ATLANTA – The state panel in charge of Georgia’s medical marijuana program is opening the search for businesses interested in growing the leaf crop and converting it into cannabis oil.
The Georgia Access to Medical Cannabis Commission voted Monday to release a Request for Proposals (RFP) that will lead to the granting of two “Class 1” licenses and four “Class 2” licenses to grow marijuana indoors and manufacture the oil derived from the plants.
The RFP is based on input from the state attorney general’s office and the Georgia Department of Administrative Services (DOAS).
Starting the licensing process is a major step forward for a program that has been slow to get off the ground since the General Assembly passed legislation in April of last year legalizing the cultivation of marijuana in Georgia, conversion of the leaf into cannabis oil and the sale of the drug to eligible patients.
Although the law took effect in July 2019, the seven members of the commission given the task of overseeing the program weren’t appointed until last November.
The process of developing the RFP has been “tedious,” Dr. Christopher Edwards, principal surgeon at the Atlanta Neurological & Spine Institute and the commission’s chairman, said Monday.
“We just want to keep the patients in the forefront,” Edwards said. “The longer this process goes on, the longer it takes patients to get help.”
Under the medical cannabis legislation, businesses granted Class 1 licenses will be able to grow marijuana in up to 100,000 square feet of space. Class 2 licensees will be limited to no more than 50,000 square feet.
The 2019 bill was a follow-up to legislation the General Assembly passed in 2015 that legalized possession of low-THC cannabis oil in Georgia by patients suffering from certain diseases enrolled in a registry overseen by the state Department of Public Health.
Lawmakers acted after it became apparent that the first law left Georgians with no legal way of obtaining cannabis oil even though they were allowed to possess the drug.
Patients eligible to receive cannabis oil with a doctor’s prescription include those suffering from a wide range of diseases, including seizure disorders and Parkinson’s.
Commission Executive Director Andrew Turnage, appointed by Gov. Brian Kemp last May, said the DOAS is expected to post the RFP on the Georgia Procurement Registry by Wednesday.
An aerial view of Georgia Power’s Plant Scherer (File photo)
ATLANTA – A lawyer for the Sierra Club asked a Fulton County Superior Court judge Monday to prohibit Georgia Power from passing on $525 million in coal ash cleanup costs to its customers.
But lawyers for the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) and Georgia Power argued the Atlanta-based utility fully justified both its cleanup plan and the costs of that work during hearings before the PSC last year.
Robert Jackson, the lawyer representing the Sierra Club, asked Judge Shukura Millender to declare the pollution of groundwater by Georgia Power’s ash ponds at 11 coal-fired power plants “unlawful,” or at least “unreasonable and imprudent.” Such a ruling would disqualify the company from recovering the costs of the cleanup from ratepayers, he said.
“Georgia Power has coal ash sitting in groundwater at plants Bowen, Hammond, Scherer, Wansley and Yates,” Jackson said. “If it had complied with Georgia environmental law, these expensive environmental remediation costs could have been avoided.”
Georgia Power is working on a multi-year plan to close all 29 of its coal ash ponds at the 11 power plants to meet federal regulations for handling coal ash, which contains toxic chemicals that can pollute drinking water supplies. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) cracked down on pollution from ash ponds in 2015 after a massive spill at a plant in Tennessee.
The PSC signed off on Georgia Power’s coal ash cleanup proposals In July 2019 as part of its latest Integrated Resource Plan (IRP), an update of plans for meeting the state’s energy needs the utility submits every three years. The commission then followed up on that vote late last year by incorporating the costs of the cleanup in a rate increase for Georgia Power.
Jackson argued Monday that the PSC decided to allow Georgia Power to pass on those costs to customers without any evidence that they were incurred lawfully or reasonably.
But Dan Walsh, a lawyer representing the PSC, said Georgia Power justified those costs during last year’s proceedings before the commission. In bringing the issue to court, the Sierra Club is essentially seeking to relitigate the case, he said.
“The evidence Georgia Power presented of the costs it would incur … were sufficient to justify permitting cost recovery [from customers],” Walsh said. “By arguing the evidence relied upon by the commission is inadequate, the Sierra Club is asking the court to second guess the commission on the weight it afforded to the evidence.”
Tom Reilly, the lawyer representing Georgia Power, dismissed the Sierra Club’s argument that the company has acted unlawfully in its disposal of coal ash. Neither the EPA nor the Georgia Environmental Protection Division have accused Georgia Power of breaking the law, and there are no pending enforcement actions related to coal ash, he said.
“If the Sierra Club had an issue about the activities being undertaken and whether they were insufficient and improper, it should have made the argument in the IRP,” Reilly said.
Jackson said none of the voluminous testimony filed in last year’s proceedings dealt directly with Georgia Power’s request to make customers pick up the tab for the coal ash cleanup.
“These plans are draft remediation plans for what Georgia Power plans to do when it closes these coal ash ponds,” he said. “None of these documents say anything about whether it’s just or reasonable or prudent to pass these costs on to their ratepayers.”
Judge Millender said she would take the various parties’ arguments under advisement and issue a written ruling.
ATLANTA – Telecom companies are ready and willing to invest tens of millions of dollar extending broadband service into rural Georgia, telecom executives told members of the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) this week.
But they can’t afford to do so unless the PSC rolls back the fees the state’s electric membership cooperatives (EMCs) charge for attaching broadband technology to utility poles, the executives testified during a four-day hearing that wrapped up Friday.
“Building [broadband] networks in rural areas is an expensive proposition in areas where there may be more poles than people,” Jason Gumbs, senior vice president for Comcast in a 10-state region that includes Georgia, said Friday. “Every cost factor … takes on an added importance.
“If Georgia presents itself as a place where we cannot invest because of onerous pole rates, we will have to look at other opportunities in front of us.”
Under legislation the General Assembly passed this year, the PSC must decide how much Georgia’s EMCs will be allowed to charge the telecoms for the critical pole attachments they will need to bring vital broadband connectivity to wide swaths of rural Georgia that are currently unserved or underserved. Commissioners are expected to vote on the issue next month.
The EMCs, which currently are charging about $20 per pole per year for attachments, are asking the PSC to increase that rate to an average of $37.95 per pole, which EMC officials say reflects their costs.
The telecoms want the commission to adopt the much lower rate of $7 per pole set by the Federal Communications Commission, now in effect in states including neighboring North Carolina and close to the rate Georgia Power charges in its service area.
Douglas Frank, regional vice president for Mediacom, which serves customers in 22 states including Georgia, said the $37.95 rate would increase the company’s costs by 83%. Mediacom currently pays $20.77 per pole, he said.
“It is simply not operationally possible … nor a sustainable business practice,” he said.
But under cross-examination, Frank conceded the 38 EMCs that will be affected by the PSC’s decision on pole rates would lose $8.3 million per year were the commission to adopt the FCC rate.
Robert Remar, a lawyer representing the EMCs, suggested the deep-pocketed national telecoms would be better able to absorb a revenue loss than the member-owned EMCs, which would have to pass on their losses directly to customers.
The telecoms are offering significant broadband investments in Georgia. Frank said Mediacom has committed $20 million to $25 million during the next several years in its service area.
Gumbs said Comcast already has begun a $9 million initiative to expand broadband service to nearly 8,000 homes and businesses in Haralson and Carroll counties, starting Dec. 7 in Tallapoosa. It’s part of a planned three-year $27 million investment in 10 Georgia counties, he said.
Gumbs said the $5 million Comcast would save if the PSC adopts the FCC pole rate would be put toward its Georgia broadband plans.
But Remar said there’s no guarantee the telecoms would use the savings from a lower pole attachment rate to expand broadband connectivity in Georgia.
“Even if the commission decides to lower your pole attachment rates, you could decide to invest in another state … some other place where you’d get a better return,” he said.
Several commissioners hinted they may be reluctant to roll back the pole attachment rates because of the potential impact on the EMCs’ 4 million customers.
“The thought of hitting these EMC customers financially with no real guarantees of offsetting that with broadband makes me a little bit nervous,” Commissioner Tim Echols said. “It seems like I’m robbing one to help the other.”
But Gumbs said a lower pole attachment rate would not automatically result in raising EMC customers’ monthly bills.
“We will attach to more poles, which would increase the revenue for the EMCs,” he said. “Electric consumption will also go up. … I don’t see those 4 million Georgians impacted.”
The Georgia Capitol building in Atlanta (Photo by Beau Evans)
ATLANTA – Legislation that would make changes to the municipal annexation process in Georgia, including giving local school systems more input, was prefiled in the General Assembly this week.
Three bills introduced by state Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver would let school districts participate in annexation disputes between cities and counties as well as bond validation hearings.
The measures stem from an annexation dispute between DeKalb County and the city of Brookhaven. A ruling a state arbitration panel issued in September will permit zoning changes allowing the redevelopment of a 27-acre mixed-use project to include a hotel, luxury apartments and office and retail space.
“In my central DeKalb County district and across the state, there is conflict and discussion about the financial impact of annexation efforts on school systems and on local governments,” said Oliver, D-Decatur.
“I want us to have a focused discussion and strengthen the statutes to allow for objections to annexations, review of bond validations with related tax abatement issues and increase transparency for all participants.”
Tom Gehl, director of governmental relations for the Georgia Municipal Association, which represents city governments throughout the state, said he doesn’t object to school systems participating in bond validation hearings.
But he said concerns over the financial impact tax abatements to developers might have on a school district’s tax revenues wouldn’t be addressed by letting school officials take part in annexation disputes.
“Tax abatements and financial incentives are an important tool in economic development,” Gehl said. “Having some guardrails on what types of tax abatements can be offered is a conversation worth having. … [But] a lot of tax abatements happen outside of annexations. The problem [Oliver] is trying to address isn’t just an annexation issue.”
Gehl said the bills also might not resonate with lawmakers across Georgia because most annexation disputes occur between cities and counties in the Atlanta region.
“If you go to Camilla, Tifton or some other place, [annexations] are generally somebody wanting water or sewer … and the counties don’t object,” he said. “This really is more of an issue in DeKalb and some of the metro counties.”
ATLANTA – Georgia’s unemployment rate fell to 4.5% last month, the lowest since the coronavirus pandemic broke out last March, the state Department of Labor reported Thursday.
Joblessness, which hit a record low of 3.1% before the pandemic, has plummeted from an all-time high of 12.6% last April.
“The fact that we have so quickly reduced our unemployment rate to almost pre-pandemic levels demonstrates how strong our economy was prior to the crisis and how we are successfully recovering economically,” Georgia Commissioner of Labor Mark Butler said. “[But] we still have a lot of work to do in order for growth to continue.”
Also on the positive side, the number of initial unemployment claims filed in Georgia last week fell by 4,201 to 19,626. That bucked the national numbers, which rose sharply by 31,000 as some states and municipalities instituted lockdowns due to a surge of COVID-19 cases.
The labor department has paid out nearly $16 billion in state and federal unemployment benefits since last March, including $163 million last week.
Since March 21, the agency has processed just more than 4 million initial unemployment claims, more than the last nine years combined.
The job sector accounting for the most first-time unemployment claims last week was accommodation and food services with 4,155 claims. The health care and social assistance sector was next with 2,863, followed by administrative and support services with 2,258.
More than 162,000 jobs are currently listed on EmployGeorgia. The labor department is working with a number of employers to arrange virtual hiring events across the state. The list includes Robins Air Force Base in Warner Robins; Shaw Industries and Mohawk in Calhoun, Adairsville and Cartersville; and Biolife in Social Circle.
