Fresh Loaf

Gov. Sonny Perdue has rehashed some tips as to how Georgians can conserve fuel in these gas-strapped times. It’s just that something’s missing from the list:

· Drive sensibly: Speeding, rapid acceleration (jackrabbit starts), and rapid braking lowers gas mileage.

· Choose the right vehicle: If you own more than one vehicle, drive the one that gets better gas mileage whenever possible.

· Decrease speed: Gas mileage decreases rapidly when driving more than 60 miles-per-hour.

· Avoid idling: Idling gets zero miles per gallon. Cars with larger engines typically waste more gas while idling than cars with smaller engines.

· Commute alternatives are also a useful way to conserve fuel, including telework, carpool and transit options, and flexible work schedules. More information is available about commute alternatives at www.CleanAirCampaign.com.

After straying from the talking points and getting called out for it by bloggers and the AJC’s Jim Galloway, it seems like the governor got the memo this go-round. It’d sure be bad to repeat Barack Obama’s advice to the country hours before a much-anticipated presidential debate. Especially when that advice makes sense.

Politics aside, here’s the rundown on fuel: The gas shortage is expected to ease in the middle of next week, according to U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss, who when not soliciting endorsements from barbers and funeral directors, talks to the folks in the know. State officials are asking residents to conserve so stations can get a chance to replenish their supplies. (Topping off and filling up prior to running low keeps supply at a minimum.) If possible, hit up public transit, ride a bicycle or carpool. If you’re looking for stations that have gas, SpaceyG points you to the TwitterNetz.

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Number of tornado warnings issued last Tuesday in metro Atlanta because of Tropical Storm Fay: 5

Gallons of rain the tempest added to Lake Lanier, the metro area’s main source of drinking water: 22 billion

Number of days that additional water can last metro Atlanta: 50

Inches Lake Lanier rose last Monday and Tuesday thanks to the storm: 30

Number of feet the lake is still below full level: 15

Average number of gallons released daily from Lake Lanier this month: 1.2 billion

Number of years since the lake’s level has been that low: 52

Gallons that could be saved if pre-1993 metro Atlanta homes replaced their antiquated plumbing fixtures: 183 million

Percentage of respondents in a recent poll who said they were less concerned about the drought this year than they were in 2007: 48

Sources: Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Rasmussen Reports, Metropolitan North Georgia Water District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

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TESTY: Iran test-fires more missiles overnight, although maybe not as many as it claims.

TESTES: Jesse Jackson apologizes for his bizarre comments about Barack Obama caught by a Fox News microphone he didn’t know was on.

CONSERVATION PIECE: The Georgia DNR is working on buying 1,800 acres of land between Pigeon and Lookout mountains in North Georgia.

BRIAN NICHOLS TRIAL: Starts today.

DNA EVIDENCE: Clears JonBenet Ramsey’s parents in her 1996 killing, points to “unexplained third party.”

PEOPLE: Twenty thousand of them moved to Atlanta from 2006 to 2007, putting the city’s population at more than 500,000.

OUT OF THE BAG: A mysterious spotted wildcat was found and detained in Midtown early this morning. UPDATE: It’s an ocelot serval.

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Good job, one and all.

Atlanta’s Department of Watershed Management reports the city’s business and residential customers used an average of 91.22 million gallons of water a day last month, besting its conservation goal by 7.5 percent. Customers used 17 percent less than the 109.57 million gallons a day slurped in June 2007.

Those wacky bond payments being what they are, expect a token of the city’s appreciation to be included in your next water bill.

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Travis Fain of the Macon Telegraph, who’s perhaps the best journalist covering General Assembly shenanigans without actually having to step foot under the Gold Dome’s evil shadow, has an astoundingly thorough post on his Lucid Idiocy blog about General Assembly leaders’ talk of water-conservation legislation and what’s actually taken shape.

Before the session began, both Gov. Sonny Perdue and Speaker of the House Glenn Richardson told me that, in addition to new reservoir funding this year, they expected water conservation legislation to move.

This was Gov. Perdue’s comment, in January:

Perdue said new building codes “for the future” and tax credits for more efficient water usage are both likely. But the governor twice noted that the state doesn’t want to usurp local power over water resources.

And the Speaker in November:

I’m not going to pass legislation to tell people you’ve got to have a low-flow toilet. I think we could change our policies on EPD, with wastewater treatment, to point discharge instead of sprayer irrigation. I think we can change some really basic things that have to do with leakage. … You do realize that leakage in existing pipes is somewhere between 10 and 12 percent loss per day, just leaking out of pipes. And that’s a problem. … I do see a possible piece of legislation in addition to the reservoir piece that might look into the viability of creating a water resource division to work with Environmental Protection Division. Clearly Environmental Protection Division has not done an adequate job of protecting Georgia’s water resources over the last 10 or 15 years.

…

Reservoirs were definitely addressed, with $40 million included in the 2008 budget adjustment for new reservoirs and $500,000 there for existing reservoir maintenance.

As for conservation, it doesn’t seem like a lot of legislation came to fruition. There are several bills dealing with water usage that have either passed or are still alive. Most of them seem to make it easier to use more water as opposed to encouraging conservation, but you should judge for yourself.

Two caveats: 1.) Things change fast these last few days, and bill language is no exception. 2.) The vote status comes from the General Assembly’s Web site Wednesday evening, which may be a little behind.

Read here for more.

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Congratulations, 61 counties of drought-addled Georgia — you’ve conserved 348 million gallons each day, or enough water to serve 1.7 million homes! Them be the facts spoken by Gov. Sonny Perdue during a press conference today in his office at the Capitol.

In mid-October, Perdue demanded all permit holders reduce their water use by 10 percent compared to an average of their use from the previous year. Permit holders are users such as utility providers, industries and municipalities that use more than 100,000 gallons of water per day. The governor said today that since the demand, just under half — 46 out of 97 permit holders — met that goal. DeKalb County and the city of Atlanta said they just missed the cut, although the city is included in the governor’s list.

The state Environmental Protection Division is contacting those that did not meet the goal to inquire why. He added that there may or may not be any type of consequence for those who do not reduce water usage by 10 percent. Any such measure would not be implemented until after the state worked with those users and judged if they had made efforts to cut back their water use, Perdue said. The state predicts 17 of the largest water users are expected to meet the goal during December.

The list of those good utilities and municipalities who did make the cut, after the jump.

(more…)

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