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PSC axes solar programs in light of EPA funds, advocates file lawsuit

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mississippitoday.org – Alex Rozier – 2024-05-15 12:10:31

PSC axes solar programs in light of EPA funds, advocates file lawsuit

Advocates from some of the state’s conservation groups — such as Audubon Delta, Mississippi Sierra Club and Steps Coalition — spoke out Wednesday against a recent by the Mississippi Public Service Commission to suspend several solar programs, “Solar for Schools,” less than two years after the previous commission put them in place.

“This is particularly disappointing because the need for these incentives in the of Mississippi is significant,” said Jonathan Green, executive director of Steps Coalition. “Energy costs in the South, and in particular the region known as the Black Belt, are higher than those in other parts of the country for a number of reasons. These regions tend to have older energy generation infrastructure, and housing that has not been weatherproofed to modern standards. For many low- to moderate-income in the state of Mississippi, energy burden and energy insecurity represent real daily economic challenges.”

The PSC voted 2-1 at its April docket meeting to do away with the programs, reasoning in part that new funds through the Inflation Reduction Act would be available to the state. About 10 days later, the Environmental Protection Agency awarded $62 million to the state, through the Hope Enterprise Corporation, to help low-income afford adding solar power to their homes. The funds are part of the Biden Administration’s Solar for All program, one of the several recent federal initiatives aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

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The PSC decision ended three programs the previous commission put in place to encourage wider adoption of solar power through the two power companies it regulates, Entergy Mississippi and : “Solar for Schools,” which allowed school districts to essentially build solar panels for free in exchange for tax credits, as well as incentives for low-income customers and battery storage.

Last Friday, the Sierra Club filed lawsuits in chancery courts in Hinds and Harrison counties against the commission, arguing the PSC broke state by not providing sufficient reasoning or public notice before making the changes. Advocates also argued that new going to Hope Enterprise won’t go as far without the PSC’s low-income incentives.

The programs were part of a 2022 addition to the state’s net metering rule, a system that allows homeowners to generate their own solar power and earn credits for excess energy on their electric bills. Mississippi’s version is less beneficial to participants than net metering in most states, though, because it doesn’t reimburse users at the full retail cost. Mississippi’s net metering program itself is still in tact.

Northern District Commissioner Chris Brown said that, while he supported efforts to expand solar power, he didn’t think programs that offer incentives from energy companies were fair to other ratepayers.

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Solar panels on the roof of the performing arts center at North Forrest High School. Credit: Mike Papas / Forrest County School District

“It’s the subsidy that we take issue with,” Brown said at the meeting. “It’s not the solar, it’s not the helping the schools. We just don’t think it’s good policy to spread that to the rest of the ratepayers.”

Brown and Southern District Commissioner Wayne Carr voted to end the programs, while Central District Commissioner De’Keither Stamps voted against the motion. All three are in their first terms on the PSC. Brown’s position is in line with what the power companies as well as Gov. Tate Reeves have argued, which is that programs like net metering forces non-participants to subsidize those who participate.

Robert Wiygul, an attorney for the Mississippi Sierra Club, countered that argument during Wednesday’s press conference, saying that net metering actually helps non-participants by adding more power to the grid and reducing the strain on the power companies’ other infrastructure. Moreover, he said, the PSC hasn’t offered actual numbers showing that non-participants are subsidizing the program.

“Look, if the commission wants to talk about that, we are ready to talk about it,” Wiygul said. “But what we got here is a situation where these two commissioners just decided they were going to do this. We don’t even know what that claim is really based on because it hasn’t been through the public notice and hasn’t been through the public comment process.”

While no schools had officially enrolled in “Solar for Schools,” which went into effect in January of last year, Stamps told that there were places in his district getting ready to participate in the very programs the PSC voted to suspend.

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Mississippi Public Service Central District Commissioner De’Keither Stamps, discusses current agency operations across the state during an interview at district headquarters, Friday, Feb. 23, 2024, in Jackson. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today

“My issue was we should have talked to the entities that were going through the process to (understand what they were doing) to participate in the programs before you eliminate the programs,” he said.

Several school districts in the state are already using solar panels thanks to funding from a past settlement with Mississippi Power. Officials there told Mississippi Today that the extra power generated from the panels has freed up spending for other educational needs. During the public comment period for the 2022 net metering update, about a dozen school district superintendents from around the state wrote in to support the initiative. Ninety-five school districts in the state would have been eligible for the program because they receive power from Entergy Mississippi or Mississippi Power.

Former commissioner Brent Bailey, who lost a close reelection bid in November to Stamps, was an advocate for the schools program that the PSC created while he was there. At the April docket meeting, he pleaded with the new commission to reconsider, arguing that the new federal funding won’t have the same impact without those programs.

“My ask is to at least give this program a , see where it goes, and hear from stakeholders that have participated,” Bailey said. The solar programs, he added, weren’t just about expanding renewable energy, but taking advantage of a growing economy around solar power as well: “We can just stand by and watch it go by, or we can participate in this and bring economic development to the state.”

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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Mississippi Today

On this day in 1954

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mississippitoday.org – Jerry Mitchell – 2024-09-07 07:00:00

Sept. 7, 1954

First-graders recite the Pledge of Allegiance in 1955 at Gwynns Falls Elementary School in Baltimore, Maryland. Credit: Courtesy of Maryland Center for History and Culture. Credit: Richard Stacks

In compliance with the recent Brown v. Board of Education , schools in Baltimore and Washington, D.C., were desegregated. Baltimore was one of the first school to desegregate below the Mason-Dixon line. 

A month after a dozen Black began attending what had been an all-white school, demonstrations took place, one of them turning violent when 800 whites attacked four Black students. White began pulling their out of the schools, and by 1960, the district was majority Black.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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USM admin say program cuts are necessary to afford future pay raises for faculty, staff

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mississippitoday.org – Molly Minta – 2024-09-06 13:03:19

The of Southern Mississippi will look at cutting under-enrolled programs even though administrators say it is not facing a financial crisis.

The budget is balanced, despite a four-year period of decreasing revenue and increasing costs, and USM has adequate cash reserves.

The move is necessary, top said at last month’s convocation, so the research institution in Hattiesburg can survive the increasingly competitive future facing higher education in Mississippi by becoming a “unicorn” among its peers, offering programs students want and the needs.

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“Colleagues, this is plain and simply the reality of where we are in higher education , and progressive institutions all across the landscape are doing the same,” President Joe Paul told faculty on Aug. 19, according to a video the university has since taken off YouTube after faculty and staff had a to watch it. “We can no longer simply kick the can down the road and hope things can get better. We will instead take charge of our future and crease a uniquely positioned, distinctive public research universty of which we can all be proud and feel ownership.”

Paul added that cuts are also one of the few ways the university can afford more pay raises for its faculty and staff, some of whom will receive merit raises this fall for the first time in eight years. (After protesting, minimum wage workers at USM won a pay raise two years ago.)

“My goal for us is not to go another eight years before offering raises again, that accomplishes little,” Paul said. “If we are to develop a true salary increase plan that is competitive and sustainable, we simply must continue to do two things with discipline and consistency. One, we must all continue to grow the enrollment through recruitment and retention … while also continuing to find efficiencies and decrease spending as an institution.”

USM was able to afford the raises, which total about $4.4 million, through what Paul described as two years of systematic reductions in administrative spending. The university cut 22 unfilled and six filled positions at its Hattiesburg and Park campuses.

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An increase in state appropriations also helped support the raise, but USM isn’t able to say how much because “the raises come from the university’s operating budget and the amount is not broken down by revenue source,” Nicole Ruhnke, a spokesperson, wrote in an email.

The raises addressed a significant concern for faculty at USM who held a protest for fair pay earlier this year.

Low salaries are an issue across Mississippi’s higher education system, which has struggled to attract and retain talented faculty. In recent years, the governing board of Mississippi’s eight universities has repeatedly heard how Mississippi’s faculty and staff are paid well below the average salary of other Southern states.

In an effort to fix that, the Institutions of Higher Learning Board of Trustees asked the to provide $53 million in this year so that each university could afford a 6.4% raise.

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IHL’s spokesperson John Sewell wrote in an email that the system ultimately received $27 million in unrestricted new funding, not enough for 6.4% increase.

That funding also needed to cover other inflationary costs facing the institutions, like PERS and insurance, Sewell wrote.

Therefore, IHL left the final decision on raises up to the institutions, so Sewell could not say how much each university spent. Plus, the system’s final appropriation bill, which IHL negotiates on behalf of the eight institutions, did not include specific language regarding raises.

“IHL did not prescribe a fixed amount of new funding to be dedicated to raises as the individual institutions needed the flexibility to balance the increased costs for PERS and health insurance along with other inflationary costs before considering the amount for possible raises,” Sewell wrote.

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Those costs are also driving USM administrators’ of under-enrolled programs, which comprise a minority of USM’s programs.

Lance Nail, the provost, is leading that effort. In response to questions from Mississippi Today, Nail and Paul did not participate in an interview but provided statements.

Nail wrote that details about the program review will be worked out in the coming weeks in consultation with faculty, staff and administration.

“We will look at each under-enrolled academic program individually in collaboration with the deans, school directors and faculty, and determine what has led to low enrollment, student and market demand, as well as other contributions the program provides within the academy.” Nail noted. “These include the program’s contributions to the general education core, pre-major requirements, research and service.”

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Last fall, USM deleted three degrees after IHL’s academic productivity review, which is triggered when a program is deemed to have too few graduates in a three-year period. Those degrees were a bachelors in international studies, and doctoral degrees in music education and criminal justice.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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Mississippi Today

Richard Lake joins Mississippi Today as audience engagement specialist

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mississippitoday.org – 2024-09-06 07:00:00

Mississippi Today is pleased to announce that Richard Lake has joined the Mississippi Today team as Audience Engagement Specialist. 

In this role, Lake will work directly with journalists, editors and to ensure Mississippi Today’s Pulitzer Prize-winning journalism reaches every corner of the and beyond.

“Richard has developed into a respected member of the journalism community here in Mississippi,” said managing editor Michael Guidry. “He brings such an invaluable variety of skills to our newsroom that will us further enhance how we engage with our members and growing audience.”

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Born in San Antonio, , Lake graduated from Mississippi State in 2022, earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a minor in political science. Richard to Mississippi Today after over two years as WJTV Channel 12 ‘ Senior Political Correspondent. A former Mississippi Today intern, Lake previously worked on the audience team. He also completed an internship with MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports, working as a production assistant.

While at WJTV, Lake was named a finalist for TV Rookie of the Year at the 2023 Mississippi Association of Broadcasters . Lake was also a part of WJTV’s award winning reporting on Mississippi’s 2023 gubernatorial election.

“Finding creative ways to provide our audience with the journalism they expect and deserve is more important now than ever,” said Lake. “I’m to apply innovative strategies and work alongside this incredible team in furthering the impact of our reporting.”

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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