Voters ground Spaceport Camden

March 9, 2022

Two Georgia projects continue to command our attention: Spaceport Camden and the Plant Vogtle nuclear power plant expansion. Let’s launch right in.

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Spaceport won’t be blasting off

Camden County voting gave the Spaceport Camden project a big thumbs down in a special election Tuesday, voting against the spaceport by a margin of almost 3:1. But that’s not the end of the story, as county officials continue to try to invalidate the referendum results in court. They’ve hired an Atlanta law firm to help.

The continuing challenge to the referendum is just the latest twist on the spaceport saga. The county has spent seven years and over $10 million on the project to launch commercial rockets from a former industrial site. It’s fighting to hang onto its dream of space, even if that means opposing its own citizens. The county also unsuccessfully sued its own probate judge, which made for an awkward hearing last week.

‘Fake’ elector on Spaceport Authority

To top off the spaceport strangeness last week, Camden County decided to appoint members to its Spaceport Authority. State lawmakers created the authority in 2019 at the county’s request, but no member had been named in the ensuing two years. But four days before the spaceport referendum, the commission called a special meeting for 4:30 p.m. Friday. One commissioner drove in from Tifton. Another attended online after going to his father’s memorial service in the morning.

Spaceport critics feared the appointments were being made so that the Spaceport Authority could do what an anti-spaceport vote in the referendum would prevent the commission from doing, namely buying the land for the project from Union Carbide. Local state Rep. Steven Sainz caught wind of the appointments and posted a video warning commissioners he didn’t help create that authority in order to subvert the will of voters.

And finally, one of the appointees turned out to be Chandra (C.B.) Vadav, a local businessman and prominent Republican who was among the 16 “fake electors” who falsely certified that Trump won Georgia in 2020. As Atlanta journalist Maggie Lee tweeted, “I can’t make this stuff up.”

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Legislature weighs in on Vogtle

Legislation that would allow Georgia Power to finance the Plant Vogtle nuclear expansion and other large projects through bonds cleared a state Senate committee Monday over the objections of the chairman of the Georgia Public Service Commission, Dave Williams of Capitol Beat reports.

The bill’s backer said it could help Georgia Power ratepayers by lowering the cost of financing for the monopoly utility. But PSC Chairman Tricia Pridemore told the committee the PSC staff lacks expertise in securitization, making it difficult for the regulators to use securitized bond financing.

The Vogtle expansion has bloated in cost to over $30 billion. The average residential ratepayer has already shelled out more than $800 since 2011 to pay for the project’s financing.

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