Recently on Thursday December 16th, State Judge Ronit Walker denied air quality permits for a proposed coal plant in Sandersville, Georgia. Judge Walker cited the Georgia Environmental Protection Divisions failure to properly review permits, and their lack of enforcement of basic Clean Air Act standards for several hazardous emissions.Continue readingFlashback to April 27th in Valdosta Georgia when Environmental Protection Division Air Branch Manager Eric Cornwell openly admitted to having NOT READ the air permit application for Wiregrass Biomass LLC’s proposal to build a hotly contested 40mw power plant&emdash; during a Valdosta EPD hearing meant to evaluate those permits.
Today, the Valdosta Industrial Authority is hazardously entrenched
Category Archives: Planning
jsq to Col. Ricketts about VLCIA
From: John S. QuartermanContinue reading
To: “Allan Ricketts” <aricketts@industrialauthority.com>
cc: “‘John S. Quarterman'”, “‘Michael Noll'”, “‘Susan Wehling'”, “‘Brad Lofton'” <blofton@industrialauthority.com>, “Mary B. Gooding”, Roy Copeland, Kay Harris
Subject: Re: Wiregrass Power, LLCCol. Ricketts,
It’s good to hear from you.
I wondered during your re-presentation of slides you’d already said the entire VLCIA board had seen at the recent VLCIA biomass event, whether you would provide copies to interested parties, such as those sitting in the room, but you did not at the time.
Considering the increasing amount of public interest in this topic, as evidenced by the attendance and questions at the VLCIA Rainwater Conference Center event, and by recent newspaper activity, probably the public would like to see those press releases directly from the VLCIA’s web site. However, LAKE is always happy to link to relevant material, so if you will please send me the URLs of those press releases as you found them on the web, LAKE will be happy to link to them.
Similarly, if Dr. Teaf’s information is as good as you indicated,
Col. Ricketts on Wiregrass Power, LLC
From: “Allan Ricketts” <aricketts@industrialauthority.com>Continue reading
To: “‘John S. Quarterman'”
Cc: “‘Michael Noll'”, “‘Susan Wehling'”, “‘Brad Lofton'” <blofton@industrialauthority.com>
Subject: Wiregrass Power, LLC
Date: Wed, 22 Dec 2010 12:48:28 -0500
Hello John,
Norman Bennett, Gary Minchew,
Mary Gooding, Jerry Jennett (Chair),
J. Stephen Gupton (Attorney),
Brad Lofton (Executive Director)It was good to see you at the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority Board Meeting on Tuesday evening. I encourage you to attend more often.
I’ve attached copies of several recent press releases that we discussed during the meeting. I look forward to seeing these posted on your information exchange for folks to read.
Please let me know if you would like a copy of Dr. Christopher Teaf’s .ppt
CCA private prisons and AZ immigration law
Kara Ramos reported in the VDT on 18 Aug 2010 that Private prison company picks Valdosta as potential site:
The Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA) and Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) announced an economic development partnership for future construction of a private prison.
Who is CCA? NPR’s Laura Sullivan reported on 28 Oct 2010 about Prison Economics Help Drive Ariz. Immigration Law:
Continue readingWhat’s the Industrial Authority’s Plan?
What is the Industrial Authority’s plan to bring in real clean jobs?
MAGE SOLAR is hiring for the first of 350 jobs in its photovoltaic (PV) solar manufacturing plant in Dublin, Georgia, with half the population of Valdosta, in Laurens County, with half the population of Lowndes County. They’ve parlayed their position between the Atlanta airport and the Savannah seaport for many new clean jobs.
Suniva of Norcross’s second PV plant with its 500 jobs went to Michigan. Saginaw Valley calls itself Solar Valley and collaborates with governments, academia, and industry, winning thousands of clean jobs in wind and solar manufacturing and generating plants.
VLCIA biomass event Q&A
While officials continue to downplay local citizen anger about current projects, citizens are organizing in a variety of ways to affect change the next election cycle. When Sterling Chemical came to Lowndes County in the 1990s, citizens were told the project was a “done deal,” and so it was. Sterling is still here, but those in office at the time aren’t, and the director of the Industrial Authority at the time is no longer here either.Maybe the VDT is referring to this kind of response from the VLCIA panel on 6 Dec 2010:As has been shown worldwide, citizens are tired of being told what’s best for them, having no say so in how their tax dollars are spent, and having their concerns ignored.
Until officials understand that it is coming from all directions and not just led by a few malcontents, the swell will continue to grow. And those who continue to ignore the anger and frustration do so at their own peril.
“these things do prop up the local economy, period, end of discussion.”A previous questioner who had a job in Vietnam notes he was lied to about Agent Orange and asks “can you assure me that I won’t be affected by this?” Continue reading
Where’s the wood to come from and who will buy the electricity?
So there’s actually not any new study of wood sourcing (Brad Lofton told me after the meeting that the study had been “completed” after we met in June), and the study that exists is not publicly available. Someone from Sterling promised me after the meeting to redact the private parts of the wood sourcing study and provide the rest for public distribution. We’ll see.
Regarding my question about who will buy the electricity and whether we’ll end up like Plant Scherer, selling electricity to Florida while keeping the pollution here, the answer was: Continue reading
Real High Speed Rail: in China
Meanwhile, in China:
(Click on the detail map for the full map from johomaps 2010.)
Suniva went to Solar Valley, Michigan, which has a plan
• Georgia-based solar panel maker Suniva is well along in its federal loan guarantee application so it can build a plant in Saginaw County.So what is the big news that they’re editorializing about?
The Solar Valley is starting to snowball.Continue readingAmid the campaigning and squabbling on the Friday before last week’s statewide election were two electric announcements promising a big buzz for our region’s future.
Condos and Agricultural Zoning: latest redraft of ULDC update
During yesterday’s 3PM work session, Commissioner Lee asked the County Planner Continue reading