ATLANTA – A planned commercial spaceport in southeastern Georgia has achieved a major milestone.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a long-anticipated “record of decision” Monday approving a launch site operator license for Spaceport Camden. The license authorizes up to 12 small-vehicle launches per year.
“In the 20th century, Camden County was declared the ‘Gateway to Space,’ ” said Steve Howard, Camden County administrator and project lead for Spaceport Camden, referring to the county’s role as a rocket testing location and alternative launch site for the Apollo program.
“With this license, we have retained that title again in the 21st century. … Georgia is part of the new space race, and we will become one of the leaders.”
“It has been long time coming, but Camden County is immensely proud of this accomplishment,” added Camden County Commission Chairman Gary Blount. “With this license … we are no longer a one-dimensional economy solely reliant on the brave sailors and contractors at Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay for economic prosperity.”
Camden County officials and other backers of Spaceport Camden – including many of Georgia’s top political leaders – have been working for more than five years to get the project off the ground.
They have pitched Spaceport Camden as an economic engine that ultimately could create up to 2,000 jobs and help sway a new generation of aerospace engineers, many graduates of Georgia Tech, to remain in the state while pursuing their careers.
But the project has been beset by either concerns or outright opposition from a host of parties, including property owners on Little Cumberland Island – which lies in the path of the planned launches – environmental groups, the National Park Service – which operates the Cumberland Island National Seashore – and the U.S. Navy.
Among those expressing reservations is U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., who asked the FAA in a letter last May to slow down its review of the project.
Among other things, the letter cited a decision to change the project’s design from launching medium-to-large rockets to small rockets.
The county’s revised application revealed that 20% of small rockets launched from Spaceport Camden would likely fail, a much larger failure rate than would occur with medium-to-large rockets, Warnock wrote.
“Virtually from the start, the FAA’s review of Spaceport Camden has been fraught with factual mistakes and legal errors,” said Brian Gist, senior attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center. “We will carefully review the FAA’s decision to ensure that it fully complies with all applicable laws.”
Some of Spaceport Camden’s opponents have gone to court seeking an injunction to stop the project until a voter referendum can be held on whether the county can buy the property where the spaceport would be located. A ruling could come early next year.
Despite granting the operator license, the FAA still must approve each individual launch separately.
George Michael Troup and his brother Robert built Rosemont Plantation in the early 1800s.
ATLANTA – The Georgia Board of Natural Resources voted Tuesday to accept the donation of more than 3,000 acres of pristine habitat in Treutlen County.
The Rosemont Plantation was built in the early 1800s by brothers George Michael and Robert Troup. George Michael Troup served as both a governor and U.S. senator from Georgia.
The land fronts the Oconee River downstream from the Riverbend Wildlife Management Area and is home to both longleaf pines and a gopher tortoise population.
The property was recently appraised at more than $3.9 million.
The state Department of Natural Resources has been working with the owner for the last couple of years to acquire the property.
The proposed donation still must go before the State Properties Commission before it can be finalized.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – Drug prices andwho controls them could be back before the General Assembly this winter, as consumer advocates and pharmacy benefit managers remain at odds over issues such as drug price transparency.
Gov. Brian Kemp signed legislation last year tightening rules on third-party companies that play a role in negotiating pharmaceutical drug prices between insurers and local pharmacies in Georgia.
The bill Kemp signed into law requires companies called pharmacy benefits managers (PBMs) to set drug prices within a national average, a move aimed at reining in excessively high prescription prices.
PBMs act as go-betweens for prescribers and insurance companies that contract with health insurers to negotiate lower drug prices for patients. But critics have long accused them of muddying the process, prompting increases in drug prices and delays in filling prescriptions.
Now, pharmacies such as CVS are worried Georgia lawmakers, when they reconvene in January, may take further action on drug pricing.
“We are aware of efforts by some legislators to further explore drug pricing transparency,” said Leanne Gassaway, vice president of state government affairs at CVS Health. “Given the state’s enactment of PBM-related legislation nearly every year over the past decade, we would welcome the legislature to closely examine drug manufacturers’ role in drug pricing, including a notable lack of transparency in setting and increasing list prices.”
Ryan Hamilton, an associate professor at Emory Goizueta Business School, said price transparency typically causes drug prices to fall.
“The easier it is for customers to acquire price information, the greater the need for manufacturers to compete,” he said. “But the prescription pharmaceutical industry in the U.S. is so heavily regulated, those general rules may not apply.”
Hamilton said PBMs serve as an interface between drug manufacturers and pharmacies.
“Any measures to cut out middlemen from the equation are naturally going to cause protests,” he said.
“PBMs support and practice actionable transparency that enables patients, their physicians, and health plan sponsors in Georgia to make informed decisions on how best to manage prescription drug costs and empowers Georgia’s policymakers with the information they need to make the right policy decisions to lower drug costs for all patients,” said the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association, an organization which represents PBMs. “In Georgia, PBMs will save health plan sponsors and patients nearly $30 billion on prescription drug costs.”
Laura Colbert, executive director of Georgians for a Healthy Future, agreed the issues of drug prices and transparency, coupled with the role PBMs play in the equation, will come up again in January.
“Discussions over PBMs have been going on for several years, and the legislature seems pretty fired up over continuing that effort,” Colbert said, explaining that PBMs were formed to help health insurers negotiate better deals with pharmaceutical manufacturers, and then pass those savings along to consumers.
“But realistically, it’s hard to know if those savings are actually being passed along,” Colbert said. “Pharmacies and health insurers are buying up PBMs, and it’s become especially hard to see where savings are being accumulated.”
One bill that will definitely carry over into January is House Bill 164, entitled the Prescription Drug Consumer Financial Protection Act. It would require health insurers to pass along no less than 80% of all prescription drug rebates to their enrollees.
“That 80% is consistent with what the Affordable Care Act requires,” Colbert said.
“We’ve been having some very fruitful discussions and we’re anticipating a very active legislative session,” said Gassaway, who is tackling a tough public relations challenge: convincing lawmakers and their constituents that making drug prices openly and readily available to the general public will, in fact, lead to higher drug prices.
“If we just put the prices out in the public domain, that information will be used to further manipulate the market,” she said. “We are not opposed to showing our clients how much we save them on drugs. We try to push that price down but putting a specific discount out into the public domain will only cause prices to rise.
“We have some other, great ideas on how to make that information available to patients in more useful ways.”
One of CVS Health’s ideas is making drug prices available, in real time, to doctors when they’re prescribing medications. “We have the ability to make that information available at the physicians’ fingertips, to determine the best prices,” Gassaway said. “That kind of information – such as cost-sharing alternatives – would be really helpful to patients.”
Gassaway touts CVS’ member-specific benefit information, which includes plan information, deductibles and other data that, the company said, lets health-care providers and CVS members know if a specific drug is covered as well as the member’s cost.
CVS said Georgia has some of the strictest PBM laws in the country. PBMs are now required to publicly report how close to a national average many health plans’ drug prices were negotiated. The state is also requiring PBMs to give state officials some confidential information on rebates and other negotiating tools.
PBMs are also now required to submit to new audits by the state Department of Community Health as well as requirements for publishing data on prescription prices online. They are also required to offer full rebates to health plans that are typically given by drug makers, rather than pocketing a portion.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – The state of Georgia has given the green light to plans to build a commercial spaceport in southeastern Georgia.
In a letter dated Thursday, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources (DNR) agreed with officials from Camden County that no insurmountable environmental concerns stand in the way of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issuing an operator license for Spaceport Camden.
The go-ahead from the DNR marks a major step toward making the project a reality.
“With DNR’s concurrence and the release of the Final Environmental Impact Statement by the FAA, regulators at all levels of government have given Spaceport Camden a thorough review and found it consistent with state and federal environmental regulations,” Camden County Commission Chairman Gary Blount said Friday.
“For over 50 years, nature and space activities have coexisted at other spaceports. We aim for that same type harmonious relationship at Spaceport Camden! We look forward to a final decision from the FAA on our application later this month.”
Supporters are counting on Spaceport Camden to create up to 2,000 jobs and help convince the next generation of aerospace engineers, many of whom graduate from Georgia Tech, to stay in Georgia. The project has the backing of Gov. Brian Kemp and the state’s congressional delegation.
The DNR letter cited a series of steps Camden County has agreed to take to minimize environmental damage associated with commercial satellite launches. For one thing, the state agency cited the county’s decision to launch only small rockets from the site rather than medium-to-large rockets, which will reduce the “debris dispersion radius” and decrease the area to be closed to the public before and during launches.
The county also agreed to use “turtle-friendly” lighting to avoid disturbing nesting sea turtles, work with the DNR to limit launches during bird-nesting season and limit closings of public waterways during weekends and holidays, and during organized fishing tournaments.
Such provisions don’t go nearly far enough, said Dick Parker, one of a group of property owners on nearby Little Cumberland Island who oppose Spaceport Camden.
“Georgia DNR is giving Spaceport Camden permission to use more than 2,700 pristine acres of state-owned salt marsh, tidal creeks, and the Satilla River for debris dispersion, allowing exploding rockets and fuel to fall into the marsh, creeks, and river,” he said. “It’s hardly different from letting someone back a dump truck up to the marsh and empty their trash.”
Parker also pointed to the potential rocket-failure rate of up to 20% Camden County officials projected in their license application.
“With plans for 12 launches per year, that’s more than two failures every year,” he said. “Hundreds of gallons of fuel and hundreds of rocket parts will penetrate the soft marsh mud and pollute the tidal creeks with each failure.”
The Georgia Capitol building in Atlanta (Photo by Beau Evans)
ATLANTA – The Georgia House and Senate committees in charge of drawing new congressional and legislative district lines this year heard an earful Tuesday from activists calling for fairness in a process that is typically highly partisan.
“As communities become more diverse, it is critical that district maps reflect that,” Michelle Zuluaga of the group Latinos for Democracy, told lawmakers during the first of 11 public hearings to be held across the state this summer and fall. “We want maps that will unite our state, not divide our communities.”
The General Assembly draws new district boundaries every 10 years following the latest U.S. census to reflect population shifts that have occurred during the last decade. While redistricting usually takes place during the late summer or early fall, the process isn’t expected until later in the fall because the COVID-19 pandemic has delayed the release of census data.
In Georgia, the party in control of the legislature historically has drawn maps giving it the best chance to maintain or build on its majorities. Democrats were in charge of redistricting through 2001, but in 2011 and again this year, Republicans are in the driver’s seat.
Lawmakers will approve new maps for Georgia’s 14 U.S. House districts, 180 state House districts and 56 Georgia Senate districts.
During Tuesday’s virtual hearing, several speakers argued that Georgia should take power over redistricting away from the General Assembly and put it in the hands of an independent commission, as has been done in some other states.
But more complained that the process thus far is lacking transparency and, as a result, isn’t giving Georgia citizens an adequate opportunity for input.
“It is crucial to a fair and functioning democracy that the process not cut out public participation,” Rebecca DeHart, CEO of the nonprofit Fair Count, said during a news conference before the hearing sponsored by a coalition of progressive groups and fair districting advocates.
State Senate Minority Leader Gloria Butler noted that Georgia has experienced significant demographic shifts since the 2011 redistricting, including a 40% increase in its Asian-American population, a 26% rise in Latinos and a 14% increase in the Black population.
“These maps must reflect the changing face of Georgia and the need for historically disenfranchised voters to have a voice,” said Butler, D-Stone Mountain.
Sen. John Kennedy, R-Macon, chairman of the Senate Reapportionment and Redistricting Committee, promised to keep the lines of communication open.
“We are committed to an open, redistricting process,” he said. “We want to hear from everyone.”
Rep. Bonnie Rich, R-Suwanee, chairman of the House Legislative & Congressional Reapportionment Committee, announced that future hearings will be held in Atlanta, Albany, Augusta, Athens, Brunswick, Columbus, Cumming, Dalton and Macon.
