Only a few days ago, you felt the ground shift as the U.S. Supreme Court declared a key section of the Voting Rights Act to be outdated. The earth shook again when the same high court decided federal opposition to gay marriage was unconstitutional.
Another revolution — this one Georgia-specific — has been scheduled for Thursday. There’s no need to pull your Richter scale off the shelf again. This will have more the feel of a light bulb suddenly switched on.
Georgia Republicans have found a place for solar power in their vocabulary. A respected, positive place.
This week, the five-member, all-Republican state Public Service Commission will approve a 20-year plan for Georgia Power, the largest monopoly under its supervision. A utility that has not one, but two nuclear reactors under construction.
When the company proposed its future plans a few months ago, Georgia Power officials made no new room for solar power. But PSC member Lauren “Bubba” McDonald intends to propose a requirement that Georgia Power add 525 megawatts of solar generating capacity, to be developed within the next few years.
“I can’t say that I have the votes in hand,” McDonald said last week. “I feel comfortable with my proposal.”
Georgia Power is at least conceding that McDonald may have the three votes he needs. In a preliminary agreement recently hammered out with the utility board’s staff, Georgia Power acknowledged that the PSC has the authority to require the use of more solar power. The agreement also sketched out the competitive bidding process that would apply.
The argument over solar has been quick but tumultuous. PSC member Stan Wise has fiercely opposed the requirement as an unwise and unprecedented interference in Georgia Power’s operations.
Two of the most politically active tea party groups in the state — the Georgia chapter of Americans For Prosperity and the Atlanta Tea Party Patriots — have split over the issue.
“It’s a hidden tax because it drives up the cost of living for every Georgia family!” shouted an email warning from AFP — urging its members to send electronic protests to utility board members.
“In the course of about 36 hours, I’ve gotten about 500 emails. No other issue has generated even 10 percent of that,” said PSC member Tim Echols, a likely ally of McDonald’s. He’s in his third year on the board.
Atlanta Tea Party Patriots has pushed back. From a missive penned by its two Georgia leaders, Julianne Thompson and Debbie Dooley: “There are some that believe if someone throws around Solyndra or says that solar is a component of Agenda 21, we take action without investigation. We don’t do this.”
The two pointed out that, while some conservatives object to government subsidies for solar projects (none are at work in the Georgia Power matter), they turn a blind eye to the government-guaranteed loans for construction of the two new nuclear generators at Plant Vogtle.
President Barack Obama, strangely enough, has contributed to the conservative case for solar in Georgia — by calling for reduced carbon emissions that will primarily affect new and existing coal-fired generating plants in the U.S. “Well, where does that leave Georgia, with 47 percent of our generation from coal?” McDonald asked, adding that current efforts to shift to natural gas will raise the price of that commodity, too. Echols agrees.
“When the president finishes his war on coal, he’ll come after fracking, and gas prices will go up,” he said. “We have to be ready.”
Echols is just back from a trip to Germany, sponsored by that nation’s government, where he observed the country’s abandonment of nuclear power in favor of what he called a “solar frenzy.”
“They’re committed to an agenda of climate change. At least half of our country is not there. So I just don’t see that we could ever go where they’re at,” Echols said.
In his mind, solar power can serve as a modest hedge against future (and he would argue, excessive) regulation out of Washington. “If we can figure out how to solar on the cheap, and do it in an economical way, I think we can do it without any upward pressure on rates,” Echols said. “That is the job the Legislature gives us. To make sure we’ve got a mix that protects Georgia as best we can.”
Another argument for solar that’s being made — although not one restricted to conservatives — is the matter of jobs. And it should be pointed out: Two PSC members, McDonald and Doug Everett, are up for re-election in 2014.
Georgia Power is on the cusp of closing coal-fired Plant Harlee Branch in Putnam County. The local tax base and numerous Middle Georgia jobs are at stake. There’s no doubt that McDonald would like to see that plant converted to a massive array of solar panels. The infrastructure, with all the transmission lines, is already in place — “paid for by the consumers,” McDonald noted.
If Georgia Power wanted to do that, McDonald said his proposal has the flexibility to allow the utility to keep solar operations in-house.
So call his argument a conservative, but populist one.
“I don’t know what gas prices will be in six years. But I know the sun will come up, and it’s free. It’s not owned by Georgia Power, it’s not owned by Bubba McDonald, it’s not owned by the Public Service Commission,” McDonald said. “It’s free. And to deprive people of the opportunity to take advantage of technology, to me, is wrong.”
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