Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025
Good morning! We have a look this morning at why beach volleyball is raising ire on St. Simons, then a story about how lawmakers are hoping the fourth time is the charm for Okefenokee protection. Finally, we turn to a continuing effort to make sure data centers don’t stick residential ratepayers with higher electric bills.
Questions, tips or concerns? Send me a note at mary.landers@thecurrentga.org
NEWS: ENVIRONMENT
Changes to St. Simons beach scrutinized
Environmental advocates are pushing back against a project that plans to use $3M in state funds to add amenities to St. Simons’ Coast Guard Beach, arguing that the project does not align with the purpose of the Georgia Outdoor Stewardship Act. One action they’d like to spike: flattening a dune to create a beach volleyball court. The Current’s Mary Landers reports.
NEW: ENVIRONMENT
Lawmakers tee up Okefenokee bills again
For the fourth year in a row, Georgia lawmakers have proposed a version of the Okefenokee Protection Act to prevent future mining near the beloved blackwater swamp. Also back this year is a version of legislation that first appeared last year to pause mining in the same area for five years. Supporters say the moratorium would give public and private groups time needed to broker deals that would protect the land in perpetuity. The bills have garnered scores of co-sponsors — 143 signers on the Okefenokee Protection Act by Monday — but it remains to be seen if those numbers will translate to a vote.
NEWS: ENVIRONMENT, GOVERNMENT
Lawmakers advance data center bill
A state senate committee on Tuesday passed a bill that would prohibit Georgia Power from passing on to residential customers the costs of providing electricity to energy-hungry data centers. The bill comes in the wake of six Georgia Power rate increases in less than two years. The bill is needed despite rules recently passed by the Public Service Commission to address the same issue, said energy lawyer and former PSC member Bobby Baker, because the PSC rules are so full of loopholes they’re “essentially worthless.” Dave Williams of Capitol Beat reports.
Just one thing
This week’s tip for personal environmental action comes Jean DeRosa who writes “I have three compost bins so one is always ready with soil. My garbage never smells bad as I don’t eat meat so almost everything goes in the compost bin.”
Send “just one thing” you do as part of your personal environmental action plan to mary.landers@thecurrentga.org. We’ll publish our favorites and credit the contributors.
Also noted
The Georgia Supreme Court has scheduled oral arguments for April 16 in a legal feud over property rights in the Gullah Geechee community of Hogg Hummock on Sapelo Island, as GPB’s Benjamin Payne reports.
Chatham County and Savannah hold two online listening sessions today, Feb. 26 at 9 am. and 5:30 p.m. on “Reviewing Regulations for Resilience: How Our Policies Can Help Us Respond to Sea Level Rise and Climate Change. Click here for more information and to participate.
An unusual visitor was spotted earlier this month in the creek between Sapelo Island and Blackbeard Island National Wildlife Refuge. A South Carolina charter boat captain there videoed a gray seal, a species normally found from the mid-Atlantic to the Baltic Sea. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service staff who manage the refuge also saw it.
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Conservationists challenge project at St. Simons’ Coast Guard Beach
Environmental advocates are opposing a project that plans to use state funds to add amenities to St. Simons’ Coast Guard Beach, citing concerns about the destruction of maritime forests and the leveling of sand dunes.
Lawmakers again propose to protect Okefenokee from mining
Georgia lawmakers have again introduced legislation to protect the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge from mining on nearby Trail Ridge.
Georgia Senate committee passes bill to protect residents from data center costs
Legislation prohibiting Georgia Power from passing on costs of providing electricity to data centers to residential and small business customers has cleared the Senate Regulated Industries Committee, with the bill now awaiting a floor vote.
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