State-Regional News

NEWS - State-Regional News

NEWS - State-Regional News

By Lou Phelps, SBJ Staff

April 2, 2012 – The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued a favorable ruling last week in a lawsuit brought by the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy’s (SACE) seeking

It’s been a two-year pursuit.  SACE has challenged the U.S Department of Energy to release important information related to the $8.3 billion U.S. taxpayer-financed nuclear loan guarantee that was conditionally committed to Southern Company and its utility partners in February 2010 to support efforts to build two new nuclear reactors at the existing Plant Vogtle site near Waynesboro, west of Savannah. 

According to Dr. Stephen A. Smith, executive director of SACE, “though this ruling is long overdue given that we filed our original Freedom of Information Act request with the Department of Energy over two years ago,  we are extremely pleased that the Court essentially ruled in our favor: that the agency has not been able to justify why they have withheld significant amounts of information from the public for an $8.3 billion taxpayer-financed nuclear loan guarantee for Southern Company’s ill-advised pursuit of building two additional nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle. We are particularly pleased that the Court definitively ordered the Department of Energy to release the credit subsidy fee estimates, which essentially represents what “skin” the utilities have had to place into the “game,”’ he explained.

“Unfortunately the Court is giving the agency another chance to justify why equally important information should continue to be withheld from the public. The Department of Energy will have sixty (60) more days to explain why certain terms and conditions of the loan guarantees should not be released. As the Court noted, if the agency chooses to withhold the information, the agency must then show that Southern Company actually provided its own loan guarantee terms. We find it alarming that a utility gets to call the shots with billions of dollars of taxpayer money potentially on the line,” he said.

“We believe it is imperative that until all the terms of the loan guarantee are made transparent, the Department of Energy must not finalize the loan guarantee with Southern Company and its partners in the Vogtle project. Further, we implore Southern Company to step away from this deal, which will do nothing but put U.S. taxpayers at risk should the project default. 

“Again, we are glad the Court agrees with our challenge that the Department of Energy has not made a compelling case but are disappointed that the agency, which has mismanaged the loan guarantee program as cited in many reports by various government agencies, has been given an undeserved, second chance. Instead, the information we requested should be made immediately available to the public,” he concluded.

Southern Alliance for Clean Energy is a nonprofit organization that promotes responsible energy choices that create global warming solutions and ensure clean, safe, and healthy communities throughout the Southeast. www.cleanenergy.org.

NEWS - State-Regional News

SBJ Staff Report

March 19, 2012 – Governor Nathan Deal announced Friday that William James (Jim) Seymour of Brunswick has been appointed to the State Workforce Investment Board.  Seymour has worked with local governments in the coastal region coordinating services for the elderly, health care administration, contracts management and small business management.

He and his wife, Jackie, started and have operated Interior Design Services in Brunswick for the last 27 years. Seymour has also served as president of the Exchange Club of Glynn County and currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Exchange Club of Brunswick.

In other appointments announced last week:

- Mary E. Watkins was appointed to the Georgia Board of Chiropractic Examiners. She is the owner and president of Watkins Chiropractic in Gainesville.  Watkins currently sits as second vice president on the Georgia Chiropractic Association Board of Directors, serves on the Hall County Chamber of Commerce Board and will sit on the Rotary Club of Gainesville Board of Directors for the upcoming term.  Watkins earned her undergraduate degree from Black Hawk College and her doctorate of Chiropractic from Palmer College of Chiropractic, and resides in Gainesville.

- Willie C. Bolton was appointed to the Board of Juvenile Justice. Bolton has been the warden and director of the Athens-Clarke County Department of Corrections for the past 18 years, and has been with the Athens-Clarke County Government for 39 years. He serves on the Athens Regional Medical Center Hospital Authority, Georgia Public Safety Training Center Advisory Board and the Boys Scouts of America Northeast Georgia Council. He is also a member of the Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police, the National Association of Chiefs of Police, the Georgia Prison Wardens Association and the Georgia Peace Officers Association. Bolton earned a bachelor’s degree from Brenau University and a master’s degree from Clark Atlanta University, and resides in Athens.

- Franklin D. Rozier, Jr. was also named to the Board of Juvenile Justice.  He is the State Court judge in Pierce County, and also maintains a private law practice in Blackshear. He has been an attorney for 35 years. He served as a judge advocate in the U.S. Army Reserve and retired as a lieutenant colonel. Rozier earned a bachelor’s degree in History from Mercer University and a law degree from the John Marshall School of Law in Atlanta. He resides in Blackshear.

- Frank K. Bonnell was appointed to the Georgia Soil and Water Conservation Commission, Catoosa County District.  Bonnell is a property manager for Textile Management Associates in Dalton, and was formally a centerline superintendent for the power generation division of Williams Service Group. He is an active supporter of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, United Way and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.  He attended Valdosta State University, and resides in Ringgold.

- Gary E. Jones, was named to the Board of Commissioners of the Peace Officers Annuity Benefit Fund.  Jones is the chief of police in Sardis, and has completed more than 3,000 hours of advanced and specialized law enforcement training. He resides in Grovetown.

- Brent E. Bracewell was appointed to the Board of Public Health. He is the director of joint staff for the Georgia National Guard, and has over 25 years of active duty experience serving in Desert Storm, Bosnia and Iraq. He is a rated pilot and serves at the rank of colonel. Bracewell earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Georgia and a master’s degree from the Army War College. He resides in Sharpsburg.

And, James Roy Lovell was named to the Georgia Soil and Water Conservation Commission, Rabun County District.  Lovell currently serves as the county marshal for Rabun County. Previously, he was employed with Burlington Industries. Lovell served two terms on the Tiger City Council and one term as the magistrate judge. He resides in Clayton.

NEWS - State-Regional News

by Lou Phelps
SBJ Staff

April 2, 2012 - Just weeks after the one-year anniversary of the devastating nuclear disaster in Japan, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) approved a final license for two new reactors at the site of South Carolina Electric & Gas’ nuclear power plant by a 4-1 vote last week.

The company is a subsidiary of SCANA Corp., and is currently operating the V.C. Summer nuclear plant.  NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko was the sole dissenting vote.  Last month, he was the only NRC member to vote against the two new reactors at Plant Vogtle, west of Savannah, that has now received final licensing approval.  Those reactors are owned by Southern Company.

The South Carolina Chapter of the Sierra Club along with the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability and the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE) believe the NRC has once again made a serious mistake by ignoring the lessons learned from the Japan Fukushima nuclear disaster with the South Carolina approvals.

"The aftermath of the unforeseen and unplanned for disaster at Fukushima has left an electric utility bankrupt, a nation in economic crisis, tens of thousands of citizens without homes or land, billions of dollars in liability and generations at risk of cancer and other devastating health problems,” said Susan Corbett, chair of the South Carolina Chapter of the Sierra Club.

“And yet, even when the Chair of our nation's highest nuclear regulatory agency questions the wisdom of rushing forward, utilities plunge ahead in states like Georgia and South Carolina without stopping to consider the alternatives to building new nuclear plants, or the consequences of their actions,” she stated last week.

The two-reactor project of SCE&G is located 25 miles north of Columbia, S.C. at the existing one-reactor V.C. Summer nuclear plant. The proposed reactors are Toshiba-Westinghouse AP1000 designs, which the environmentals term as ‘flawed.’  “A number of public interest groups have highlighted design problems, such as vulnerability to earthquakes for the passive cooling water tank perched on top of the reactor, but concerns were ignored and the design approved by the NRC in December 2011. Since then, nine organizations challenged the validity of the AP1000 design. A lawsuit was filed in February in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit,” Corbett explains.

The South Carolina Chapter of the Sierra Club and Friends of the Earth challenged the V.C. Summer reactor project before the NRC. Beginning in 2008, Friends of the Earth led the fight before the South Carolina Public Service Commission (SC PSC) to license the project and challenged it all the way to the South Carolina Supreme Court, which allowed the SC PSC approval to stand.

“This is now just the second nuclear operating license approved in the U.S. in over 30 years. During the Vogtle affirmation session in February, Chairman Jaczko firmly dissented and said: ‘There are significant safety enhancements that have already been recommended as a result of learning the lessons from Fukushima, and there’s still more work ahead of us…Knowing this, I cannot support issuing this license as if Fukushima had never happened,’” she adds.

“We are concerned that at both the state and federal levels, regulators appear to be more worried about utilities’ and nuclear proponents’ timelines than what is in the best safety and financial interest of the public and consumers. In light of the tragic, still ongoing nuclear disaster in Japan, all parties need to make sure that the lessons learned from Fukushima are fully understood and any and all necessary modifications are implemented if a utility ever moves forward in building a new reactor,” in the opinion of Dr. Stephen A. Smith, executive director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.

The groups argue that the SCE&G and Vogtle proposals have proceeded because both state legislatures passed anti-consumer state laws that allow utilities to collect rates in advance of project completion to pay for financing costs, with no opportunity for refunds if the projects are cancelled. “These schemes essentially shift the risk from big power companies and their shareholders onto the ratepayers—families and businesses. The South Carolina law, the Baseload Review Act, has already resulted in four, annual rate increases to pay for the nuclear project with fifth rate increase on the way,” they add.

“These two projects are likely the only new reactor projects to move forward in the U.S., indicating that the much-touted nuclear renaissance has fizzled in the face of falling prices of natural gas, lower electricity demand and the impacts of the Fukushima nuclear disaster,” said, Tom Clements, Nonproliferation Policy Director with the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability, who is based in Columbia, S.C. and led the fight against approval of the SCE&G nuclear project when with the environmental organization Friends of the Earth. “We believe that many safety issues remain concerning the AP1000 design and that it is very vulnerable in the face of an earthquake, which could destroy the cooling system. Neither Vogtle nor the V.C. Summer project should move forward until the outstanding safety questions about the AP1000 design are resolved.”

SCE&G maintains that the total construction cost of its 55% share of the two-reactor project would be approximately $6.3 billion, with the total cost of the project around $11.45 billion. “The state-owned utility, Santee Cooper, originally had a 45% share in the proposed two-reactor project but is working to reduce their commitment or to get out of the project altogether by seeking other partners,” according to Corbett.