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Opinion: Georgians should speak up for common sense
Right now, high-paid influence peddlers are working around the clock under the Gold Dome. Some of what they are “peddling” isn’t in Georgia’s best interest. Quite the opposite. Throughout the General Assembly, you can find evidence where special interests, rather than common sense, are the rule. A good place to observe that is in the […]
Opinion: Make your voice be heard about toxic coal ash
Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick. The clock is ticking down for 2021. The ticking is also for Jan. 10, 2022, the Georgia’s General Assembly’s opening day. I have a request. Make one of your New Year’s resolutions to contact your lawmakers, asking them to support stronger legislation to protect Georgia’s natural resources and environment. Specifically, I […]
Opinion: Time will not heal toxic-coal-ash sore
Shhhhhhhhhhhh. Listen. Do you hear it? Could be clinking cocktail glasses. Could be snickering. Could be both. High up—above everyday Georgians, in Georgia Power and the Southern Company’s ivory towers—I imagine multimillion-dollar executives are celebrating the squeeze they have on our state’s decision-makers. As Sherlock Holmes would say, “They don’t call it Georgia Power for […]
Pogo has some advice for us
A famous opossum and I have two things in common. No, I don’t hang by my tail from tree branches. But cartoonist Walt Kelly’s “Pogo” and I were both born in 1948. And we both have opinions. Who’s Pogo? If you don’t know, you are either too young or you didn’t read the “funny papers” […]
The difference between littering and pollution?
Saturday’s farm chores evolved into a civic-responsibility lesson for our 9-year-old grandson. We were scampering around, checking things off the list. One regular unpleasant task is cleaning up other people’s messes. But rather than fume about it, I decided Bayard could benefit from helping pick up the trash outside our fence, along the highway right-of-way. […]
Should we trust Twin Pines or GRP?
This post was updated 4:30 p.m. June 3 to clarify that Twin Pines and Georgia Renewable Power are owned by the same holding company, Green Fuels Energy. If you have never perched in a canoe and dipped your paddle into the Okefenokee Swamp’s blackwater, you’ve missed an unforgettable adventure. And if you’ve never lived close […]
Georgia’s Gold Dome has a ‘Death Valley,’ too
On the South Carolina side of Lake Hartwell, there’s a giant gridiron edifice that you can see from your boat. Clemson’s stadium is dubbed Death Valley. Indeed, Coach Dabo Sweeney and his orange-clad Tigers have a tradition of laying to rest their opponents. But this time, I’m not talking football. If you jump on I-85 […]
Time to take off the mule blinders
If your great-grandfather was a farmer, he probably didn’t start out plowing with a tractor. More than likely, mules or horses first pulled his implements through the fields. My great-grandpa Ezra McNeal was a mule man. And to keep his mules from being distracted, the bridle had leather flaps on either side of the animal’s […]
Georgia Power: Be a good ‘citizen’ with toxic coal ash
As sure as salt water licks the sands of our Golden Isles, we can expect the state’s largest utility to put a squeeze on Georgia’s Gold Dome. And if mythical sleuth Sherlock Holmes were stalking the halls, he’d say, in his British accent, “They don’t call it Georgia Power for naught.” Very few—if any—pieces of […]
Dink Nesmith: A ‘coal fox’ is in EPA’s ‘henhouse’
Even above the commotion caused by COVID-19, you could hear the EPA’s hooves in the rules-change stampede. The Environmental Protection Agency — despite the public’s concern and comments — was determined to gallop toward weaker regulations for toxic coal ash. We shouldn’t be surprised. Kissing the coal industry and its customers on the mouth was predestined. […]