May 11, 2022
Editor’s note: The item regarding Plant Vogtle’s price tag was corrected to indicate the cost of the Vogtle expansion is 30 times greater than the cost of the Savannah Harbor Deepening Project.
Michigan spaceport study
A recent New Yorker article about plans for a spaceport in Michigan touched on themes that sounded familiar from Spaceport Camden. There’s debate in both places about how welcome a spaceport would be and who would benefit from it. The Current’s Mary Landers took a look at a detailed feasibility analysis of the Michigan proposal and asked Spaceport Camden backers and detractors what it means for Coastal Georgia.
U.S. Spaceports as of April 2022 Credit: FAA
Carter on climate
Congressman Buddy Carter, whose district stretches the length of the Georgia coast, sat down with The Current’s Craig Nelson for an interview recently. A question on climate change brought this response, in part: “I believe that it’s cyclical, that it happens cyclically, it happens naturally. I do believe that man has an impact on it. We do need to decrease our carbon emissions.”
Invoking “natural cycles” is what Katharine Hayhoe, an evangelical Christian and a climate scientist who teaches at Texas Tech University and who was recently named chief scientist for The Nature Conservancy, calls a “zombie argument.” It won’t die no matter how many times scientists kill it with facts. She points out that natural cycles can move heat around the globe, making it colder in one area and warmer in another. “Today, however, the entire planet is warming, particularly the oceans; so it isn’t just a natural cycle moving heat around,” she writes in her latest book, “Saving Us.”
Drawdown Georgia
Georgia Climate Project is a non-partisan, state-wide consortium dedicated to improving the understanding of climate change impacts and developing solutions in Georgia. The consortium added the College of Coastal Georgia in Brunswick as its eleventh academic partner recently.
Coastal Georgia joins Emory University, Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Georgia, Agnes Scott College, Columbus State University, Georgia Southern University, Spelman College, Life University, University of North Georgia, and Georgia State University.
What $30 billion gets ya
The addition of two new nuclear reactors to Plant Vogtle is now projected to cost more than $30.3 billion, the Associated Press reported Friday.
The ever increasing price tag is no surprise to anyone paying attention. But it’s still hard to understand how much money that is. A few comparisons may help.
The Savannah Harbor Expansion Project cost about $1 billion, or 1/30 of a Vogtle expansion. It deepened the harbor by 5 feet and is trying to mitigate the harm of that massive rejiggering with a new reservoir and oxygen injection systems, among other items yet to be completed.
Georgia’s state budget for fiscal year 2023 is $30.2 billion, or about one Vogtle expansion.
Last August, PV Magazine asked how much it would cost to replace Vogtle’s new generating capacity with solar panels and batteries. They figured $16.8 billion, a little more than half a Vogtle expansion.
Georgia Power estimates it will cost $9 billion to close all 29 of its ash ponds at 11 sites of coal-fired power plants across the state. But that only removes toxic ash from 19 of the ponds, leaving the ash to be capped in place in 10 others. So, less than a third of a Vogtle expansion to partially clean up coal ash.
Coal ash question lingers
Speaking of coal ash, the Altamaha Riverkeeper was among the three Georgia environmental groups that asked to intervene in a federal court case on enforcing Environmental Protection Agency rules on closing those coal ash ponds. Capitol Beat’s Dave Williams has more here if you missed it.
If you have feedback, questions, concerns, or just like what you see, let us know at thecurrentga@gmail.com
What a spaceport study in Michigan means for Camden
Feasibility study said Michigan plan to launch one rocket each week would generate annual revenue the same as that of two additional fast-food chain restaurants.
Q&A: U.S. Rep. Earl L. ‘Buddy’ Carter, candidate for U.S. House, District 1
The Republican incumbent representing the 1st District seat in Congress discusses why he wants to be chair of the powerful House Budget Committee, why the CDC is wrong about the pandemic, and the future of the GOP.
Environmental groups petition to intervene in coal ash case
An executive with Georgia Power said last month that ash from four of 10 ponds will continue to be exposed to groundwater after the closures are completed.
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