Energy & Environment
Southern Co. expects new Plant Vogtle delays as PSC weighs tab
The snakebit Plant Vogtle nuclear reactor expansion project is likely to miss another deadline. The Georgia Public Service Commission will soon decide whether to sign off on the $670 million in construction costs over the final six months of 2020, a tab that could eventually get passed onto customer’s electric bills. Georgia Power recently announced […]
Report: Close Georgia Power coal plants faster to avert climate crisis
A new environmental report says that Georgia Power’s parent company and other regional utilities are not doing enough to reduce greenhouse emissions to avoid climate disaster. The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE) analysis projects that over the next decade, the Southern Co., which owns Georgia Power and other major Southeast utilities, will not retire […]
American Lung Association report says air in Georgia cities unhealthy
About four in 10 people nationally are breathing unhealthy air in spite of progress made in curbing pollution, including slight gains here in Georgia, according to a new report. The annual “State of the Air” report, released Wednesday by the American Lung Association, captures a three-year period before the COVID-19 pandemic cleared Atlanta’s roadways of a […]
Georgia environmentalists score scrappy Capitol win on trust funds
Environmental advocates rounded up 500 scrap tires and set to work building a rubber replica of the Gold Dome in the shadow of the real thing as the 2017 legislative session was underway. It was christened the “scrapitol,” complete with painted gold tires sitting atop the carefully constructed mound that conjured up images of the […]
Georgia leaders cheer settlement saving EV battery plant project
One of Georgia’s largest economic development projects can move forward after two South Korean electric vehicle battery companies settled a trade secrets dispute over the weekend. SK Innovation is building a $2.6 billion factory in Commerce, about 70 miles northeast of Atlanta, that will make EV batteries for Ford and Volkswagen cars and employ up […]
Golden Ray to weather third hurricane season since St. Simons shipwreck
Crews are back to work cutting up a section of the shipwrecked Golden Ray that contains thousands of gallons of fuel as the extensive salvage operation in St. Simons Sound seems doomed to stretch into another Atlantic hurricane season. Nearly a year after the U.S. Coast Guard and other members of the salvage team expected […]
Biden banks on offshore wind along East Coast to curb climate change
WASHINGTON — Two wind turbines, each as tall as the Washington Monument, stand sentinel 27 miles off the coast of Virginia, the nation’s first offshore wind installation in federal waters. The pilot project began producing power last October but is just the beginning for an industry poised for massive growth over the next decade. Longtime […]
Feds propose protection for hefty Suwannee alligator snapping turtle
A rare prehistoric looking turtle only found in south Georgia and north Florida might soon gain federal protection after struggling to rebound. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced this week that it has proposed listing the Suwannee alligator snapping turtle as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. The announcement kicks off a public comment period that will wrap […]
Supreme Court win washes over Georgia in decades-long water war
The U.S. Supreme Court handed Georgia a major win Thursday in its long-running water battle with Florida, overturning a 2013 lawsuit that threatened to cap Georgia’s ability to tap into river water that irrigates crops and quenches metro Atlanta’s thirst. “The Supreme Court’s unanimous decision is a resounding victory for Georgia and a vindication of […]
‘Once in a generation investment’: Biden unveils $2T infrastructure plan
Unveiling what he called the boldest domestic spending package since the construction of America’s interstate highway system and the dawning of the space race, President Joe Biden released broad details of a $2 trillion infrastructure package that would rebuild highways and bridges, along with providing funding programs for housing, broadband and schools and increasing U.S. manufacturing jobs […]
Georgia House OKs bill to give farms room to spread sludge, ignore stink
State lawmakers are trying to scale back a law that they passed just last year in hopes of cracking down on the sludge that was being passed off in some areas as a soil aid. But some GOP lawmakers say an oversight got through during the frenzied end of last summer’s mid-pandemic session when they […]
Bill to preempt local bans on natural gas hookups clears Senate
The state Senate has now backed a measure that would block cities and counties from trying to ban natural gas hookups as part of any local plan to reduce their carbon emissions. The 34-to-15 vote Monday in the Senate saw some bipartisan support, but a slight change made to the bill will send it back to the […]