Black churches go green

– August 16, 2023 –

Good morning.

A year after the Inflation Reduction Act made funding for alternative energy projects more readily available to nonprofits, Black churches in Georgia are considering how to make solar panels and EV chargers work for them. And just a few weeks after we fact checked U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter on right whales, he’s repeated some of the same exaggerated claims. Read on for these updates.

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Black churches go green

Today marks the first anniversary of the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, legislation that includes an investment of $369 billion on climate-related issues. In Georgia, the act is credited with helping the state attract investment in battery and electric vehicle factories — including the Hyundai metaplant in Bryan County — that when built out will support more than 16,000 jobs.

Last week, an historic Black church in downtown Savannah announced how it and other Black churches are tapping into the Inflation Reduction Act, too, The Current’s Mary Landers reports. Previously, only homeowners and businesses with some tax liability could claim tax credits when installing solar panels, wind turbines or energy conservation measures like insulation. But the IRA allows non-taxable entities to take advantage of the credits. First African Baptist Church in Savannah is among the first of a planned 100 Black churches in Georgia to evaluate how its congregation can make use of low-energy lighting, solar panels and EV chargers.

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Revisiting whale facts

The Brunswick News reported that U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter doubled down Monday on a bill he introduced in June to thwart a proposed expansion of ship speed limits meant to protect the estimated 340 north Atlantic right whales that remain. In doing so, he reiterated some dubious claims previously fact-checked by The Current.

Right whales, the Georgia state marine mammal, are special to Georgia because the females migrate here in the winter to give birth.

Vessel strikes are a leading cause of right whale injury and death. To address them, NOAA Fisheries proposed expanding its speed rule to include vessels 35 feet or longer rather than the current 65 or over.

Carter did not invite The Current to his Monday press conference in Brunswick. The Brunswick News reported that “Carter claimed the new rule would essentially kill the fishing industry for five months out of the year, including charter and recreational ocean fishing.” But The Current’s fact check showed the Congressman exaggerated the rule’s effect on recreational fishing by basing his numbers on boats of all sizes across the entire state. Carter also repeated his claim that the chance of a boat hitting a whale was one in a million. But that’s the risk for the boat; the risk for the whales is greater.

Georgia Ports Authority Chief Administrative Officer Jamie McCurry joined Carter at the press conference. In a September 2022 letter to NOAA, GPA requested that navigational channels be exempted from the speed rule to allow pilot boats to continue operating as normal. Carter’s bill does not include this exemption. Instead it delays enacting the proposed rule until systems are developed and deployed to monitor whale movements. Scientists say such real-time monitoring is not ready yet.

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Calls to cut ‘dirty’ power

Georgia environmental groups lined up behind a proposed EPA rule to slash pollution from the country’s “dirtiest” power plants, the Georgia Recorder’s Stanley Dunlap reports. The rule would regulate power plants operated by Georgia Power and other utilities at facilities where coal and oil is burned to generate electricity. It’s designed to reduce carbon pollution over a 14-year span by 617 million metric tons, roughly half the amount emitted by cars in the U.S. 

Public comment on the rule closed last week, but not before it garnered more than a million comments, some from utilities questioning the proposed speed of the cleanup.

Georgia Power has lowered its carbon footprint over the last couple decades. Since 2007, Georgia Power’s carbon emissions have decreased by 60% and the company has reduced other emissions by more than 95% since 1990.

In a report issued last week, the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy noted that while Georgia Power’s parent, Southern Company, has been on a path of declining emissions, that trend doesn’t look like it will continue for long.

“There is a worrisome flattening of emissions after 2030 that will make it difficult for Southern Company to achieve zero emissions by 2050,” the report concludes. That’s because Southern Company replaced much of its coal with natural gas, doubling gas use from 2010 to 2021.

“The utilities’ continued reliance on gas hampers reductions in emission intensity from increased solar and nuclear,” SACE concludes.

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Also noted

•  A beekeeper in Savannah earlier this month found an unusual hornet and reported it to agriculture officials who identified it as a yellow-legged hornet. The non-native hornet could threaten honey production, native pollinators, and Georgia agriculture more generally, the Georgia Department of Agriculture reports. If you believe you have seen a yellow-legged hornet in your area, complete this online reporting form.

• The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region IV honored an industrial site in Savannah with its Phoenix award for “brownfields excellence.” The environmental clean-up of Seapoint Industrial Terminal, the former Tronox/Kerr-McGee site, is the largest environmental remediation project by area since the start of the Georgia Brownfield Program.

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If you have feedback, questions, concerns, or just like what you see, let us know at thecurrentga@gmail.com.

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