Receiving no response from Brad Lofton to his previous message, Dr. Noll summarizes. Interestingly, attached to Dr. Noll’s message was a copy of Dr. Teaf’s slides which I didn’t notice until just now. See also Col. Ricketts’ re-presentation of those slides to the VLCIA board on 21 Dec 2010. Both are linked here. -jsq

Date: Tue, 28 Dec 2010 14:19:00 +0000

Good morning everyone.

As a scientist and President of WACE it is my duty to point out that, more than three weeks after their latest panel, Mr. Lofton and the Industrial Authority have, yet again, not been able to share conclusive evidence with the community that biomass is safe. At the same time, WACE has time and again provided scientific studies and statements made by medical organizations that prove that biomass incineration bears significant health risks for our community.

Evidence provided by the pro-biomass panelists on December 6 (none of whom were medical professionals or represented a medical organization) was at best circumstantial, as can be expected from such a one-sided panel. Moreover, neither Dr. Teaf nor any of the other panelists have given us any evidence since then that biomass is safe, as their presentations lacked any sources or links to check the validity of their statements (see attached presentation from Dr. Teaf as an example). In other words, their “assurances” too that biomass is “safe”, like those repeatedly made by the Industrial Authority, remain empty words. The time for playing semantics and simply “assuring” our community that biomass is safe, without providing scientific studies to back up such claims, is over.

(The same pattern of mis-information can be observed in regard to claims that the biomass project is supported by groups like the Sierra Club, that biomass incineration is carbon neutral, or that biomass is economically speaking a safe investment. WACE will address these too on January 13.)

With best regards and wishes for a Healthy New Year,
Michael G. Noll, President
Wiregrass Activists for Clean Energy

Short Link: