Georgia
Biden administration, Georgia officials applaud debut of Plant Vogtle expansion • Georgia Recorder
Officials with the U.S. Energy Department plan to celebrate the completion of Georgia Power’s controversial nuclear power expansion at Plant Vogtle in Waynesboro on Friday.
President Joe Biden’s National Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi and Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm are set to tour Plant Vogtle, which has become the nation’s largest nuclear power plant and the largest source of carbon-free electricity. In the next 60 to 80 years, the two new nuclear units are estimated to generate enough electricity for one million homes and businesses.
The historic occasion is also being celebrated by representatives from Georgia Power, Georgia Public Service Commission, top state lawmakers and a number of other business and community leaders who say the project is a shining example of how nuclear energy can create well-paying, high quality jobs while also producing electricity in a way that tackles the climate crisis.
The two Vogtle units are the first nuclear reactors to be built in the United States in more than 30 years and the project’s supporters say Vogtle demonstrates how nuclear energy can generate high-paying jobs while producing electricity in a way that combats climate change.
Six Georgia energy and consumer groups released a report Thursday analyzing the true cost of nuclear power, citing the severe problems while constructing Vogtle that resulted in seven years of delays and $21 billion of cost-overruns.
The two Vogtle units were under construction for 15 years at a cost of $36.8 billion. Unit 3 was completed in August while Unit 4 began producing electricity in April.
Vogtle could serve as the selling point for further nuclear development in the United States, with the Biden-Harris administration hosting a summit at the White House this week to highlight the ongoing collaboration between the public and private sectors.
The Biden-Harris administration announced Wednesday the formation of a nuclear power project working group composed of experts in nuclear power and mega-construction.
The White House released a statement this week that says that nuclear energy has been the largest source of clean energy for decades, currently accounting for 19% of national energy production and directly employing 60,000 workers.
“Alongside renewable power sources like wind and solar, a new generation of nuclear reactors is now capturing the attention of a wide range of stakeholders for nuclear energy’s ability to produce clean, reliable energy and meet the needs of a fast-growing economy, driven by President Biden’s Investing in America agenda and manufacturing boom,” the White House statement said.
However, a report released by Georgia consumer advocates contends that more nuclear development is not the best course of action for the future of the nation’s energy supply.
The report titled Plant Vogtle: the True Cost of Nuclear Power in the United States, was commissioned by Georgia consumer advocacy organizations like the Center for a Sustainable Coast, Concerned Ratepayers of Georgia and Cool Planet Solutions. It was authored by Kim Scott, executive director of Georgia WAND, Glenn Carroll, coordinator of Nuclear Watch South and Patty Durand, former president of the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative and a Democratic Party candidate for the state PSC.
The average Georgia Power residential customer began paying an additional $5.42 per month, or a 3.2% increase, after Unit 3 began commercial operations last August.
The two Vogtle units prompted the latest in a series of rate increases Georgia Power customers will continue to bear in the coming months.
According to the report, the average monthly bill for Georgia ratepayers will increase by $35 over the next two decades as Vogtle’s Units 3 and 4 are operational, or more than twice the $15 increase Georgia Power currently estimates.
The report contends that Georgia Power’s average household bill will rise by $420 annually in order to cover the cost of nuclear power that is seven times as expensive to produce as wind, solar and natural gas.
The analysis says that shareholders of Georgia Power’s parent company Southern Co. will continue to benefit from Vogtle’s financial windfall as the utility significantly expands its base rate.
The report’s authors blame Georgia Power officials for a decade-long pattern of providing misleading costs estimates to state regulators in order to continue justifying the Vogtle expansion. The construction of Vogtle was plagued by delays due to worker shortages, a strike, technical problems and its original contractor Westinghouse Electric Co. filing bankruptcy in 2017.
Brionté McCorkle, report co-author and executive director of Georgia Conservation Voters, said that Plant Vogtle is a cautionary tale for the rest of the country and that Georgians deserve safe, clean and affordable energy instead of wasting money to bring Vogtle’s nuclear reactors online.
“Imagine all of the renewable power, battery storage and energy-efficiency investments we could have made in the time it took to build the two new reactors at Plant Vogtle at a fraction of the cost,” McCorkle said in a statement. “Imagine what we could have done with the $35 billion dollars instead of dumping them in this radioactive money-pit.”
Scott, the executive director of Georgia WAND, said that Georgia Power is more concerned with its own economic interests as Vogtle’s expansion is leaving its customers struck with paying exorbitantly high power bills.
“So it is clear that Georgia Power is looking out for its own economic interests and (is) not concerned about moving Georgia to a clean-energy economy, let alone protecting the health of Georgians who live in and around nuclear power Plant Vogtle,” Scott said.
Republicans Gov. Brian Kemp and House Speaker Jon Burns joined executives with Georgia Power and Vogtle co-owner’s Oglethorpe Power, Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia and Dalton Utilities to celebrate the Vogtle project earlier this week.
Georgia Power owns 45.7% of Plant Vogtle, followed by Oglethorpe Power Corporation at 30%, Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia’s 22.7%, and Dalton Utilities 1.6.%.
Kim Greene, chairman, president, and CEO of Georgia Power, said the new Vogtle units are a key component in supporting the company’s goal of meeting growing electricity demands in Georgia. A large share of that demand is driven by new data centers opening across the state.
“As we mark the completion of the Vogtle 3 and 4 expansion, we’re grateful for the leadership and foresight of the Georgia PSC, as well as the steadfast dedication from all of the project’s co-owners,” Greene said. “(Wednesday), we welcomed business and community leaders, as well as elected officials and other guests from across Georgia, to celebrate the first newly constructed nuclear units in the U.S. in more than 30 years – representing a long-term investment to benefit our customers and the state. It is truly a great day for Georgia.”
Originally, the five-member Georgia Public Service Commission approved a $4.4 billion construction budget for Vogtle, but in 2017 state regulators and Georgia Power agreed that $7.3 billion would be considered a reasonable cost.
In December, the Public Service Commission approved terms of a financial agreement requiring Georgia Power to cover at least $2.6 billion of the expected $10 billion in construction and capital costs. The terms were outlined in a stipulated agreement reached in August between Georgia Power, PSC advocacy staff, the Georgia Association of Manufacturers and consumer and watchdog advocacy organizations Georgia Watch and the Georgia Interfaith Power & Light and Partnership for Southern Equity.
As part of the settlement, Georgia Power agreed to about a 50% expansion of energy efficiency programs and also offered up to 96,000 additional low-income seniors to participate in a program that would reduce their monthly bills by an average of $33.50.
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WASHINGTON – A Georgia man was sentenced Tuesday to five years in prison for assaulting law enforcement officers and other offenses committed during the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol.
Michael Bradley, 50, of Forsyth, was convicted of multiple felony and misdemeanor charges for his role in disrupting a joint session of Congress that was convened to certify the 2020 presidential election results.
U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton sentenced Bradley to 60 months in prison, three years of supervised release, and a $2,000 fine. Bradley was found guilty of civil disorder; assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers; entering and remaining in a restricted building with a deadly weapon; disorderly and disruptive conduct with a deadly weapon; and engaging in physical violence with a deadly weapon.
Events on Jan. 6, 2021
Court documents and trial evidence revealed that Bradley joined rioters at the Capitol’s Lower West Terrace Tunnel, a hotspot for violent clashes with law enforcement. Between 4 p.m. and 4:30 p.m., Bradley was seen carrying a baton in a holster on his hip as he approached the tunnel.
At approximately 4:27 p.m., Bradley raised the baton and moved toward officers in an apparent attempt to strike. Officers used a chemical spray to repel him, prompting his temporary retreat. Moments later, Bradley returned to the tunnel and swung his baton at officers at least twice before leaving the area.
CCTV and third-party video captured Bradley’s actions, which prosecutors described as part of a larger violent effort by rioters to overwhelm police and disrupt congressional proceedings.
Michael Bradley’s arrest and prosecution
Bradley was arrested by FBI agents on Sept. 7, 2023, in Forsyth. He had been identified as suspect No. 154 in the FBI’s “Be on the Lookout” (BOLO) campaign, which sought public assistance in identifying individuals involved in the Capitol attack.
Since the Capitol breach, more than 1,572 individuals across nearly all 50 states have been charged with crimes related to the attack, including over 590 accused of assaulting or impeding law enforcement, according to the Justice Department. The investigation remains ongoing.
The FBI continues to seek information on unidentified suspects. Tips can be submitted at 1-800-CALL-FBI (800-225-5324) or tips.fbi.gov.
The Source: All information and images in this article was provided by the U.S. Department of Justice. This story is being reported out of Atlanta.
GCU President Brian Mueller on joining Mountain West, impact on NIL
Grand Canyon University President Brian Mueller talked to the media about the impact joining the Mountain West Conference will have on NIL growth.
Grand Canyon lost a chance to make a big statement during its trip through the South.
The Lopes (6-4) had won four straight with their full team, after getting center Duke Brennan back from an injury.
But in a 73-68 loss to Georgia (9-1) on Saturday, followed by a 74-66 loss to Louisiana Tech on Monday, their biggest star, WAC Preseason Player of the Year Tyon Grant-Foster, had his two worst games since joining the Lopes last year and leading them to an historic 30-win season.
He shot a combined 2 for 25 in the losses, missing all 13 3-pointers he took. This is baffling for last year’s WAC Player of the Year, who averaged 20 points in his first college season in two years, leading the Lopes to their first NCAA Tournament win last season.
To make matters worse Monday night at Louisiana Tech (10-2), guard Ray Harrison was only 1 of 10 shooting, making just 1 of 7 3-pointers, two days after he led GCU with 16 points, making 2 of 4 3s, against Georgia.
Here are takeaways from this two-game swing as the Lopes look to recover Thursday night at home against 0-12 Chicago State. That will be followed by a 2 p.m. home game Sunday against Saint Louis:
Shooting woes
It wasn’t just Grant-Foster who struggled. The Lopes made only 7 of 27 3-pointers against Georgia and 2 of 27 from behind the arc against Louisiana Tech.
This was supposed to be a roster built to make 3-pointers. JaKobe Coles came from TCU, where he was a 42% shooter from 3. Coles was 1 of 5 from 3-point range against Georgia and 1 of 3 against Louisiana Tech. He led the Lopes with 19 points on 7 of 13 field-goal shooting against Louisiana Tech.
Both Coles and Grant-Foster missed open 3s in the final minute of the Georgia game. If either of them knock down a 3, it could have been a different outcome.
In the 75-68 home loss to UC Davis, the Lopes made just 4 of 25 3-pointers. Even against NAIA Life Pacific, a team the Lopes beat 100-52 before hitting the road, they made only 8 of 28 3-pointers.
On the season, Harrison has made 11 of 40 3-pointers (27.5%) and Grant-Foster 6 of 39 (15%). Last season, Grant-Foster, who made his living at the free-throw line, drawing fouls on quick moves to the basket, made 33% of his 3s (50 of 151), the second-best shooting percentage from the arc on the team, behind Gabe McGlothan (39.8%).
Against Louisiana Tech, the Lopes were within two points with 2:13 left, but got outscored 6-0 in the end.
“Sometimes the ball just doesn’t go in for him,” coach Bryce Drew said in the postgame GCU radio interview about Grant-Foster, who missed the first two games this season. “It’s not going in right now. There’s other parts of his game that he can do. I thought at Georgia he did a great job getting six steals.
“He’s a much better player than he’s playing. My job as a coach is we’ve got to get it out of him. We’ve been trying different things in the last month, and we’re going to keep trying more things to get him back on track.”
Scheduling
Because the WAC and Conference USA were locked into a contract to have non-conference games against each other, GCU had to go to Louisiana Tech in this home-and-home series. Last year, GCU pulled out a 73-70 win over Louisiana Tech at home. This game happened to fall two days after facing Georgia against a pro-Bulldogs crowd at State Farm Arena in Atlanta.
“The scheduling has been very difficult,” Drew said. “We would never ever played this game where we played it. It’s the Conference USA challenge with the WAC, so we had this game. We had a chance to play Georgia, a top-40 team, in Atlanta. We didn’t want to turn that game down.”
But Drew added he didn’t want to use the Georgia game as an excuse.
“I’ve got to do a better job in the future with scheduling,” he said. “It’s super hard to get games. Doing a back-to-back basically after a super physical Georgia game, and, for 40 minutes, I think you saw the legs come out a little bit on some of our 3-point shooting.”
Brennan not backing down
The overall play of 6-foot-10 Brennan has been a bright spot since his return from a shoulder injury that caused him to miss the first four games.
Brennan had 13 points on 5 of 6 shootings and pulled down seven rebounds against Louisiana Tech. He got big man Daniel Batcho to pick up two fouls and head to the bench after Louisiana Tech jumped out to a 13-2 lead.
GCU pulled ahead of Louisiana Tech late in the first half, but that couldn’t be sustained, as Batcho returned and finished with 19 points and seven rebounds without picking up another foul. Sean Newman Jr., had his season-average nine assists to go with 25 points.
Brennan had 10 points and eight rebounds against a big Georgia team that blocked nine GCU shots. Earlier this season, Brennan played well in the 78-71 Stanford win with 14 points and eight rebounds, going against Maxime Raynaud (29 points, 11 rebounds).
Georgia center Somto Cyril had 12 points, eight rebounds and five blocks against GCU.
“We’ve played three really good centers so far, and you look at those, and they’re as good as any center in the country,” Drew said. “Hopefully, we’re done playing that size and length for a while.
“Obviously, Saint Louis (Sunday’s home opponent) has a good center (Robbie Avila) but he’s a different kind of center. This stuff is going to make us better. It’s going to make our bigs better, our guards better, finishing, and also show what we need to work on in practice to get better.”
Richard Obert has been covering high school sports since the 1980s for The Arizona Republic. He also covers Grand Canyon University athletics and the Arizona Rattlers. To suggest human-interest story ideas and other news, reach Obert at richard.obert@arizonarepublic.com or 602-316-8827. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter:@azc_obert
‘Gator Crusader’ gives alligators holiday baths
Michael Womer, known as the “Gator Crusader,” hopped in with the alligators and gave them baths ahead of the holidays.
Want to see a gator in Georgia? Then, here’s the best alligator filled places you should head to in the state.
World Atlas has released this list highlighting swamps, rivers, and lakes filled with this ancient predator. Here is the list.
1. Okefenokee Swamp
The Okefenokee Swamp is a large blackwater wetland that straddles the Georgia-Florida line. It has a population of around 10,000 to 13,000 alligators.
The swamp is “known for its dark, tannin-rich waters, lush vegetation, and abundant wildlife, it’s a hotspot for alligator sightings,” World Atlas wrote.
2. Lake Blackshear
Located in Southwest Georgia, Lake Blackshear is a popular spot for fishing and boating. It was created by damming the Flint River and is known for its calm waters, lush vegetation, and plentiful prey.
It is home to around 10,000 alligators and “in 2019, a wildlife biologist found a 13-foot, 700-pound alligator in a ditch side outside of Lake Blackshear,” World Atlas wrote.
3. Altamaha River
The Ocmulgee and Oconee Rivers are two rivers in Georgia that form the Altamaha River, one of the state’s largest waterways.
“The Altamaha River has a history of producing large alligators,” the World Atlas wrote. “For example, in 2017, an 11-foot, 3-inch alligator was legally hunted and taken from the river in Brunswick. In 2021, a 12-foot, 5.5-inch alligator was hunted in the river.”
4. Lake Seminole
Lake Seminole is a popular destination for anglers and boaters. It is located between Georgia and Florida and is known for its diverse aquatic ecosystem and thriving alligator population.
“Its slow waters, plentiful food, and ideal breeding conditions make it a perfect habitat for these ancient reptiles,” World Atlas wrote. “In 2023, Meghan Bailey of Carrollton caught a 13-foot, 3-inch gator, the largest of the season. Previous record-breaking catches include Jim Overman’s 13-foot, 10 ¾-inch alligator in 2013 and a 692-pound, 13-foot, 9-inch giant in 2010.”
5. Phinizy Swamp Nature Park
Phinizy Swamp Nature Park is located near Augusta and is a great place to see gators in their natural habitat. The park has a mix of cypress swamps, marshes, and ponds, making it a perfect home for these reptiles.
People visiting the park can often see alligators sunbathing near the boardwalk or swimming in the water.
6. Banks Lake National Wildlife Refuge
Banks Lake National Wildlife Refuge is a shallow lake located in southern Georgia near Lakeland in Lanier County. It is surrounded by cypress trees and marshes, making it a great habitat for alligators.
“While paddling, watch for alligators sunbathing on logs or gliding just below the surface,” World Atlas wrote. “If you prefer staying on land, you may spot alligators resting on the banks or drifting in the shallow waters while hiking the Banks Lakes Trail.”
7. Satilla River
Satilla River, located in Southeast Georgia, is a blackwater river with surrounding wetlands, a perfect home to alligators.
“While alligators can be seen throughout this free-flowing river, the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, part of the Satilla River basin, is especially popular,” World Atlas wrote. “Visitors can explore the area by boat, kayak, or canoe, giving them a unique view of the river’s wildlife and the alligators living there.”
For more information, visit worldatlas.com.
Vanessa Countryman is the Trending Topics Reporter for the the Deep South Connect Team Georgia. Email her at Vcountryman@gannett.com.
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