The week that President Trump signed an executive order to authorize offshore oil drilling, three rigs were moved out of the Gulf of Mexico. The move left 17 rigs in the gulf, down from 24 the same week last year and down from the peak of 176 rigs in 2001, according to industry tracker Baker Hughes.
Tag: politics
Posted inColumns
Time has arrived for voters to call on Congress to reduce carbon emissions
By Guest Columnist JEFF JOSLIN, an airline captain who chairs the North Atlanta Chapter of Citizens’ Climate Lobby.
Climate change anxiety is growing in America. Georgians are no exception. Voters in our state exhibit broad public support for actions that would tame the growing climate threat.
Posted inTom Baxter
For Handel, ‘all hands on deck’ means just that
Most campaign entreaties for money go straight in the email trash bin without a glance, but not when the politician is Karen Handel and the subject is “Donald Trump.”
Posted inLatest News
GSU won’t meet Turner Field critics, despite rising pressure at Atlanta City Hall
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to clarify that Georgia State University has been meeting with elected neighborhood representatives of the Turner Field area. //
Tension is rising, again, over the redevelopment of Turner Field. At least two members of the Atlanta City Council are calling on Georgia State University to meet with area residents. GSU affirmed Thursday that it has been meeting with elected neighborhood leadership and offered to meet with other groups – but the later rejected terms of the meeting.
Posted inTom Baxter
In 6th District race, who exactly is us?
“Not one of us” — its a phrase which has become part of the political messaging tool box. But in the 6th District, who is us?
Posted inLatest News
Georgia Legislature takes a pass on coal ash, protects landowners from petro pipelines
The recent session of the Georgia Legislature protected water and property rights, but didn’t address coal ash waste and other water concerns, according to the wrap-up by the Georgia Water Coalition, which represents more than 230 organizations.
Posted inColumns
Want to run the country like a business? Your CEO is behind the curtain
When we talk about running the country like a business, whose business are we talking about? In this day and time there are quite a few options to the old, staid stereotypes of American enterprise.
Posted inColumns
Less vulnerable than it appears, Medicaid misses the ax
Last week, the government’s largest health insurance program was spared the ax because those in control of the ax couldn’t agree on how to swing it. If you think we’re talking about Obamacare here, you missed much of what was really going on.
Posted inTom Baxter
A wind blows up around energy policy
Let these numbers sink in: there are now about 80,000 coal mining jobs in the U.S., and over 100,000 jobs connected to wind energy.
Posted inLatest News
Pullman Yard: APS supports tree protection, proposed farm and nature center
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated with a comment from the board that oversees the Kirkwood Neighborhood Association. –
Atlanta’s school superintendent is backing an effort to protect a 10-acre stand of trees and the development of an urban farm and nature center at the site of Pullman Yard, the 27-acre site in Kirkwood that the state of Georgia is selling as a likely mixed use development.
Posted inLatest News
Fulton County leads nation in evictions as corporate landlords race to eject late-payers
Fulton County leads the nation in the rate of home renters who are evicted or put on notice of eviction, according to a new report from the Federal Reserve Bank in Atlanta. A contributing factor is the management practices of corporations and equity funds that bought homes during the Great Recession.
Posted inColumns
A generational walk through the health care debate
He’s a young, healthy guy with an independent streak, who may decide he doesn’t need health insurance when the government mandate goes away. She’s a 60-ish cancer survivor who depends on an Affordable Care Act subsidy for her continued medical care. You’ll be hearing a lot about them as the debate over the American Health Care Act unfolds.
Posted inColumns
Georgia’s nascent water trail network garners support from state lawmakers
At the end of a dirt path that touches the Yellow River in Newton County, one piece of the future of Georgia’s network of water trails is taking shape – a network that now has the blessings of the state House of Representatives.
Posted inLatest News
Atlanta funds $40 million for affordable housing at annual cost of about $2.9 million
Atlanta has approved a $40 million expenditure that aims to preserve the city’s supply of affordable homes by – among other efforts – providing money to lower income residents to repair their decaying homes and continue residing in them.
Posted inColumns
Hate crimes: Categorizing the darkness within us
By repeatedly elevating the obvious into italics when we talk about hate crimes, we diminish to some degree the seriousness of what is going on around us. It is a tragedy beyond category.
Posted inLatest News
Tighter coal ash rules stall in Legislature as ash pond near Smyrna is drained
An effort to increase public notice about coal ash issues, and management of coal ash dumps, has stalled in the state Legislature. The proposals are dead for the year, unless advocates can attach them to legislation that is still under consideration.
Posted inLatest News
Zell Miller’s Legacy Dinner captures bipartisan spirit central to Miller Institute
The honoree has been ailing lately, and wasn’t about to attend. But in an age of sharp political divisions, Zell Miller’s 85th birthday was celebrated Tuesday evening by as bipartisan a group as you’ll be likely to gather these days.
Posted inColumns
For Democrats seeking a way back to relevance, it’s down to Idaho
It says something about the current condition of the Democratic Party that nearly all the votes that nudged Tom Perez over the top in Saturday’s election for chair of the Democratic National Committee were cast in the first round for the executive director of the Idaho Democratic Party.
Posted inColumns
Waiting for concrete: Toshiba bets on us, and loses
It’s an odd little world, where a Japanese company many of us still associate with the stereo equipment of our youth is brought to its knees because it can’t get concrete poured fast enough in Georgia and South Carolina.
Posted inLatest News
Atlanta City Council may tighten emergency contract policy, as second contractor pleads guilty
As the second contractor charged in a public corruption probe at Atlanta City Hall pleaded guilty Thursday, the Atlanta City Council is devising a policy to guide the award of emergency contracts.
