The supposed pipeline economic benefits –Thomas Hochschild @ LCC 2013-12-10

How about a profit-sharing venture the pipeline partners and the County? A VSU professor asked that at the 10 December 2013 Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission.

Dr. Hochschild listed a few benefits Spectra rep. Brian Fahrenthold had claimed the previous morning.

Considering the vast profits Florida Power and Light and Sabal Trail stand to make from the use of our land, I know they can do a lot better than hotel stays, Big Macs, and temporary jobs. Mr. Fahrenthold claimed the pipeline would be economically beneficial because it will supposedly bring in $460 million in property taxes over the next sixty years.

First I’d like to know if an independent agency came up with that projection, or if those are Florida Power and Light’s and Sabal Trail’s numbers. The problem with estimated projections of course, is that they are almost guaranteed to be incorrect. I would like to request that Sabal Trail provide the data and metrics used for that calculation so that the Lowndes County Board of Commissioners and Lowndes residents can conduct an independent analysis.

If it is indeed the case that Florida Power and Light is going to pay $460 million in property taxes over the next sixty years, how many tens or hundreds of millions of dollars do they stand to profit over those same sixty years? I’d like to ask them to disclose their projected profits from the pipeline for the next sixty years.

At this very moment while we’re having this meeting, we’re the third poorest Metropolitan Statistical Area in this country. The third poorest out of 318 Metropolitan Statistical Areas in the country. I think Florida Power and Light and Sabal Trail are in a great position to help us out. We have the supply; they have the demand. They want to make enormous profits by using our land; we want to climb out of poverty.

I want to propose a profit-sharing venture between Florida Power and Light, Sabal Trail, and Lowndes County, where a percentage of their corporate profits are given to the neediest families in Lowndes County. This profit-sharing venture would fit nicely into Florida Power and Light and Sabal Trail’s core values of ethical behavior and community enhancement.

Thank you for considering this.

Here’s the video:


The supposed pipeline economic benefits –Thomas Hochschild
Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 10 December 2013.

-jsq

One thought on “The supposed pipeline economic benefits –Thomas Hochschild @ LCC 2013-12-10

  1. Pingback: Nottinghill resolved, Spectra profit sharing? Planning Commission transparency? @ LCC 2013-12-10 | On the LAKE front

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