Jack Pruden’s hand-lettered sign says:
Ban the burnGretchen asked him about that and he said:
Go 100% solar
-jsq
This time, 24 March 2011,
Angela Manning, minister of the 1500-member New Life Ministries
in Valdosta near the proposed site for the Wiregrass Power LLC biomass plant,
read from the Valdosta City Council’s own mission statement and
asked,
How do you adhere to your mission statement?Here’s the video: Continue reading
As Dr. George said Continue reading
Dr. Cristóbal Serrán-Pagán y Fuentes reminds us we don’t need a biomass plant
because:
We have plenty of sunshine here.You’d think the Valdosta City Council would know that, since only about a month ago Mayor Fretti assisted groundbreaking for Wiregrass Solar LLC. Maybe it takes somebody from Spain to remind everyone. Spain, which is a leader in solar power in the world. Spain, which is actually north of Georgia.
Here’s the video:
-jsq
Dr. George gets to the point!
After talking to several Valdosta City Council members, he has
observed that people make up their minds regardless of evidence.
So he wants to know:
What evidence would you need to see to conclude this is a bad idea?
Dr. George also gets at something even deeper that Council might
consider a wakeup call:
The public outcry about this across the political spectrum, from conservative to liberal.People against the biomass plant are not just black or white or young or old or conservative or liberal or college professors or unemployed: they are all of those things. The intransigence of elected and appointed officials is causing citizens to stand up and be heard on this and other issues around the county. This issue is serving as a catalyst for people to demand more transparent and responsive government.
Here’s the video:
-jsq
Here’s a four page explanation of that table.
Coal is not the cheapest: natural gas is. Onshore wind actually costs about the same as coal, and less than nuclear. Offshore wind is currently about 2.5 times more expensive.
Solar photovoltaic (PV) currently costs a bit more than twice as much as coal, and already less than offshore wind.
The table does not take into account the environmental costs of the various power sources, or obviously coal would fare far worse, and biomass would not be rated anywhere near as good as wind.
Remember, the cost of solar is falling rapidly, so solar will rapidly become more cost-effective compared to other energy sources.
-jsq
Dr. Noll raised a number of issues about community priorities
at the Lowndes County Commission meeting of 22 March 2011
and asked what are our priorities?
The Sierra Club letter he mentions was posted last week. For NOAA Weather Radios see previous posts. Here is the video:
The 30-day public review started on July 14, 2009 and ended on September 10, 2009. Comments were not received by the Division.Given those dates, this seems like the permit corresponding to the current equipment at the PCA plant.
Somebody might want to compare the emissions with those for the proposed Wiregrass Power LLC plant.
Here are some of the emissions listed in this permit: Continue reading
Georgia Farm Monitor posts its TV episodes on YouTube, including this one,
Forestry Adds Huge Amount To Georgia’s Economy,
starring
Wesley Langdale of The Langdale Company
and
Chuck Leavell of the Rolling Stones (both tree farmers)
announcing $37 billion economic value of Georgia forest ecology:
Continue reading 
To get an idea of why big timber growers might find biomass attractive,
here’s an article by Terry Dickson in the Florida Times-Union from 20 June 2005,
State’s forestry industry in an ‘alarming decline’
People have long debated whether there is a sound if a tree falls in a forest but nobody is there to hear it.Continue readingThe fall of revenue from Georgia’s forestry industry, however, has attracted a lot of attention — but $10 billion is hard to ignore.