Goodwill of North Georgia recently received a generous grant of $300k from the Coca-Cola Foundation to help serve women in non-traditional industries. The grant will provide workforce training programs for women to enter non-traditional occupations (those occupations with fewer than 20% women in the field) such as construction trades, maintenance technician, logistics, and I. T. […]
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Posted inGuest Column
Empowering Georgia’s Film Industry: Bridging the Training Gap
As Atlanta’s film industry flourishes, there’s a pressing need to create accessible paths for people to discover careers in film, television and e-gaming across Georgia. The Georgia Film Academy (GFA), globally recognized as a leader in workforce training, is leading this charge through partnerships with more than 30 institutions, public workshops, and close collaborations with […]
Posted inMaggie Lee
Rural Georgia emptying; state power liable to shift north
A million more Georgians than 10 years ago.
Posted inThought Leadership
Georgia Mother Shares Powerful Paid Leave Story With Lawmakers
Last week, families with infants and toddlers from every state met with their members of Congress to encourage them to prioritize the needs of young children for the national Strolling Thunder, led by ZERO TO THREE. Kristen Johnson, a working mother of two young children from Duluth, represented the state of Georgia. She is a […]
Posted inThought Leadership
Georgia School Blazes Trail to Become 100% Solar-Powered
Featured Image: The SAE School in Mableton is on its way to becoming Georgia’s first 100% solar-powered school. Photo courtesy of Southface Institute. By Southface On a hot, humid September day, dozens of students, teachers, well-wishers and project participants gathered outside of The SAE School in Mableton. The occasion was to celebrate a ribbon-cutting of […]
Posted inLatest News
Lawsuit alleges Georgia dilutes Black voting power for utility commission
The five-member utility regulation board doesn’t reflect Georgia’s diversity.
Posted inMaggie Lee
Advocates urge green and economic energy as Georgia regulators consider major power plan update
It’s the time for a periodic process when Georgia regulators and the public can try and change the balance among the interests that own power plants, live near them or use electricity.
Posted inLatest News
Five bid for places in race to become one of Georgia’s most powerful politicians
By January, one of the people running for lieutenant governor will hold one of the most powerful posts in state politics. That’s because the winner presides over the state Senate, giving them great influence over what bills move through — and which don’t.
Posted inLatest News
Georgia’s wannabe electricity regulators talk nuclear, solar, power bills at debate
What members of the Public Service Commission do affects your power bill every month and the mix of coal, nuclear and other electricity sources Georgia uses. That’s why environmentalists watch it closely. Now the candidates for the PSC are showing up on primary ballots all over the state — and on Thursday, they faced off in debates.
Posted inMain Slider
Power to the people — how electrification came to rural Georgia
The year was 1933. The stock market crash four years earlier had triggered a titanic wave of economic collapse. Left in its wake was an aptly named Great Depression. Among the challenges facing the nation, electrification was no small matter. In the 1930s, cities were almost completely electrified, with 90 percent of urban residents having access to electricity; the contrast to the rest of the country was stark, with approximately 90 percent of rural Americans living without electricity.
Posted inMetro Business, Thought Leader, Uncategorized
From Peach to Powerhouse: Georgia’s Health IT Scene
The secret is out. Georgia has become a hotbed for health IT (HIT) companies, both veteran and startup.
Posted inGuest Column
Solar more viable as Georgia’s new nuclear power plants face overruns
By Guest Columnist JIGAR SHAH, author of “Creating Climate Wealth: Unlocking the Impact Economy”
Georgia Power, a subsidiary of the Southern Co., is in the midst of building two new nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle. The projects are at least $737 million over budget which will up the total cost to $6.85 billion.
Instead of deciding whether to raise the budget now, utility regulators want to postpone that debate until the first of the new reactors comes online in January 2018 at the earliest. Or have the debate when Georgia is way too deep in sunk costs.
Posted inLatest News
The development of solar power is beginning to take off in Georgia
By Maria Saporta
Georgia has made a giant leap in the area of solar energy in just the last couple of years — progress that could rank Georgia as high as 4th among the 50 states within three years in terms of how much solar contributes to its overall energy portfolio.
“There is more solar out there in Georgia than many people think,” said John Sibley, a senior policy advisor for Southface who moderated the Sustainable Atlanta Roundtable program on solar energy on Friday morning. “We would be right behind New Jersey, and Georgia would be No. 4, if it were all on line today.”
Southface has documented how much solar activity is underway in the state through the new website: GeorgiaEnergyData.org. Sibley said that the state has about three times more solar energy than what is included in national databases.
Posted inGuest Column
Solar power bill would give Georgians more choices
By Guest Columnist JOHN SIBLEY, senior policy fellow at Southface Energy Institute and former president of the Georgia Conservancy
Have you gotten used to thinking you have no choice on your power bill? We can’t choose our power company, so most of us pay the bill without looking past the total amount due – without even thinking about the amount paid for each kilowatt-hour or whether we have better choices.
Posted inDavid Pendered
Nuclear power, renewable energy could be on rise in Georgia; coal’s future unclear
Georgia in recent weeks has been the site of three significant developments that illustrate the nation’s struggle over energy sources.
A Republican proposal to loosen the market grip of power companies in order to promote renewable energy resources was introduced last week in the General Assembly. Senate Bill 401 bill carries the signatures of party leaders including Sen. Tommie Williams (R-Lyons), who essentially governs the chamber, and Sen. Chip Rogers (R-Woodstock), the majority leader.
Meanwhile, the Obama administration has granted both approval and financing for a nuclear power plant in Burke County, at Plant Vogtle. On the other side of the coin, a developer of a planned coal-fired power plant in Early County relinquished in December its permits for the plant as part of a settlement of a lawsuit brought by environmentalists over its plant in Texas. The fate of a proposed coal-fired plant near Sandersville appears uncertain after Cobb EMC pulled out of the deal.
Posted inGuest Column
Solar power industry grows in Georgia — creating jobs in green emerging industry
By Guest Columnist DEBBIE DAY, executive director of the Georgia Solar Energy Association
Taking the reins of the Georgia Solar Energy Association (GSEA) is an exciting opportunity. My recent arrival coincides with the results of GSEA’s effort to amass a comprehensive snapshot of solar development so far in Georgia. The picture it creates is impressive.
Posted inMaria's Metro
Georgia’s political power is not what it was
How far we have fallen.
Today Georgia finds itself in the weakest political position it has ever been at the national level, at least for the last six decades.
Currently, there is virtually no direct link to the party in power at the White House, the U.S. House of Representatives or the U.S. Senate. And Georgia is at risk of being left out in the political cold when it comes to power and influence.
Take the battle over the $1.75 billion appropriation for new F-22 fighter jets. Both U.S. senators from Georgia — Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson — had placed the continued
Posted inGuest Column
Solar Power Industry Can Grow Green Jobs in Georgia
By Guest Columnist WALTER BROWN, chairman of the Georgia Solar Energy Association, and co-founder/senior vicew president for development and environmental affairs of Green Street Properties
As is unfortunately apparent from the daily headlines, the United States, as well as Georgia’s economy, is going through a difficult economic transition that has prompted business closings and job losses.
However, these times also present a huge opportunity for our state and progressive policymakers to take charge of both our economic and environmental futures by making renewable resource development such as solar energy a priority.
A key theme of this transition is the decline of traditional industries – think newspaper publishers and automakers. On an equally noteworthy front, the economic incentives and job creation afforded by green industries and the manufacturing that supports them – industries supported by stimulus and in some instances private capital – may be overlooked.
Posted inLatest News
Georgia Works makes its new home in the restored Odd Fellows building
Georgia Works reached a major milestone on April 1 when Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens attended the ribbon-cutting celebration of the nonprofit’s new home in the Odd Fellows building on Auburn Avenue. Georgia Works is dedicated to breaking the cycle of homelessness and criminal recidivism by offering housing and employment to […]
Posted inGuest Column
The Atlanta Advantage: Unlocking Georgia’s future through greater City/State partnership
When Mayor Andre Dickens delivered his fifth State of the City address this week, he spoke to an audience that extends far beyond Atlanta’s borders. That audience, our state legislature, holds the key to Georgia’s next decade of growth — a key that can only be turned through stronger, more formal city-state collaboration. Atlanta is […]
