rate case. A Fulton County Superior Court judge upheld the commission’s decision late last year.
Georgia Power is spending an estimated $8.1 billion on a multi-year plan to close all 29 of its ash ponds located at 11 coal-burning power plants across the state to comply with federal regulations. The utility plans to excavate and remove the ash from 19 ponds and close the other 10 ponds in place.
Coal ash contains contaminants including mercury, cadmium and arsenic that can pollute groundwater and drinking water as well as air.
“Georgia power customers have already paid for the coal being burned – both with their pocketbooks and with their health,” said David Rogers, Southeast deputy regional director for the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign. “They shouldn’t have to foot the bill for Georgia Power’s bad business decision decades ago to not properly dispose of this toxic coal ash.”
In a brief submitted to the Georgia Court of Appeals, the Sierra Club argues that Georgia Power failed to explain in the rate case how it would spend the $525 million it requested.
The brief also complains that the PSC approved Georgia Power’s proposal even though the state Environmental Protection Division has yet to issue permits for the ponds slated to be closed.
The costs of cleaning up around 92 million tons of coal ash across Georgia would go up if the PSC later requires the utility to excavate all of the ponds and store the ash in lined landfills, the Sierra Club asserts.
Georgia Power issued the following statement on the case:
“The issue of cost recovery was thoroughly discussed and evaluated through Georgia’s open and transparent regulatory process with the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC), and the PSC’s decision was affirmed by the Superior Court of Fulton County.
“Georgia Power took early action to quickly and safely begin closing all of our ash ponds, and our closure plans fully comply with the federal Coal Combustion Residuals (CCR) rule as well as the more stringent requirements of the state CCR rule. We strongly disagree with any claims to the contrary.”
The Republican-controlled General Assembly declined to take up legislation introduced by minority Democrats during the recently concluded session requiring coal ash to be stored in lined landfills.
A bill tightening monitoring requirements for coal ash made it through the Georgia House of Representatives but died in the state Senate.
ATLANTA – Nearly 400,000 unemployed Georgians who filed claims with the state Department of Labor last year at this time are going to have refile with the agency to continue receiving benefits.
The coronavirus pandemic began to gather serious momentum in Georgia at this time a year ago, forcing businesses to close their doors and lay off employees. The initial wave of jobless Georgians who filed claims back then are bumping up against a 52-week benefit limit.
“This was the week last year where we saw the biggest spike in UI (Unemployment Insurance) claims,” state Commissioner of Labor Mark Butler said Thursday. “The increase in claims this year is not as severe as we encountered in 2020, but the numbers are still substantially elevated from claims numbers prior to the pandemic.”
While the number of unemployed Georgians filing first-time claims last week declined by 5,659 from the previous week, the labor department received 33,623 initial claims during the week.
The agency has processed more than 4.6 million unemployment claims since COVID-19 first took hold in Georgia in March of last year, more than during the last nine years combined prior to the pandemic.
The job sector accounting for the most claims in Georgia last week by far was accommodation and food services with 12,202 claims. The administrative and support services job sector was next with 3,428 claims, followed by manufacturing with 2,691.
Butler said unemployed Georgians who need to refile claims because they have reached the end of the 52-week period allowed for benefits must report any additional work history, including temporary, part-time or self-employment work.
The labor department has posted more than 226,000 job openings online at https://employgeorgia.com for Georgians to access. The agency offers online resources for finding a job, building a resume and assisting with other reemployment needs.
A new study found Georgia Tech the best value among the state’s public and private universities.
ATLANTA – Georgia Tech provides the best value among the Peach State’s public and private universities, according to a new study by a New York-based financial technology company.
The Atlanta school scored a college education value index of 83.71, well above the second-highest score of 57.90 posted by the University of Georgia, the report by SmartAsset found.
The scores were based on factors including student living and tuition costs, student retention rates, the average starting salary of graduates and the availability of scholarships and grants.
The main category that separated Georgia Tech from the rest of the pack was the average starting salary of $74,500 for Tech graduates.
Closest to that figure was $63,500, the average starting salary for graduates of Atlanta’s Emory University. However, Emory’s tuition of $51,306 per year topped the list, accounting for the school placing third on the SmartAsset list.
The University of Georgia’s second-place showing among the 10 schools listed in the report was attributable to the average starting salary for UGA graduates – $55,700, behind only Georgia Tech and Emory – combined with its reasonable tuition and student living costs.
Not surprisingly, the private universities listed – Emory, Oglethorpe University and Mercer University – charge the highest tuitions. As a result, they also offer the largest scholarships and grants, partly offsetting the costs of attending those schools.
Besides Georgia Tech and UGA, Georgia State University scored highest among the public universities, placing fourth on the list just ahead of Oglethorpe.
ATLANTA – President Joe Biden’s $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan would provide an overdue fix to deteriorating highways while ramping up investment in modern transit including high-speed rail, three members of Georgia’s congressional delegation said Wednesday.
Freshman Democratic U.S. Reps. Carolyn Bourdeaux of Suwanee and Nikema Williams of Atlanta and veteran Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Stone Mountain addressed an online roundtable of state and regional transportation agency heads and metro-Atlanta local elected officials. All three are members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
The bill, which Biden unveiled last week, calls for repairing and upgrading the nation’s roads, bridges and transit systems, but would also include other infrastructure needs like broadband, water and wastewater projects.
It would move well past rebuilding the interstate highway system begun by President Dwight Eisenhower in the 1950s, said Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., the transportation committee’s chairman, who addressed the group at the start of the discussion.
“We’re not doing Eisenhower 8.0,” he said. “We’re moving into the 21st century with our infrastructure.”
DeFazio said the legislation would create lots of good paying union jobs, more than enough to make up for the jobs lost when Biden canceled the controversial Keystone Pipeline.
In fact, DeFazio cited a report from Moody’s Investors Service that predicted a return of $1.50 for every $1 the federal government spends on infrastructure improvements.
The bill faces an uphill battle in Congress. While progressive Democrats are urging an even bigger infrastructure package, Republicans are digging in to oppose the legislation because it would be paid for with higher taxes on corporations.
Johnson said the U.S. can’t afford not to spend the money.
“We should not be 13th in the world investing in our infrastructure,” he said. “We have to have a government willing to make the initial investments.”
Williams said her vision for transportation is centered around providing equity by revitalizing transit stations in low-income communities to attract economic development.
MARTA is doing just that with a $50 million upgrade of the Bankhead rail station in conjunction with a planned 90-acre Microsoft campus. The fiscal 2022 state budget the General Assembly adopted last week put $6 million toward the project.
“We’re really aligned with the initiative the [House] committee and the president are putting together,” said Jeff Parker, MARTA’s general manager and CEO.
Bourdeaux said chronic traffic congestion in metro Atlanta is hurting economic development in the region. More transit options would go a long way toward solving the problem, she said.
“We do have to widen roads,” Bourdeaux said. “[But] all of us are interested in transit and new ways to do things.”
ATLANTA – When the dust settled from this year’s General Assembly session, environmental advocates were looking at some success but mostly disappointments.
Lawmakers finally voted to protect state trust funds for environmental cleanup activities after years of failed efforts.
But two bills that passed the General Assembly would prohibit local governments from regulating poultry plant processing wastes or adopting building codes based on the source of energy to be used.
The trust fund legislation follows a constitutional amendment Georgia voters ratified overwhelmingly last November requiring all revenues the state’s dedicated trust funds collect to remain inside those programs rather than be diverted into the general fund budget.
The late Georgia Rep. Jay Powell, R-Camilla, who died in November 2019, championed the constitutional amendment for years to prevent Georgia governors and legislative leaders from raiding the state’s Solid Waste and Hazardous Waste trust funds during economic downturns when money is tight.
While Powell had those two environmental trust funds in mind, the final version of House Bill 511 added other trust funds to the protected list, including the
State Children’s Trust Fund, which goes to the Georgia Division of Family and Children Services.
Wildlife Endowment Trust Fund, a tax on hunting and fishing licenses that supports state wildlife programs.
Georgia Trauma Care Network, which funds trauma care services through a fine on “super speeders.”
Transportation Trust Fund, which supports road projects through the state’s motor fuels tax.
Georgia Agricultural Trust Fund, which goes toward marketing the state’s farm products and state-run farmers’ markets.
Fireworks Trust Fund, a sales tax on fireworks that goes toward trauma care and firefighter training.
Georgia Transit Trust Fund, a per-ride tax on ride-sharing services that helps fund public transit improvements.
“When we in this General Assembly create and pass a dedicated fee to go to a certain purpose … it should go to the purpose it was intended for,” Rep. Bert Reeves, R-Marietta, the bill’s chief sponsor, said during a committee hearing on the measure.
The constitutional amendment ratified last fall includes a 10-year sunset date to give lawmakers a chance to make sure the services each trust fund pays for are still needed.
It allows governors and legislatures to suspend the dedication of trust fund revenues during economic emergencies to free up those funds for general spending needs.
Also, the total amount dedicated to the trust funds during a given fiscal year may not exceed 1% of the state’s budget from the previous fiscal year.
While celebrating the win on trust funds, environmental groups and minority Democrats criticized two “preemption” bills the Republican-controlled General Assembly passed during the last two days of this year’s legislative session.
One of the measures prohibits local governments from regulating poultry processing plant wastes farmers spread on their fields as fertilizer.
The legislation was spurred by complaints from residents in several Northeast Georgia counties of foul odors emanating from farm fields.
Rep. Mary Frances Williams, D-Marietta, said waste being spread on the fields that is supposed to be limited to liquid but sometimes contains byproducts, including chicken carcasses.
“The smell is awful,” she said. “It’s been a problem people have really complained about.”
But Sen. Tyler Harper, R-Ocilla, the bill’s chief sponsor, said a late change the Georgia House of Representatives added to the measure requiring farmers to submit a nutrient management plan should give the state the tools to go after violators.
“It ensures those that are bad actors get their act together and do it right,” he said.
The other preemption bill stems from actions a handful of cities in other states have taken requiring builders to use only renewable sources of energy to power new commercial and residential buildings.
Republicans pitched the legislation as giving home- and business owners freedom to choose how they want to power their properties without government interference.
“Many homes in my district are warmed by petroleum gas,” Rep. Beth Camp, R-Concord, said during a committee debate on the bill. “If a municipality makes a decision to terminate a form of energy, they’re telling people what they can and can’t do in their homes.”
But opponents said the bill essentially was a solution looking for a problem. While Georgia cities including Atlanta, Athens and Savannah, have set goals for reducing reliance on fossil fuels, none have banned gas.
“Nobody’s going to prohibit a gas hookup,” said Neill Herring, a lobbyist for the Georgia chapter of the Sierra Club. “The bill was just a showboat.”
Environmental advocates also were disappointed with the lack of progress on addressing the 29 ash ponds Georgia Power is working to close at 11 of the utility’s coal-burning power plants.
For the second year in a row, Republican legislative leaders wouldn’t give a hearing to Democrats’ bills requiring the installation of liners for the 10 ponds being closed in place to prevent groundwater contamination.
The only legislation that did get a hearing, a proposal to tighten monitoring requirements for coal ash, passed the House but wasn’t taken up in the Senate.
“Toxic coal ash is sitting in groundwater around the state, and yet the Georgia legislature failed to pass legislation addressing this problem,” said Jennette Gayer, director of Atlanta-based Environment Georgia.
But Rep. Vance Smith, R-Pine Mountain, chief sponsor of the monitoring bill, said the solution environmentalists are seeking for coal ash is problematic.
“Liners are good if they never, ever have a default or deterioration,” he said. “But one small pinhole or a crack and you lose what you’re supposed to be doing.”
