Category Archives: Economy

Insanity: Sabal Trail pipeline in karst sinkhole Floridan Aquifer @ FERC Lake City 2015-10-01



“What you all have proposed is total insanity….
experts lie…
The companies, they don’t care.
It’s just greed and arrogance,”
said

a Marcellus Shale drilling veteran
.
Karst mitigation

won’t work

according to

Sabal Trail’s own
FERC filings,

children downwind of compressor
, Sabal Trail

quashing evidence

of its

unwanted, unneeded, and unsafe
Sinkhole Pipeline,
and

FERC is cigarette companies pushing cancer cigarettes
:
on the wrong side of history.
We

aren’t your test subjects

and we can win!

Videos from previous FERC meetings:

-jsq

Solar prices will drop much further below fossil fuels

High-placed utility executives have told me solar panels can’t get any cheaper.
Here’s why economies of scale will continue to drive solar prices down,
just like for Henry Ford’s Model T.
There’s no excuse for new pipelines or nukes.
Let the sun rise!

tl;dr: If current rates of improvement hold, solar will be
incredibly cheap by the time it’s a substantial fraction of the
world’s electricity supply.


Ramez Naam, on his blog, 10 August 2015,

What’s the future price of solar?
, Continue reading

Solar power prices dropping faster than Moore’s Law

More confirmation that solar power is winning so there’s no excuse for any new pipelines.

tl;dr: Moore’s Law is an analogy. As an analogy, it works. And
progress is happening far faster than I projected in my ‘solar
Moore’s Law’ piece of 2011.]


Ramez Naam, on his blog, April 2015,

Is Moore’s Law Really a Fair Comparison for Solar?
Continue reading

Brief agenda at unusual time and day @ VLCIA 2015-09-08



The only named existing industry project is
Smith Drug, which
according to the VDT,
showed up here in 2009.

Tuesday 8 Sep 2015 at 10AM (no reason given for the odd date and time),
the Development Authority is preparing for the Chamber Economic Summit 2015-010-08
and various other events, plus the usual reports.
Here’s the

agenda
.

Valdosta-Lowndes Development Authority

Tuesday, September 8, 2015 11:00 a.m.

Development Authority Conference Room/103 Roosevelt Drive

Monthly Meeting Agenda

Continue reading

Let’s stop Sabal Trail before it makes any more mistakes

Thanks to Julie Bowland for the picture of my VDT op-ed today. -jsq


jsq op-ed in VDT

The same day the Sabal Trail was quoted in the VDT August 5th as
saying it had done enough subsurface analysis on our fragile karst
limestone topography, a sinkhole opened up next to Shiloh Road.
Sabal Trail already had to move its Albany compressor station
because arrowheads had been found there. The pipeline itself is a
much bigger mistake: let’s stop it before it damages our property
values, forests, rivers, or our people.

Spectra Energy’s paid staff are continue to assert that Sabal
Trail’s proposed gouge through our fields, farms, and under our
rivers will proceed according their plan to profit executives and
investors in Houston, Texas.

Actually, Continue reading

Videos: Suwannee-Satilla Water Council @ SSRWPC 2015-07-20



Fascinating stuff here, especially from Liz Booth and Jim Kennedy.
They meet again

today at Aniston’s Restaurant, 1404 W. Baker Highway, Douglas, GA
.

You’ll probably notice there were some glitches with these July videos;
thanks to Gretchen for salvaging most of them.
And there’s no video of WWALS board member Al Browning speaking about
water quality, nor of my presentation of the WWALS letter to SSRWPC:

Please join the opposition to the Sabal Trail watershed invader —WWALS to SSRWPC
.

Videos: Transportation and electrical presentations plus officer elections @ VLCIA 2015-07-21



They meet again tonight; here are videos from last month, when

Electrical Test Labs of Georgia
was recognized, and claimed dibs on some land.


The Development Authority re-elected its same officers
, after extending the term of the Chairman to two years.


SGRC’s Corey Hull
presented very briefly about the 2040 Transporation Plan,
and asked for questions.
The Development Authority had none.

Lots of dials showing Continue reading

World Trade Center Savannah and Gold Honey Bean @ VLCIA 2015-08-18

The Development Authority begins tonight with a
presentation
by



Leigh Ryan
, Director of Trade Services and Foreign Trade Zone 104,

World Trade Center Savannah
.
According to WTC Savannah,

A foreign trade zone is a federally approved location within the
United States, which is considered outside of US Customs territory
where domestic and foreign merchandise may be placed without formal
customs entry and without payment of duties and taxes. Subzones are
special-purpose facilities for companies unable to operate
effectively at public zone sites. Foreign trade zones are usually
located in or near Customs ports of entry, at industrial parks or
terminal warehouse facilities. Their purpose is to attract and
promote international trade and commerce.

WTC has more on that page, but never actually says where FTZ 104 is.

Mary Carr Mayle, SavannaNow, 31 May 2015,

World Trade Center Savannah expands FTZ 104
, Continue reading

Land is not just money: appeal tax valuations today




Appeal today
if you think there’s more to land (or business)
and woods and fields and streams than money,
unlike the Tax Assessors, whose revaluation would drive development
into agricultural areas of the county where it doesn’t belong,
while avoiding populated areas such as the south side of Valdosta.
We can expect pipeline companies and utilities from other states
to think nothing of pillaging our lands for their profit.
We shouldn’t expect that of our neighbors whom we elected Tax Asssessors.
If you have affection for your land, your county, your neighborhood,
today’s the deadline

to appeal your valuation
.
And there will be an election later.

As Wendell Berry said,



Whatever has happened in what economists call “the
economy,” it is generally true that the land economy has been
discounted or ignored.

Are the Tax Assessors boomers?
Are you a sticker?
Wendell Berry explains: Continue reading

Monday August 10th deadline to appeal tax valuations –VLCoC

Valdosta-Lowndes County Chamber of Commerce members just got a message from
Bruce Allred, Government Affairs Council Chairman,
saying:


MONDAY IS DEADLINE TO APPEAL PROPERTY TAX ASSESSMENTS!

You can look up your property on the Tax Assessors’ website:
www.qpublic.net/ga/lowndes.


See also the

LAKE Videos: Rural revaluation meeting at Farm Bureau 2015-08-04
.

That Chamber message includes this useful information: Continue reading