APN Endorses Abrams; Chapman; Dawkins-Haigler, Noel
(APN) ATLANTA — The Atlanta Progressive News Board of Directors has issued the following endorsements:
DEMOCRATIC NOMINATION FOR GOVERNOR: FORMER MINORITY LEADER STACEY ABRAMS
We endorse former State Rep. Stacey Abrams (D-Atlanta) because we believe she is the better choice over former State Rep. Stacey Evans (D-Smyrna) – not because we perceive Abrams to be the ultra-progressive candidate that her campaign has miraculously rebranded her to be.
When we looked back at State House votes by Fulton and DeKalb delegation members that we scored for 2014, 2015, and 2016, we found two votes by Abrams that were concerning: (1) her support for HB 891 that reduced early voting from 45 days to 21 days; and (2) her support for HB 397 that disbanded the State’s now-former Soil and Water Conservation agency.
However, Evans also supported both measures.
In addition, Evans supported the reauthorization of a Georgia scholarship fund that allows private donors to receive tax credits for funding private school tuition in an early vote on the measure, although she later voted against it.
In general, we believe that Rep. Abrams is a fighter, whereas we observed Rep. Evans often sitting quietly in House Committees.
Rep. Abrams, furthermore, has a strong belief in democratic participation, which is so critical to progressive social change. She led a huge voter registration effort called the New Georgia Project that was the subject of a false attack by Secretary of State Brian Kemp.
For those reasons, we endorse Stacey Abrams for the Democratic nomination for Governor of Georgia.
DEMOCRATIC NOMINATION FOR SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT: SID CHAPMAN
Sid Chapman, the President of the Georgia Association of Educators, has been down at the Capitol opposing legislation that has been aimed at the dismantling of public schools.
His opponent, Otha Thornton, said he supports any charter school supported by a local school district, in a video posted to Youtube. Samuel Mosteller has not posted a platform to his website.
We believe that after all these years of a Democratic Party uncritical charter school love fest, it would be a good thing to have a teachers’ union leader at the helm of Georgia’s public schools.
DEMOCRATIC NOMINATION FOR SECRETARY OF STATE: FORMER STATE REP. DEE DAWKINS-HAIGLER
It was a tough choice between former State Rep. Dee Dawkins-Haigler (D-Lithonia) and R.J. Hadley, but in the end we felt that Rep. Dawkins-Haigler’s legislative experience, particularly in introducing several bills related to expanding democratic participation in Georgia, demonstrated a level of readiness for the role.
Former U.S. Rep. John Barrow (D-GA) did not respond to APN’s request for a response to our candidate questionnaire. Dawkins-Haigler and Hadley both responded.
Both candidates say they are ready to replace Georgia’s E-voting machines with new machines and a process that will require a voter verifiable paper audit trail.
We were pleased with Dawkins-Haigler’s specificity with regard to her position on petition requirements for independent and third party candidates in Georgia: to eliminate them and allow such candidates to pay a simple qualifying fee just like Democratic and Republican candidates. Hadley said he supported ballot access, but was less specific.
Another difference is that Hadley said he would support going back to 45 days of early voting, while Dawkins-Haigler said she believes the current 21 days is sufficient. While we had some concern and discussion about this, we have still decided to endorse Dawkins-Haigler.
DEMOCRATIC NOMINATION FOR PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION DISTRICT 3: FORMER STATE REP. JOHN NOEL
We are pleased to endorse John Noel, who is adamantly against nuclear power, who has expertise in solar power, and who has been an active participant in the various hearings and meetings of the Georgia Public Service Commission.
Lindy Miller did not respond to APN’s candidate questionnaire.
(END / Copyright Atlanta Progressive News / 2018)
To those in PSC races who are against nuclear power and suggesting solar power is the answer for future electricity should stop and think about what they are doing. Electric power sources are rated by capacity factors which is the ratio of number of hours per year of electricity generation divided by the number of hours in a year which is 8760 hours.
Capacity factors for nuclear power plants across the nation are 0.9 or greater. The Vogtle plants will probably run for 80 years and generate electricity for 0.9x80x8770 = 630720 Megawatt-hours per Megawatt of plant size. If the plants costs are $25 billion and each plant is 1100 Megawatts, we have plant cost of $11.4 million per Megawatt. This gives a cost of $11.4 million/630720 = $18 per Megawatt-hour. This 1.8 cents per kilowatt-hour capital cost for the electricity generated over the plant lifetime.
Solar plants in the deserts of CA or AZ have capacity factors of 0.19 where average rainfall is 5 inches per year. Atlanta has 50 inches of rainfall per year and capacity factors are about 0.14. This means solar plants generate about 1300 kilowatt-hours per year per kilowatt. What do you do for electricity when the sun does not shine about three quarters of the time. Solar plants might last 25 years and the plant may generate 30,000 kilowatt-hours over that time period. If the plant costs $3000 per kilowatt, the capital cost of electricity is $0.1 or 10 cents per kilowatt-hour. This is six times more than the nuclear power.
What do you do for electricity when the solar plant doesn’t produce electricity most of the time?
Beware of PSC candidates promoting solar energy because they don’t know what they are doing.
Way to go APN, choosing another political candidate that turns their back, on their own….
James Rust, what a disingenuous argument for nuclear power. “Vogtle plants will probably run for 80 years” huh? Since no nuclear power plant on the planet has ever operated more than 48 years, the whole premise of your cost analysis falls apart. There is simply is no empirical evidence that they will probably run 80 years. Same holds true for your analysis against solar, based on your assumption “Solar plants might last 25 years”. Evidence please. According to Wikipedia, the cost for nuclear power was about $96 per Megawatt-hour as of 2012, more than 5 times the $18 in the faulty analysis. I really doubt its gotten lower 2012.
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