Alabama Power receives approval for solar facility in Butler County
The Alabama Public Service Commission today approved Alabama Power’s proposal for an 80-megawatt HEP Greenville solar project to be located in Butler County. The commission also approved a contract between Alabama Power and Wells Fargo to allow the bank to subscribe to a portion of the Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) from the newly approved facility. This solar project is the largest facility to date under the Renewable Generation Certificate approved by the commission in 2015. Annual output generated from the HEP Greenville solar project is equivalent to the amount of energy used in nearly 15,000 homes. Under the 10-year contract, Wells Fargo will receive about 47% of the RECs from the solar facility, equivalent to 80,000 MWh annually and representing about 80% of its electric needs in the state. Alabama Power will market the remaining RECs from the project to other customers. The project is expected to create about 250 construction jobs while generating more than $6 million in tax revenue for Butler County and the city of Greenville over the life of the project. Commercial operation is expected to begin by January 2024. “We appreciate the commission’s vote today and are excited about our partnership with Wells Fargo to build on our focus of delivering long-term value to our customers while growing solar resources,” said Tony Smoke, Alabama Power’s senior vice president of Marketing and Economic Development. Since 2017, Wells Fargo has met 100% of its global electricity requirements with renewable energy through the purchase of RECs. Today’s announcement transitions the firm’s efforts to long-term agreements that support the development of net-new sources of renewable energy. To date, Wells Fargo has entered into more than 120 long-term contracts, supporting the development of more than 825 megawatts of net-new renewable energy. In addition to helping Wells Fargo meet its environmental goals, the strategy helps deliver community benefits like job creation, tax revenue, and economic development where its customers and employees live and work. “Leveraging our annual energy spend to advance green infrastructure development in the U.S. and create new revenue streams for communities is one way we are helping contribute to more sustainable, equitable, and resilient communities,” said Richard Henderson, head of Wells Fargo’s Corporate Properties Group. “We appreciate the collaboration with Alabama Power to advance our enterprise sustainability goals in a way that benefits the local economy.” This project is the fourth approved under the Renewable Generation Certificate, in addition to the Anniston Army Depot, Fort Rucker, and LaFayette solar projects. To date, the commission has approved about 170 megawatts of solar generation under this certificate. By Alabama NewsCenter Staff
Alabama National Guard adjusts to looming budget shortfall
States around the nation are facing budget shortfalls for their National Guards following long stints in Washington D.C. after they were called upon to protect the U.S. Capitol. Gov. Kay Ivey activated the Alabama National Guard in January. The 750 soldiers were activated soon after the Capitol protests and returned home the day after the Inauguration. During The Dan Morris radio show on 93.1 Newstalk last week, guest host Apryl Marie Fogel* fielded a call stating that some Alabama National Guard training camps and drills were being canceled. Fogel reached out to Gina Maiola in Governor Kay Ivey’s office, who referred her to the National Guard. Sandra D. Lucas, the Deputy Director of Public Affairs for the JFHQ Alabama National Guard, replied that Lucas responded, “The FY21 federal reimbursement to the National Guard Bureau has been delayed, causing a funding shortfall for the remainder of the fiscal year. This is due to supported events that were not planned for, or were underfunded, or underestimated. Although we are going to have to make changes to our schedule, every effort is being made to minimize impact to readiness. “As we are preparing to minimize expenses due to a shortage of fourth-quarter funding, the Alabama National Guard is adjusting the remaining FY21 annual training requirements. Readiness is our main priority, therefore, individuals who require annual training days will be given the opportunity to attend annual training to meet their 15-day active training requirement. “The head of the National Guard Bureau, Gen. Daniel Hokanson, publicly warned lawmakers in May that the Guard must be reimbursed by August to avoid impacts on training in the final months of the fiscal year. In the ensuing months, those warnings have become more stark. A July 6 National Guard report warns of far-reaching effects on training, vehicle, and aviation readiness as well as facility sustainment efforts if lawmakers don’t approve more money by the beginning of August.” “Without timely reimbursement by August 1, 2021, the National Guard will experience critical readiness impacts across its entire enterprise,” the report states. The report was shared by the offices of Steve Womack and Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-Ill.), who are pressing House and Senate leadership to quickly reimburse the Guard. “We are preparing to minimize expenses due to a shortage of fourth-quarter funding, but none of this is a new challenge for the Alabama National Guard. If the past year has proved anything, it’s the capability and adaptability of Guardsmen to meet any demands regardless of unforeseen circumstances.” Lucas concluded, “We are confident in the resilience of our Soldiers and Airmen. Whether we drill 12 months per year or only 10, we will remain Always Ready and Always There.” *Editorial Disclaimer: Apryl Marie Fogel is the owner and publisher of Alabama Today.
Birmingham’s Kamau Marshall joins Joe Biden administration
Former Birmingham resident Kamau Marshall has joined the Joe Biden administration’s communications team as Deputy Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Media and Public Affairs, Al.com reported. He previously served as a Spokesperson and Senior Advisor for outreach and communications to the CEO and Co-Chairs for the 59th Presidential Inaugural Committee. Most recently, Kamau was the Director of Strategic Communications for the 2020 Biden presidential campaign. Marshall moved to Alabama as a youth, moving from Pittsburgh to Birmingham. “They’re not that far apart culturally,” Marshall told AL.com. “Both are blue-collar cities with strong Black communities; both are steel mill towns. I was very excited as a young child moving, mainly due to the civil rights aspects and its history,” he added. “Yes, I was that child—very excited about moving to Birmingham.” Marshall also served in the Obama-Biden Administration as the Communications Advisor and Speechwriter at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He was a special assistant to the late Congressman Elijah E. Cummings. “It’s exciting to serve this president and vice president at this time,” said Marshall, who lived in Midfield, Fairfield, and Ensley. “There’s a strong focus on economics and trade—things a lot of people don’t think about regarding how they relate to their day-to-day lives. Economics and trade are how the world goes.” A graduate of Texas Southern University, he considers himself a native of many cities and states, and while his brothers graduated from Wenona High School, they moved to Georgia before he was able to attend. “I loved my time in Birmingham; it played a critical role in my life,” he says. “It’s part of my foundation, especially for a person who previously lived up north—providing a solid sense of community and southern living. Southern manners can take you far.” Marshall’s mother was an Alabama native, and he still has relatives in Alabama—in Tuscaloosa and Huntsville. “It’s really like we never left,” he said.
With pandemic worsening in U.S., surgeon general worried
The U.S. surgeon general said Sunday that he’s concerned about what lies ahead with cases of COVID-19 increasing in every state, millions still unvaccinated, and a highly contagious virus variant spreading rapidly. Noting that nearly all coronavirus deaths now are among the tens of millions of people who haven’t received shots, despite widespread vaccine availability, Dr. Vivek Murthy painted an unsettling picture of what the future could hold. “I am worried about what is to come because we are seeing increasing cases among the unvaccinated in particular. And while, if you are vaccinated, you are very well protected against hospitalization and death, unfortunately, that is not true if you are not vaccinated,” Murthy said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” U.S. cases of COVID-19 last week increased by 17,000 nationwide over a 14-day period for the first time since late fall, and an increase in death historically follows a spike in illness. Much of the worsening problem is being driven by the delta variant first identified in India, that has since hit the United Kingdom and other countries, said Murthy. While U.S. case numbers and hospitalizations are still far below levels from the worst of the pandemic early this year, Murthy said the worsening situation shows the need to convince more people to get inoculations. “It is our fastest, most effective way out of this pandemic,” he said. About 186 million Americans have received at least one shot, but another 90 million eligible Americans haven’t. Officials are trying to overcome a refusal among some — particularly conservative, rural white people — to get vaccinated, but it’s unclear how to do that. So, in the meantime, at least, some places have reverted to health precautions that had been cast aside. In Las Vegas, some resorts and casinos are again requiring employees to wear masks in response to a recommendation issued by health officials amid rising COVID-19 case rates in Nevada; it ranks fifth among U.S. states for the most new cases per capita over the last two weeks. Los Angeles County late Saturday reinstated rules requiring everyone to wear masks inside public buildings. Around San Francisco’s Bay Area, which has some of the highest vaccination rates in California, health officials have recommended that everyone again wear masks inside public buildings, regardless of their vaccination status. But in conservative Alabama, where COVID-19 hospitalizations have more than doubled in a month and only about a third of the population is fully vaccinated, officials have refused to reinstitute statewide health rules or use gimmicks such as lotteries to boost immunizations. “I think the best thing for us to do is just encourage everyone to use their common sense and practice personal responsibility and make themselves and their families safe,” Gov. Kay Ivey told reporters last week. Cases also are on the rise in Springfield, Missouri, where Mayor Ken McClure told CBS-TV’s “Face the Nation” that false information about the pandemic was hampering the fight to get people vaccinated. “I think we are seeing a lot spread through social media as people are talking about fears which they have, health-related fears, what it might do to them later on in their lives, what might be contained in the vaccinations,” he said. Murthy, the surgeon general, said “not nearly enough” progress was being made in the fight against misinformation spread through social media about COVID-19 and vaccines. Individuals, not just platforms such as Facebook, need to combat the problem, he said. “Each of us has a decision that we make every time we post something on social media, and I’m asking people to pause and to see, is a source accurate? Is it coming from a scientifically credible authority? And if it’s not, or if you’re not sure, don’t share,” he said. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
Alabama asks feds if COVID funds can be used for prisons
Alabama is asking federal officials whether COVID-19 recovery funds can be used to improve state prisons with “better, enhanced, and/or extended infrastructure.” The Montgomery Advertiser reports that Corrections Commissioner Jeff Dunn sent a letter to the U.S. Treasury Department asking the question. Dunn framed the request as enhancing health care and programming for inmates. Lawmakers have previously said they want to know if pandemic recovery funds can be used for prison construction and renovations. The question arose after Gov. Kay Ivey’s plan to lease prisons fell apart because of financing concerns. “The average age of ADOC’s facilities is over 43 years old, and while many have expanded, most have exceeded, in the past, the original design capacity,” the letter said. “Because of this, medical and mental health care and programming space is limited in many of ADOC’s facilities.” Dunn’s letter said prison improvement would comply with the guidance in federal rules that the money, along with financially helping households and businesses, can help with “systemic public health and economic challenges that may have contributed to more severe impacts of the pandemic among low-income communities and people of color.” Dunn wrote that almost all prisoners are considered indigent, and more than half are “people of color.” “These disadvantages were further exacerbated by the communal living situation,” he wrote. The letter says the prison system could use the money to increase space in prisons for health care staffing and programming and expand broadband to offer more remote learning. The U.S. Department of Justice last year sued Alabama over conditions in the state prisons, saying the state is failing to protect male inmates from inmate-on-inmate violence and excessive force at the hands of prison staff. The lawsuit alleges that conditions in the prison system are so poor that they violate the ban on cruel and unusual punishment and that state officials are “deliberately indifferent” to the problems. The state is disputing the Justice Department’s allegations. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
Alabama hospital sending COVID-19 vaccination team to Peru
A south Alabama hospital that vaccinated thousands of people against COVID-19 plans to send a team to do immunizations in Peru, which has been hit hard by the pandemic. USA Health said more than 20 volunteers will travel to the country’s Cusco region. CerviCusco, a nongovernmental agency in Peru, sought the assistance, the health system said in a statement. “Our plan is to travel to Peru in mid-August, establish processes and protocols for safe and efficient vaccine distribution in the region with a goal of providing 5,000 doses to the people of Peru,” said Natalie Fox, assistant administrator, and chief nursing officer for USA Health Physicians Group. USA Health has provided more than 75,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines on the Gulf Coast, including at mass clinics where more than 2,200 people received injections daily. To raise money for expenses, Mobile-based Synergy Laboratories is matching up to $10,000 in donations to the USA Health outreach campaign. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
Pro-liberty student group sues UAH over speech policy
Young Americans for Liberty, a student group at the University of Alabama Huntsville (UAH), sued the school over a campus speech policy Tuesday. The school’s “Use of Outdoor Areas of Campus” policy requires students to seek approval for campus speakers three days in advance and leaves the permits subject to university approval. The conservative student group argued that this policy violated Alabama’s Campus Free Speech Act by affording the university the ability to cherrypick which viewpoints are permitted on campus. Attorneys from Alliance Defending Freedom are currently representing the UAH campus chapter of Young Americans for Liberty in the suit filed in Madison County. “Alabama law is clear: students don’t need a permit from college officials to speak on campus, but that’s exactly what the University of Alabama in Huntsville is doing—violating the law and shutting down speech on campus,” ADF Legal Counsel Michael Ross said. “Public universities are the very places that should be encouraging free speech, not stifling it with burdensome and illegal rules.” A representative of UAH did not comment on the specifics of pending legislation but stated, “The University of Alabama System Board of Trustees, the University of Alabama System, and the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) are steadfastly committed to the freedom of speech and expression for all campus community members. Our policies were implemented to preserve this important constitutional right.”
