The Georgia Public Service Commission will hold a final vote this week on Georgia Power's next three-year plan.
After months of public hearings, the utility company and state regulatory staff reached a settlement agreement for the next rate hike for customers. It reduces Georgia Power's original request, which was close to $3 billion, to $1.8 billion.
Charline Whyte, senior representative of the Beyond Coal campaign for the Sierra Club in Georgia, said if the stipulated agreement is approved, it would go into effect on Jan. 1.
"So what will happen is that the commissioners will review the stipulation and then vote," Whyte explained. "If they don't agree with everything in the stipulation, they have the authority to make motions for the entire commission to reconsider and vote."
Whyte pointed out the agreement covers the rate hike itself, how much money the utility can use for new infrastructure and general maintenance, and how much it gets to recover as profit. Georgia Power serves 2.7 million customers in almost every county in the state. We reached out to the company for comment, but did not receive a response by deadline.
Whyte noted the original proposal would have meant a 12% increase in residential electric bills, and emphasized even a smaller rate hike will make the new year tougher for some households.
"No one should have to worry about whether they can afford to keep their lights on," Whyte argued. "But this rate increase will make that even harder for many families in Georgia. And people shouldn't have to choose between paying a power bill and buying medicine."
Whyte added next year, Georgia Power plans to come back to the Public Service Commission again. In February, it is expected the company will ask to recover its fuel costs, which would also be folded into customers' bills.
"The other two potential ones are related to plant Vogtle," Whyte remarked. "Once the units are in full operation, they already have a 10% built-in increase on the rate."
She is referring to the Vogtle Electric Plant in Waynesboro, which is being expanded to include the nation's first new nuclear-power capacity in more than three decades. Georgia Power recently announced it has completed the cold hydro testing phase for Vogtle Unit 4.
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Advocates are asking Maryland lawmakers to establish a superfund to help hold fossil fuel companies accountable for the costs of climate change.
Both houses of the General Assembly are debating the "Responding to Emergency Needs from Extreme Weather Act." It would establish a Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation Fund, targeting the 40 largest companies extracting or refining gas and oil with a fee totaling $9 billion over 10 years.
Sen. Katie Fry Hester, D-Howard, citing the expense of infrastructure upgrades, said the state needs help paying these costs.
"Unfortunately, it has become the responsibility of the Maryland taxpayer to foot the bill for the costs of climate mitigation, adaptation and recovery measures," Hester pointed out. "Not anymore. It's time to ensure that the polluters pay."
The bill would enable the Department of the Environment to use the fund for stormwater and sewer system improvements, bridges and rail infrastructure, flood recovery, clean energy projects and more. In a recent Senate committee hearing, some lawmakers expressed concern about the targeted businesses passing the cost on to consumers.
The Center for Climate Integrity estimated by 2040, Maryland will have to spend more than $27 billion to protect against the possibility of moderate sea-level rise.
Jamie DeMarco, Maryland director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, said climate change mitigation is already costing the state hundreds of millions.
"Howard County is spending $228 million to bore an 18-foot diameter drainage tunnel through granite bedrock to prevent flooding," DeMarco noted. "It's the biggest capital expenditure in the history of the county. Annapolis is spending $50 million renovating their dock from nuisance flooding. The same thing is happening everywhere across the state."
Recent polling by Data for Progress found 73% of likely voters support assessing a fee on big oil and gas companies to pay part of the cost of climate change mitigation. Either version of the measure needs to pass one chamber by March 18 in order to have a future in the current session.
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The founder of the Baltimore Compost Collective wants Baltimore to ditch trash incineration, fight climate change and grow healthier food.
Marvin Hayes began composting in Baltimore more than a decade ago and has grown the operation into a collection service picking up around 1,500 pounds of food waste each week. Hayes operates a composting facility at the nonprofit Filbert Street Garden, where the organic material is turned into rich soil for use at the urban garden.
Hayes sees a revolution, a better way of life for Baltimore's Black community to help fight what he calls "food apartheid" and end the city's reliance on a giant, polluting waste-to-energy incinerator and fight climate change.
"People didn't know that the incinerator was causing $55 million in health damages, or they didn't know what the incinerator was," Hayes recounted. "People didn't know that Baltimore County trash gets brought here and burned. Howard County's trash gets brought here and burned."
In September the Environmental Protection Agency announced a $4 million grant as part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure bill to build a solar-powered composting facility in south Baltimore to accept food scraps and other organic material. The agency estimates the facility will keep 12,000 tons of waste out of the city's incinerator.
Incinerators release large quantities of lead, mercury and other harmful pollutants into the air. In late 2020 Baltimore signed a 10-year contract to continue incineration, much to the chagrin of environmental advocates such as Hayes, who have long advocated for composting as a viable alternative to toxic trash incineration.
A 2018 study by the Baltimore Office of Sustainability noted compost-amended soil can reduce contamination of urban pollutants by 60% to 95%, and protects against the danger associated with lead in urban soils.
Hayes' composting facility has a limited capacity. When it is full, he transports the rest of his food scraps to a bigger organic compost facility in Upper Marlboro in Prince George's County.
"If PG County is doing it, why shouldn't Baltimore be following the same practices?" Hayes asked. "Make a large scale composting facility, so when the residents put their recycling out, they'll put their composting out, it'll go to a large-scale composting facility, create four times more jobs than incinerators, two times more jobs than the landfill."
This story was produced based on original reporting by Aman Azhar for Inside Climate News.
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Up to $1 million in grants are up for grabs in Los Angeles for local groups to build or expand community parks, gardens and green spaces.
The Bezos Earth Fund awarded the grant to the nonprofit GreenLatinos through its Greening America's Cities initiative. GreenLatinos will now distribute the funds to local community groups who can apply starting Feb. 27.
Jonathan Fajardo, California community advocate for GreenLatinos in Los Angeles, said the idea is to fight environmental inequalities perpetuating systemic health and economic injustice.
"We're looking especially to uplift projects that are creating access to healthy organic foods, like urban gardens and community farms, true communal spaces," Fajardo outlined.
A July 2022 study from the University of Southern California found almost a quarter of households in Los Angeles were food insecure over the prior year, with low-income households headed by young Latina adults hit the hardest.
A community group, called Mujeres de la Tierra - which means "Women of the Earth" - will use funding from the initiative to add native pollinator gardens, interpretive signage, shaded areas, and exercise equipment to Juntos Park in the Glassell Park area of Los Angeles. The project aims to promote community involvement and engagement.
Fajardo emphasized they are focused on funding projects springing from local community groups, rather than large public agencies.
"We're mainly looking towards nonprofits, especially grassroots and frontline organizations, community-based smaller organizations that are more addressing, at a hyperlocal level, urban greening and food access," Fajardo explained.
The Sustainable Cities Urban Greening Initiative is offering a similar program in Albuquerque and Chicago for a total of $2.7 million in grants. Groups can apply through the JustFund online grants portal. GreenLatinos also offers training to help groups write their proposals.
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