Citizen dialog for transparent process by the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange
Corporate power comes home –Jim Parker
Letter to the Editor in the Valdosta Daily Times yesterday.
-jsq
How is it that one foreign corporation,
that has just come into existence to do this project,
can have greater power than all of the thousands of citizens affected,
and their elected governments?
No, I’m not talking about the Keystone XL pipeline, but he issues are the same.
This one wants to run a 36-inch gas pipeline through a number of states and counties,
including Lowndes, affecting thousands of landowners.
It’s known as Sabal Trail Transmission, LLC, and is the
unholy offspring of Spectra Energy Corp. and NextEra Energy.
How can one foreign corporation (they’re from out of state),
have so much power vis-avis the thousands of landowners and
citizens of Lowndes County, that the citizens must give up a hundred-foot-wide
swath of their land, along with the depreciation of their
property values, not to mention their personal safety, and allow
this pipeline to come through?
The gas is not even for use in Lowndes County, or even the State
of Georgia.
However, the general feeling is we have to give in to the
corporation’s demands.
County Commission Chairman Bill Slaughter is quoted as saying,
“There’s nothing we can do.”
Does anyone else see the problem here?
Why must we, the citizens and landowners of Lowndes County, GA,
have to give up our land and security to a foreign corporation of
absolutely no benefit to the citizens and landowners
of Lowndes County, Ga.?
How is this corporation given a privileged status greater than the
thousands of people who live here?
How is it that one foreign corporation, that has just come into existence to do this project, can have greater power than all of the thousands of citizens affected, and their elected governments?
How can one foreign corporation (they’re from out of state), have so much power vis-avis the thousands of landowners and citizens of Lowndes County, that the citizens must give up a hundred-foot-wide swath of their land, along with the depreciation of their property values, not to mention their personal safety, and allow this pipeline to come through? The gas is not even for use in Lowndes County, or even the State of Georgia. However, the general feeling is we have to give in to the corporation’s demands. County Commission Chairman Bill Slaughter is quoted as saying, “There’s nothing we can do.”
Does anyone else see the problem here? Why must we, the citizens and landowners of Lowndes County, GA, have to give up our land and security to a foreign corporation of absolutely no benefit to the citizens and landowners of Lowndes County, Ga.? How is this corporation given a privileged status greater than the thousands of people who live here?
