From the campaign stump, Donald Trump vowed he could end the Russia-Ukraine War on his Day One in the White House.
Months after taking office, he admitted, “That was an exaggeration.”
In 2019 Georgia Power announced it was shutting down its coal-fired plants in favor of more solar. Here’s company senior vice-president Allen Reaves’ statement: “We are positioning Georgia as a leader in the Southeast in battery storage, which is critical to growing and maximizing the value of renewable energy for customers as we increase our renewable energy by 72 percent by 2024.”
The Public Service Commission (PSC) praised and ballyhooed the decision.
And I did, too, in an Aug. 7, 2019, column.
But in recent weeks, the behemoth electricity-provider has changed its mind.
Should we write off the 2019 announcement as an exaggeration, too?
I think not.
Ditto for President Trump when he promised America the cleanest, safest water and air in the world. Let’s hope that’s not an exaggeration, too. However, our 45th and 47th president has promoted coal as “clean and beautiful.”
Scientific facts say otherwise.
Burning nasty coal poisons our air and threatens our water. Today, Georgia Power has a number of its coal-ash storage ponds sitting in groundwater and leaking. These cancer-causing heavy metals could contaminate our drinking-water supply.
What’s Georgia Power doing about it?
Monitoring.
Apparently, the company believes time will cure the dangerous sores.
In addition to backing out on its no-coal pledge, the situation is about to get worse. Rather than less coal, Georgia Power is planning to burn more. Seems we are entering a race backwards. And what does the PSC say?
As expected, “a go for it.”
Our utility watchdogs are elected. But when vacancies occur, the governor makes appointments. These men and women are charged to keep the best interest of Georgians in mind. But history doesn’t always reflect that. When Georgia Power says, “Frog,” the PSC watchdogs jump, usually into the utility’s lap. That goes for most of our Gold Dome leaders, too.
If the fictional sleuth Sherlock Holmes was alive, he’d say to his assistant, “My dear Watson, they don’t call it Georgia Power for naught.” What Georgia Power wants is what Georgia Power gets.
I have said this dozens of times. Georgia Power employs thousands of outstanding, dedicated people. It is a major contributor to our state’s healthy economy. We need Georgia Power, but that shouldn’t entitle it to do whatever it wants.
Enter the gold rush for power-hungry data centers. Thanks to the explosion of artificial intelligence (AI), data centers are spreading over Georgia like industrial kudzu. Not everyone is happy about this, especially residential neighborhoods waking up to find the monstrous facilities near their backyards.
But who’s the happiest?
Georgia Power, of course.
Well, its coal suppliers, too.
Naturally, the PSC thought it was a good idea. The rationale was that it is better to burn coal than overstress the state’s power grid. Data centers are power-hungry, as are the noisy and increasingly unpopular crypto-mining operations.
Data centers must also have fiber-optic connections to the rest of the world. Georgia communities are catching up with this technology requirement, so we’re attractive targets for the developers of these massive centers. Campuses, they call them.
Data centers are also water hogs. For now, Georgia is water-rich. You’d think our citizens, especially our farmers, would want it to stay that way. In this data-center stampede, isn’t moderation a reasonable strategy?
But in the meantime, Georgia Power is licking its bottom-line lips. Forget the risks to our irreplaceable natural resources. Pour on the coal. That seems to be the plan.
I have a suggestion.
If Georgia Power is intent on backtracking on its no-coal commitment, it should pledge to use a significant portion of these data-center-windfall profits for cleaning up the mess of its leaking toxic-coal-ash ponds. Drain the ponds. Store the toxic materials in dry units on company property. Don’t spread the toxic industrial waste around the state.
Georgia Power, live up to your slogan: “A citizen wherever we serve.”
To do less will change the meaning of GP, the abbreviation of the company’s name.
GP, greedy polluter.
dnesmith@cninewspapers.com
