It’s not over until it’s over —Chairman Sonny Murphy of Sterling Planet

As one of many speakers at the Wiregrass Solar commissioning this morning, Sonny Murphy said many good things about solar, and then, almost alone among the speakers, he volunteered some remarks about the biomass plant, in which he made it pretty clear he intends to go ahead with it.

About solar, he praised Hannah Solar for perseverance: “they don’t quit; they keep coming back”.

He praised Alden Hathaway of Sterling Planet as a solar advocate around the world, for powering communications, for example via cell phones. He said technology has changed the world, and is again.

Then he said he hoped to come back to another commissioning of another project next door: the biomass plant. He referred to it as “another one of the baseload renewables”. He also claimed the biomass plant:

  • Eliminates wastewater from going back into the stream.
  • Disposes of biosolids.
  • Addresses the frontier of clean water.
He quoted Yogi Berra:
It’s not over until it’s over.
Somebody previously took me to task for calling Chairman Murphy stubborn. What do you think now?

Here’s the video:


It’s not over until it’s over —Chairman Sonny Murphy of Sterling Planet
Commissioning Ceremony,
Wiregrass Solar, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 12 May 2011.
Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

2 thoughts on “It’s not over until it’s over —Chairman Sonny Murphy of Sterling Planet”

  1. Leigh Touchton

    I asked VLCIA Board member Roy Copeland afterwards whether this means the biomass incinerator is STILL going to be built? He shrugged and walked away.
    Karen Noll asked Allan Ricketts what does this mean, since we all heard Lowndes County Commission Chairman Paulk give us a very different scenario at the last LCC meeting, and his remarks were covered in the Valdosta Daily Times. Mr. Ricketts said he was not aware of Chairman Paulk’s remarks.
    Excuse me?
    I sent Chairman Paulk a very nice thank you letter because I was thunderstruck at what he told us.
    So today Jane Osborn sent Allan Ricketts the weblink to the VDT story via email. So he’s heard about Chairman Paulk’s remarks once from Karen Noll (for the first time yesterday according to him) and now via email from Jane Osborn.
    There’s another VLCIA meeting on the 17th, I hope folks will show up and demand they put a stop to this. Mr. Quarterman, what can we do, do we have to go to the state legislature to get a law passed to force these so-called public officials to answer questions and respond to the citizens?
    I wrote all the Valdosta City Council members last week asking about selling reclaimed water to an industry for purposes of vaporization during cooling. City Councilman Robert Yost told Karen Noll that my “science was flawed”. I’ll be sure to tell the Georgia environmental lawyer I hired (recommended by GreenLaw) that one of our City Councilman says “his science is flawed”. I didn’t realize Mr. Yost was an environmental attorney or an expert on vaporization of reclaimed water.
    As I suspected, once I mentioned that my attorney had told me something different, the conversation stopped.
    The reason I asked the questions was because I’d been given 4 different responses from 4 different elected officials and city employees to this same question. So I went in last Friday (a week ago) and delivered an open records request. I’ll let you know if they actually answer the questions.
    On a very pleasant note, I spoke with Sonny Murphy’s daughter, she was the official photographer for Sterling Planet. A charming young woman, with a very keen mind, she asked many good questions about biomass, and knows Colleen Kiernan at Georgia Sierra Club.
    I truly hope Miss Murphy takes over the company some day. I had a little laugh with Sonny Murphy who told me he has 5 daughters and 3 granddaughters. He told us he is “adrift in a sea of estrogen.”
    Pete Marte, CEO of Hannah Solar, explained the USDA Solar Initiative for minority farmers to us (First Vice-President Phyllis Stallworth and myself). Hannah Solar had just installed an array for a poultry farmer, he got 90% of his costs back, and won’t have to pay an electric bill for 30 years. More information forthcoming as our NAACP branch networks this issue with Hannah Solar and USDA.
    Thank you as always, Mr. Quarterman, for keeping our community informed on all these issues.

  2. Karen Noll

    It is unfortunate that such a wonderful event ; the commissioning of the large solar facility in our community, was sullied by Mr. Sonny Murphy’s comments about the viability of biomass. I was then compelled to ask the players in attendance the very pressing question, so where is the biomass issue. Mr Murphy & Mr Ricketts spoke of milestones to be met. The mystery continues.
    THE BIOMASS MYSTERY: We all love a good murder mystery. The sleuth that finds the murderer of the dead biomass plant. Oh, that would be fun, but for the plot to work we need a dead biomass plant.
    If they want to quietly disappear Mr. Murphy is sending the wrong messages. A disappearance has been the favored outcome from the officials I’ve spoken with. If they want to walk away quietly- fine. I can handle that. Just give us the proper clues that this monster is simply going to wander into the woods to die…, we’ll all look away politely, and then take a peek before celebrating. The mixed messages make for a very poor mystery novel.

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