bubba mcDonald

=<div>
</div><div>=</div><div>icn</div><div>...<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">here were no subsidies involved, McDonald said. As Georgia Power, the largest subsidiary of Southern Company, has expanded its solar capacity, solar farms have been built and operated by other companies through competitive bidding, helping to keep costs down, Edge said. </span></div><div class="content" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="field-items" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;">"It's market driven," McDonald said. The state has "lots of good, flat land," plenty of sunshine, and interest rates were low, making solar investments more affordable. The initiative was carried out as solar technology was advancing and prices for solar panels were falling, he said. "It was like a perfect storm."</p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;">McDonald, a former state lawmaker whose current term on the commission won't expire until 2020, said he still supports coal, nuclear and natural gas because they can run 24 hours a day, but he said solar offered an opportunity to help diversify the state's energy mix.</p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;">With the cost of solar power in Georgia dropping from 13 cents per kilowatt-hour to below 4 cents in the last five years, McDonald said he expected continued growth in a way that moves "slowly and methodically."  </p><div class="media media-element-container media-image_centered_medium" style="box-sizing: inherit; max-width: 648px; margin: 0.25em auto;"><figure id="file-270868" itemscope="itemscope" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" class="file file-image file-image-png" style="box-sizing: inherit; max-width: 100%; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/sites/default/files/styles/colorbox_full/public/Top-10-Solar-States-Chart-529px.png?itok=9UWsHqFH" class="colorbox init-colorbox-processed cboxElement" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(131, 190, 68); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;"><img alt="Chart: Top 10 Solar States" title="Chart: Top 10 Solar States" height="391" width="529" class="media-element file-image-centered-medium" typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://insideclimatenews.org/sites/default/files/styles/icn_centered_medium/public/Top-10-Solar-States-Chart-529px.png?itok=iNOwz5-g" style="box-sizing: inherit; border: 0px; height: auto; max-width: 100%; display: block; float: none; margin: 0px auto;" /></a></figure></div><h3 style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px; font-family: "Playfair Display", serif; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.333; font-size: 1.5rem;" /><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;">Georgia reached No. 8 in the <a href="https://www.seia.org/states-map" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(131, 190, 68); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">Solar Energy Industry Association's</a> 2016 national rankings. And last year, at No. 9, it was producing enough electricity from the sun to power about 175,000 homes. Before 2013, Georgia didn't have much solar power at all.</p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;">Solar is still less than 2 percent of the state's electricity generation mix—almost all of it utility scale—so there's plenty of room to grow.</p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;">Georgia Power spokesman John Kraft said that compared to distributed, rooftop systems, "utility scale solar is currently the most cost effective, and these large-scale installations provide the most value for Georgia Power customers." But he also said the utility does offer customers programs to support <a href="https://www.georgiapower.com/company/energy-industry/energy-sources/solar-energy.html" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(131, 190, 68); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">rooftop solar</a>.</p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;">Renewable energy "plays an important role in the diverse generation mix we use to serve customers," Wilson Mallard, director of renewable development for Georgia Power, said in a written statement. The company, he said, will continue to make sure every renewable energy project "helps us keep energy reliable and affordable."</p><h3 style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px; font-family: "Playfair Display", serif; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.333; font-size: 1.5rem;">An Unusual Alliance: Sierra Club + Tea Party</h3><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;">The gains of the last five years were made in part because people who are not normally political allies have worked together, or at least rowed their separate boats in the same direction.</p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;">Just a few years ago, critics, utilities and elected officials were saying solar power was too expensive and the state was too cloudy, recalled Sierra Club's Georgia Director Ted Terry.</p><div class="media media-element-container media-image_right_medium" style="box-sizing: inherit; max-width: 100%; float: right; margin: 0.25em 0px 0.25em 1.5em; width: 266.375px;"><figure id="file-270873" itemscope="itemscope" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" class="file file-image file-image-jpeg with-caption" style="box-sizing: inherit; max-width: 100%; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><img alt="Lauren 'Bubba' McDonald, Jr. Credit: Georgia PSC" title="Lauren 'Bubba' McDonald, Jr. Credit: Georgia PSC" height="672" width="530" class="media-element file-image-right-medium" typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://insideclimatenews.org/sites/default/files/styles/icn_full_wrap_wide/public/lauren-mcdonald_ga-psc.jpg?itok=3vn2cZt5" style="box-sizing: inherit; border: 0px; height: auto !important; max-width: 100%; display: block; float: none; width: 266.375px;" /><figcaption class="field field-name-field-image-caption field-type-text-long field-label-hidden" style="box-sizing: inherit; padding: 2em; color: rgb(74, 74, 74); font-size: 0.625rem; line-height: 1.6; border-right: 1px solid rgb(231, 231, 231); border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(231, 231, 231); border-left: 1px solid rgb(231, 231, 231); border-image: initial; border-top: none;"><div class="field-items" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Lauren 'Bubba' McDonald, Jr., chairman of Georgia's PSC</p></div></figcaption></figure></div><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;">"I give a lot of credit to Bubba (McDonald)," Terry said. "He actually went to Germany, where it is cloudy, and found how they were deploying solar without as much (sun) as in Georgia," he said. "When he sees something that's working, he's going for it. He sticks with it."</p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;">Dooley, whose Green Tea Coalition and out-of-the-ordinary views have drawn a lot of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/28/business/energy-environment/debbie-dooley-energy.html" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(131, 190, 68); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">national attention</a>, helped persuade the commission to expand solar in the state.</p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;">"You respect each other's differences and you understand everybody has a right to believe what they believe, and you focus on what you have in common," Dooley said.</p><h3 style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px; font-family: "Playfair Display", serif; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.333; font-size: 1.5rem;">The Big Lift: Getting the Legislature to Help</h3><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;">Success with a five-member commission is one thing. Moving the state's conservative legislature toward new policies that encourage rooftop or smaller-scale distributed solar will be a bigger political lift.</p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;">"Historically we have not had solar-friendly policies," said solar business owner Don Moreland, chair of the <a href="https://www.gasolar.org/" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(131, 190, 68); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">Georgia Solar Energy Association</a>. He described fighting for pro-solar legislation as "a long slog".</p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;">But that slog sometimes pays off, and Georgia in 2015 joined more than two dozen other states in <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/content/which-states-restrict-third-party-solar" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(131, 190, 68); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">allowing third parties</a> to finance limited-sized solar systems. Its Solar Power Free-Market Financing Act of 2015 was passed with support from a broad coalition of electric utilities, environmental interests and others. With this business model, homes and businesses are allowed to host solar panels installed and operated by a solar provider and, though long-term contracts, get some of their benefits without having to pay the up-front costs or maintenance. </p><div class="media media-element-container media-image_centered_medium" style="box-sizing: inherit; max-width: 648px; margin: 0.25em auto;"><figure id="file-270865" itemscope="itemscope" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" class="file file-image file-image-png" style="box-sizing: inherit; max-width: 100%; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><img alt="How Energy Costs Compare: Levelized Cost of Electricity" title="How Energy Costs Compare: Levelized Cost of Electricity" height="495" width="529" class="media-element file-image-centered-medium" typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://insideclimatenews.org/sites/default/files/styles/icn_centered_medium/public/ElectricityCostsFeverChartB529px_0.png?itok=YR-U_-AK" style="box-sizing: inherit; border: 0px; height: auto; max-width: 100%; display: block; float: none; margin: 0px auto;" /></figure></div><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;">Dooley, who in 2016 helped defeat a utility-backed measure in Florida to limit rooftop solar power, argues that the <a href="https://www.southerncompany.com/our-companies/southern-nuclear/plant-vogtle.html" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(131, 190, 68); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">nuclear plant</a> backlash in Georgia could open new opportunities for more coalition-building and more compromise to advance solar power.</p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;">"A lot of people are looking at it and wanting solar and renewable energy as a way to provide some kind of competition," she said. "A lot of Tea Party activists don't like monopolies at all."</p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;">Dooley wants to buck conservative doctrine and persuade the legislature to boost financial incentives for residential rooftop solar.</p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;">Even as utilities in other states try to claw back net metering policies, she wants Georgia lawmakers to make sure people with rooftop solar get a "fair market rate" for the extra electricity their solar panels produce.</p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;">Lawmakers should also make sure homeowners and businesses can sell electricity generated by their solar panels to their neighbors, she said. And she thinks electric cooperatives need to be told they must be faster connecting privately owned solar panels into their systems.</p><h3 style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px; font-family: "Playfair Display", serif; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.333; font-size: 1.5rem;">The Solar Message for a Conservative State</h3><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;">"It's all about the message," Dooley said. "Free market, competition, choice, expanding the energy portfolio and energy mix. I don't want excessive regulations."</p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;">Some lawmakers might be receptive to her arguments. But they're monitoring the political winds and watching Plant Vogtle.</p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;">"I wasn't a big supporter of solar, but the economics have drastically changed," said State Sen. <a href="http://www.senate.ga.gov/senators/en-US/member.aspx?Member=838" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(131, 190, 68); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">Chuck Hufstetler</a>, a Republican from northeast Georgia who chairs the Senate Finance Committee and has been critical of the nuclear plant's financing.</p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;">He echoed Dooley in saying Plant Vogtle's problems have voters looking for other energy choices and acknowledged he's thinking about introducing legislation with implications for solar power.</p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;">Terry, with the Sierra Club, said he's optimistic about solar in Georgia.</p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;">Solar technology continues to improve, he said. He noted that <a href="https://content.sierraclub.org/press-releases/2017/05/atlanta-commits-100-renewable-energy-2035" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(131, 190, 68); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">Atlanta</a> is expected this month to spell out how it intends to get all its electricity from clean fuel sources by 2035, likely giving solar another boost.</p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;">"It's just a good time to be in this space," he said. "There is so much happening with this technology."</p></div></div></div></div><div class="tagged-with" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; text-transform: uppercase; margin-bottom: 1em; font-size: 15px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><label style="box-sizing: inherit; display: block; color: rgb(125, 125, 125); font-size: 0.6875rem; line-height: 1.2;">PUBLISHED UNDER:</label><div class="field field-name-field-topics field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgb(131, 190, 68); font-size: 0.6875rem;"><div class="field-items" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="field-item even" style="box-sizing: inherit; display: inline-block; padding-right: 0.5em;"><a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/topics/clean-energy" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(131, 190, 68); text-decoration-line: none; font-size: 0.6875rem;">CLEAN ENERGY</a></div> <div class="field-item odd" style="box-sizing: inherit; display: inline-block; padding-right: 0.5em;"><a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/topics/regulation" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(131, 190, 68); text-decoration-line: none; font-size: 0.6875rem;">REGULATION</a></div> <div class="field-item even" style="box-sizing: inherit; display: inline-block; padding-right: 0.5em;"><a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/topics/business-and-accountability-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(131, 190, 68); text-decoration-line: none; font-size: 0.6875rem;">BUSINESS AND ACCOUNTABILITY</a></div> <div class="field-item odd" style="box-sizing: inherit; display: inline-block; padding-right: 0.5em;"><a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/topics/activism" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(131, 190, 68); text-decoration-line: none; font-size: 0.6875rem;">ACTIVISM</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgb(131, 190, 68); font-size: 0.6875rem;"><div class="field-items" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="field-item even" style="box-sizing: inherit; display: inline-block; padding-right: 0.5em;"><a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/topic/solar-energy" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(131, 190, 68); text-decoration-line: none; font-size: 0.6875rem;">SOLAR ENERGY</a></div> <div class="field-item odd" style="box-sizing: inherit; display: inline-block; padding-right: 0.5em;"><a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/tags/national-environment-reporting-network-southeast" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(131, 190, 68); text-decoration-line: none; font-size: 0.6875rem;">NATIONAL ENVIRONMENT REPORTING NETWORK - SOUTHEAST</a></div></div></div></div><div>===</div>