Hard Pass

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/8563702

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/51209

Georgia is one of only ten states that elects its utility commission — the board that has final say over how much millions of Georgians pay for electricity. The state’s public service commission, or PSC, also has substantial say over how that electricity is made and, because fossil fuel power plants are a leading producer of the greenhouse gases, the PSC’s decisions directly influence Georgia’s climate future.

From 2006 until last year, all five members of the PSC were Republicans. Democrats Peter Hubbard and Alicia Johnson won upset victories and have since made it more difficult for Georgia Power to have their decisions rubber stamped. Those elections have had ripple effects in other utility commission races around the country: In Arizona, national activist groups on both sides of the aisle have gotten involved in the race; Alabama lawmakers overhauled their commission in an attempt to shield it from the chance that voters will oust its Republicans.

On Tuesday, Georgia held party primaries for two seats on the PSC. November’s elections, then, will be the Democrats’ next chance to win a majority presence on the commission, and could lead to more renewable energy in Georgia and more scrutiny of Georgia Power’s ongoing expansion plans.

In the District Five race, Democrat Shelia Edwards defeated opponents Craig Cupid and Angelia Pressley. Republicans Bobby Mehan and Josh Tolbert will square off in a runoff on June 16. Libertarian Thomas Blooming is also running for the seat.

“I’m running to be that third vote that’s gonna help them change the trajectory of the PSC,” said Edwards in an interview before the primary. “And to bring some balance to something that’s been completely imbalanced for years.”

Edwards, Mehan, and Tolbert have all said they support clean energy, but the Republican candidates clarified they don’t support any sort of renewable energy mandate.

“I do not think there is a place on the commission for advocates,” said Tolbert. “It’s not a legislative body. It doesn’t set particular policies. Its job is to ensure that Georgians have reliable, affordable electricity.”

Tolbert’s main pitch to voters has been his technical expertise as an engineer with experience working in multiple types of power plants. Mehan, meanwhile, has said his business experience means he can find innovative solutions to problems. He described himself as a pro-gas, pro-nuclear, “all the above energy guy.”

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Control of the commission does not hinge only on Edwards’s race, however. It will also come down to whether Hubbard can retain his seat. The race for District Three could come down to a rematch between Hubbard and Fitz Johnson. Last year’s election in District Three, which Hubbard won, was only for a one-year term. Hubbard ran unopposed in the Democratic primary, but the Republican race was too close to call as of Wednesday afternoon. Johnson leads his primary opponent Brandon Martin by less than 3,000 votes. The results fall within the margin for a recount should Martin request one. Martin did not reply to requests for comment on the result. The winner will serve a full, six-year term.

Unlike most candidates from both parties in the primary, Johnson says the commission has done enough to protect ordinary ratepayers from the costs of serving data centers — a hot-button issue as more data centers flock to the state and Georgia Power spends billions of dollars on new resources to serve them.

The commission’s votes on that utility expansion help drive home the repercussions of this election.

In December, after the two Democrats’ resounding election victory but before the new commissioners took their seats, the five Republican commissioners voted unanimously to approve Georgia Power’s proposal to add 10 gigawatts of energy, most of it made with natural gas.

Earlier this year, advocates pushed the commission to reconsider some of the new energy, arguing that the plan would generate more electricity than the utility’s own forecast calls for. The commission, they argued, overstepped its legal authority. The new Democratic commissioners voted to reopen the issue, but the effort failed — with all three Republicans voting against it.

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Georgia’s PSC elections have become a referendum on energy prices on May 21, 2026.

From Grist via This RSS Feed.

cross-posted from: https://piefed.world/c/shit/p/1149726/not-my-theoretical-degree-in-physics

The discerning palette of the residents of Jhelum (Jhelumites?) can be witnessed flocking to the respected Canadian Establishment.

Google link :

I have no idea how to make this joke seem less like an advert while still being funny

EDIT : They even have a "Hardees"! Pakistan is poppin off these days, they have an excellent Tekken scene and all these north american franchise locations.

EDIT2 : Come on down to Pakistan! It's all hip happenin' here!

I currently run all my self-hosted apps either on Podman in a VM or in LXCs on Proxmox. For hardware, I'm using a Chinese-made mini computer with an Intel N150 and 16GB of DDR5 RAM that I bought before the whole AI hype started. I also have a Synology NAS that I use mainly for media and photo storage.

I've been thinking about tinkering with Kubernetes in my homelab for a while now (I already use it extensively at work, so I'm quite familiar with it), and I started looking around for used hardware to use as bare metal nodes. Nothing fancy—I'm looking for 1 or 2 mini servers or SFF with at least 16GB of memory and a decent CPU (4–6 cores). But with current prices, even decently priced used hardware (~200–250€) is quite difficult to find in Europe, and most of it is HP stuff with Lenovo being a rare breed around here. I won't even get started on newly bought hardware...

If you've bought hardware in this market recently, how did it go for you? Or are most of you holding out for now, waiting for better times?

Still better than whatever the hell 4tran is.

Robots have taken over Los Angeles.

It’s not just the AI-generated videos that have caused angst in Hollywood. Our streets are full of driverless Waymo vehicles, covered in more sensors and gadgets than the Batmobile. And our walkways are home to fleets of boxes on wheels, hurrying past pedestrians and navigating outdoor bar-hoppers as the robots deliver smoothies and keto-friendly salads.

And it’s only getting stranger. This month, Serve Robotics, one of the leading companies behind the food-delivery bots, deployed another 500 of them in 40 neighborhoods across the city, up from two neighborhoods in 2023. The other big company, Coco Robotics, founded at UCLA in 2020, has about 300 robots across the city and is looking to expand. Soon a region already known for its lack of walkability will have more obstacles for pedestrians to contend with.

The expansion has sparked consternation in LA and other US cities as residents debate whether our new neighbors are welcome. Neighboring Glendale is considering a moratorium on the bots; Chicago has also limited their expansion. Worse than the sidewalk frustrations, they mean fewer jobs for delivery drivers, even if some are human-controlled.

Omg my eyes! Aaahhhh

https://press.liaisonstrategies.ca/federal-tracker-liberals-lead-conservatives-by-12-carney-approval-rebounds/

These constant polls mean nothing, Canadians have become to impatient. Let the current government do the work needed, voice concerns but know things don’t happen overnight, good nor bad.

I was hesitant to vote for the liberals as I was not in favor of any of Justin’s initiatives. I was and continue to be against the rampant abuse of the T.F.W. program, as it is wrong and should be scrapped. Carney though is the leader we need currently to deal with the absolute gong show going on in the U.S. currently. We became too complacent and comfortable, primarily trading with the U.S. and we can’t let that continue. PP would’ve caved to the regime in the U.S. and we’d all be much much worse off.

Millions of international travelers are increasingly choosing to avoid the United States.

The United States had roughly 4 million fewer international visitors in 2025 than the year before, marking a 5.5 percent decline in overseas tourism, according to CNN. Foreign visitor spending also fell by more than $8 billion.

Aside from the collapse in travel during the COVID-19 pandemic, it represents the sharpest annual drop in international tourism in roughly 20 years.