Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2025
Good morning! If you’re anything like me, your favorite hurricane name is the one that has a strike through it, indicating it’s already kaput. A little more than halfway through storm season, we look today at the updated forecast. Then we turn to what was a sunny outlook for solar rooftops in Georgia until the Trump administration clawed back its funding. We also head out to Wassaw Island for a peek at one of the longest running sea turtle research programs in the country. Finally, we listen in on the University System of Georgia Chancellor’s musings on federal research grants.
Questions, tips or concerns? Send me a note at mary.landers@thecurrentga.org
NEWS:ENVIRONMENT
Heart of hurricane season
With half the Atlantic hurricane season already behind us, but the busiest time likely still to come, forecasters at NOAA’s Hurricane Center updated their seasonal forecast last week. They now expect 13-18 named storms, including the four tropical storms that have already spun up. Forecasters expect 5-9 hurricanes. Likely among them is Erin, a tropical storm expected to mature into a hurricane later this week. It’s too early to predict Erin’s impact, if any, on Georgia or the East Coast, the National Hurricane Center reported Tuesday evening. But it’s not too early to make hurricane preparations. One key task for coastal residents with special needs: Sign up for the Coastal Health District’s Hurricane Registry. Residents who meet the criteria and get on the registry will be evacuated when there is serious threat of a hurricane. To apply, visit the Hurricane Registry online or call 833-243-7344.
NEWS: ENVIRONMENT
Solar for none
The same week that a coalition of Georgia nonprofits rolled out a program offering free rooftop solar to about 900 Georgia families, the Trump administration quashed it. The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday cancelled the $7 billion of Solar for All grants nationwide. Georgia’s program, called Georgia BRIGHT, poised to receive $156 million of that money, had already attracted more than 1,000 interested homeowners eager to participate in its first phase, as WABE/Grist‘s Emily Jones reports. The EPA’s grant clawback is expected to prevent 16,000 Georgians with low incomes from saving hundreds of dollars per year on their utility bills and to put at risk hundreds of good-paying, local jobs. Environmental groups have vowed to fight the grant cancellations, calling them “unlawful.”
FEATURE: ENVIRONMENT
Sea turtles face evolving risks
What’s well loved, well protected and yet still faces ever-growing obstacles to survival? That would be Georgia’s loggerhead sea turtles. The population here has made a remarkable recovery over the last few decades but now contends with not only rising sea levels that flood nesting beaches but also rising temperatures that threaten to skew the population too female for its own good. Emily Jones of WABE/Grist reports from Wassaw, where the Caretta Research Project conducts one of the longest continuously running sea turtle research and conservation programs in the US.
Funding ‘not missing a beat’
Federal research funding for two top Georgia schools is not threatened, at least not yet, University System of Georgia Chancellor Sonny Perdue told the Board of Regents Tuesday.
“I know you’ve heard a lot in the media about research funding and all the challenges and some of the chaos dealing with that,” Perdue told the board. “I want to just say I think our universities have done well. We’ve got record- breaking years, both at the University of Georgia and Georgia Tech in those areas, and that’s just two examples of our 25, doing great work at all of our institutions, and exciting to see. So we’re not missing a beat.”
Less certain is what happens next.
“We understand we’re preparing for possible changes going forward,” Perdue told the board. “We continue to work with the Office of Planning and Management and Budget in D.C.”
UGA relies on federal monies, Georgia Tech even more so. Federal research expenditures rose at UGA to $255.1 million in the 2024 fiscal year. Georgia Tech receives more than $100 million per month in federal funding for research activities, the university reported in March.
Also noted:
- Join Emory University scientists and Healthy Coastal Neighborhoods for a community meeting 6 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 14 at Howard Coffin Park, 1402 Sonny Miller Way in Brunswick. Learn about the publication of the Brunswick/Glynn exposure study and about applications for future research. Partners will share projects aimed at reducing residents’ exposure to chemicals.
- Georgia’s squirrel season is Aug. 15, 2025 – Feb. 28, 2026, and hunters can pursue both gray and fox squirrels. The maximum daily bag limit is 12 per hunter. Georgia DNR offers what they profess to be “tasty recipes for harvested squirrels” at GeorgiaWildlife.blog/2018/08/26/5-squirrel-recipes-youll-ever-taste/.
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Trump administration cancels Georgia free solar program
Environmental groups are vowing to fight after the Trump administration cancelled the grant funding a no-cost rooftop solar program in Georgia, which would have saved hundreds of low- and middle-income Georgia families 20-70% on energy costs.
On Wassaw, researchers track sea turtles all-night, all-summer
Volunteers and researchers are collecting data on sea turtles and their nests along the coast of Georgia to track the impacts of climate change and monitor the population’s response to rising seas and temperatures.
Richmond Hill airport plans cruise ahead despite questions about cost, transparency
The Richmond Hill City Council is considering building a new airport estimated to cost $128 million with the goal of increasing tax revenue and providing much-needed hangar space for local aviators. Residents have expressed concerns about the increased traffic, noise, and lack of transparency surrounding the project.
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