The VDT published on May 18 Projects in the works: Industrial Authority reviews and discuss items at meeting, by Kara Ramos, in which there is this paragraph:

WIREGRASS POWER, LLC

The project should be approved and issued an air quality operating permit in the next 14 days, according to Lofton. A power purchase agreement should also be complete by June 1, 2010. The VLCIA granted an eight month extension for the project to begin construction.

(VLCIA is the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority. Brad Lofton is its executive director.)

We know from previous reports that this wood and sewage sludge incinerator is expected to produce a maximum of 25 long-term jobs. Many questions were asked at the air quality hearing about particulates, CO₂, mercury, and other pollutants. The answers ranged from “we don’t monitor that” to “we don’t know how frequently” to “I didn’t bring that with me”. So the VLCIA is forging ahead with a project with many open health issues; a project that will produce a maximum of 25 longterm jobs. That’s without even going into the issues of degradation of local forests and the possibility of increased flooding.

In the same article was this:

PROJECT EARTH

The project is to construct a 700,000-square-foot vehicle manufacturing facility to build hybrid vehicles, which would create about 450 to 600 new jobs. A site/facility conceptual plan was given to the site prospect’s vice president of operations/supply chain management and to a regional construction services company.

The VLCIA will meet with the vice president of the regional construction services company today to determine where the manufacturing/assembly plant should be located in the Southeast region of the United States.

“We have a specific project we want to present,” Brad Lofton, executive director, said. “(Hopefully) we’ll be in a better position to win that project after we meet him.”

Now that sounds like a more beneficial project.

-jsq

Short Link: