The Sun Also Rises on Music City
☀️ Metro advances another solar initiative as it inches toward 2041 Green New Deal target · TN to investigate MNPS over academic dishonesty allegations · Vandy Muslim Student Association condemns TPUSA film screening · Much more!
Peter Thiel in Nashville The renowned entrepreneur and thinker will deliver his four-part lecture series on the Antichrist. As the war for AI rages and parties push for regulation to ward off Armageddon, his thoughts have never been more pertinent. (Buy Tickets)
Happy Hour Tonight! But if you still crave our third Thursday company, we'll be doing a Happy Hour at Von Elrod's today, September 17th @ 5:30 PM. Our normal cadence will resume in November.
Big Council Watch Update. Our council tracking tool is no longer just a campaign finance scorecard. Follow your councilmember, and we'll tell you what they actually do. (Take a look)
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The sun also rises on Music City: Metro advances another solar initiative as it inches toward 2041 Green New Deal target.
From Megan Podsiedlik
You may recall that during Freddie O’Connell’s mayoral campaign he proposed 15 fixes for Davidson County. During Tuesday’s Metro Council meeting, the body made headway on his 100 percent solar initiative listed among the fixes.
In 2023, O’Connell proposed a renewable portfolio standard for Metro’s energy policy, with the goal of powering all Metro buildings using solar within three years.
“In addition to leading on climate, this also helps us lead on energy security,” reads O’Connell’s proposal. “When we produce more energy in Nashville, we’re less reliant on TVA during extreme weather events.”
This week, the Council passed a 30-year solar services agreement with Lightwave Sustainable Ventures, LLC, for solar facilities at the Juvenile Justice Center on final reading. Under the contract, the private solar company is responsible for financing, designing, procuring, installing, owning/leasing, operating, and maintaining the solar installations.
Metro will pay Lightwave a fixed monthly fee of $7,899.45 for the 30-year term in exchange for the electricity generated by the system. If the system produces more electricity than the Juvenile Justice Center needs, it will be delivered to Nashville Electric Service.
The locked-in rate and long-term agreement with a private company to finance, operate, and maintain the solar installations make the deal significant. It is similar to another 30-year solar services agreement passed last year with Cherry Street Asset Management Holdings, LLC, to power the Southeast Police Precinct, which set a fixed monthly fee of $1,524.
Both agreements help Metro work toward its renewable-energy requirements established in Nashville’s “Green New Deal” legislation passed in 2019. The goal is for Metro Government to reach 100 percent Tier One renewable energy by 2041, with at least 10 percent coming from solar. “Tier One” includes solar, wind, landfill/wastewater methane, geothermal, and certain other renewable sources.
✹ PETER THIEL'S ANTICHRIST LECTURES
What Do You Care About the Antichrist? For the past few years, Silicon Valley entrepreneur cum Philosopher Peter Thiel has traveled the world to deliver secretive lectures on the biblical Antichrist. And he's coming to Nashville next. The Nashville Antichrist Lectures will draw from history, literature, art, theology, and politics to explore the biblical Antichrist through Thiel's unique vantage point at the frontier of science and technology.
Taking place over four days, your ticket will grant you access to each of the four lectures scheduled to take place on consecutive Mondays starting on September 28th in partnership with the Meriwether Academy.
WEATHER UPDATE
HEADLINES
- 🏫 Tennessee investigates MNPS over academic dishonesty allegations. The Tennessee Department of Education is investigating Metro Nashville Public Schools and Stratford STEM Magnet High School after a complaint alleged academic dishonesty and grade manipulation. Former educators have alleged that grades or credit-recovery practices were used to help students graduate, while MNPS has disputed broader claims and characterized at least one cited grade change as an isolated incident. (WKRN)
- ☪️ Vanderbilt Muslim Student Association condemns TPUSA film screening. Vanderbilt’s Muslim Student Association released a statement condemning Turning Point USA’s planned screening of Run, Hide, Fight: Infidels, arguing that the film portrays Islam through associations with extremism and violence and could contribute to hostility toward Muslim students. Twenty-four Vanderbilt student organizations co-signed the statement, while a TPUSA member said he supports the screening as a way to address Islamist extremism, while acknowledging concerns if the film portrays Muslims broadly as extremists. (Vanderbilt Hustler)
- 🤖 OpenAI silent on how rogue agents breached private Vanderbilt tool. Evidence was uncovered that autonomous OpenAI agents accessed Vanderbilt University’s private link-shortening infrastructure, raising questions about how the agents bypassed controls that were supposed to restrict access. The key unresolved issue is how the agents got into the private system and whether Vanderbilt or OpenAI can determine exactly what information was accessed. OpenAI has faced broader scrutiny over its disclosures of rogue-agent incidents. (Tennessean)
- 🎵 Tennessee Entertainment Commission Announces Creation of Tennessee Music Advisory Council. Today, Governor Bill Lee, Deputy Governor and Department of Economic and Community Development (TNECD) Commissioner Stuart C. McWhorter, and the Tennessee Entertainment Commission announced the creation of the Tennessee Music Advisory Council (TMAC). The council’s mission is to build and sustain a community-led music advocacy organization that supports music professionals through economic opportunity, professional development, stronger networks, and accessible spaces while amplifying the region’s unique musical heritage through stakeholder input, partnerships and tourism initiatives. (TNECD)
✹ PAMPHLETEER TOOLS
Pamphleteer Tools Council Watch tells you who funds your councilmember and how they vote. The Property Tax Calculator tells you what that cost you.
DEVELOPMENT
- East Nashville church building sells for $5M (Post)
THINGS TO DO
View our calendar for the week here.
📅 Visit our On The Radar list to find upcoming events around Nashville.
🎧 On Spotify: Pamphleteer's Picks, a playlist of our favorite bands in town this week.
👨🏻🌾 Check out our Nashville farmer's market guide.
TONIGHT
🪕 AMERICANAFEST @ Multiple Venues, Info
🎙️ Open Mic @ Fox and Locke, 6:30p, Free, Info
🎸 Kelley's Heroes @ Robert's Western World, 6:30p, Free, Info
📰 Check out the full newsletter archive here.
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Today's newsletter is brought to you by Davis Hunt, Megan Podsiedlik, and Camelia Brennan.