Patrick Davis
sums up the Valdosta biomass situation from Macon:
It appears to be the mainly conservative power structure of Lowndes trying to force this business venture into Valdosta’s community and not considering the environmental dangers.He has some interesting points, such as who just got appointed to the EPD. I think he overestimates the power of the Valdosta mayor, however.
-jsq
VLCIA catches up with LAKE in posting videos of 6 Dec 2010 biomass event.
But where’s the VLCIA FAQ website?
Update 24 Jan 2011 7:13 PM: Bruce J. Bendl found the FAQ.
In this video,
Brad Lofton tells the VLCIA board that staff have put a lot
of time and effort into building a website to answer
frequently asked questions about biomass, including
videos from the 6 Dec 2010 event.
When I congratulated Lofton on this
and asked the board for an answer to one of those qeustions,
I didn’t think to ask for a URL for this new website,
figuring it would be announced on
the main VLCIA website.
If it’s there, I don’t see it.
However, VLCIA has sprouted
a YouTube channel
in which the long-awaited professional videos from the 6 Dec 2010 event
have appeared, six weeks after the event.
More on that below. Meanwhile,
LAKE’s videos of the entire event have been on YouTube
since a few days after the event.
Continue reading
Local industry for local jobs: feedback loops?
At the 21 Dec 2010 board meeting,
Brad Lofton and the VLCIA board talk about
exanding local industry, namely PCA and AlphaProTech.
Lofton says AlphaProTech will add 50 new jobs.
Hm, 50 is more than 25 slated for the biomass plant.
And nobody even has to trade AlphaProTech land for them to produce these jobs!
According to
their website, AlphaProTech sells:
“protective apparel, infection control and extended care products in addition to a line of construction weatherization building products for the housing market.”Hm, so if VLCIA promoted refitting local houses it would also be promoting AlphaProTech.
It’s interesting to hear Gary Minchew say regarding one company:
“we just don’t need to be the front man”
Interesting that VLCIA is not willing to be the front man for local industry (as we’ve also seen in this response from Col. Ricketts), when VLCIA clearly is the front man for Sterling Energy and Wiregrass Power LLC, neither of which are from around here.
-jsq
At the 18 Jan 2011 VLCIA board meeting,
Brad Lofton congratulated Roy Copeland.
Lofton seems to be referring to Copeland’s membership in the
THE TOP 100 TRIAL LAWYERS – Georgia,
A Professional, Educational, and Business Organization of Trial Attorneys.
There appear to actually be 90 members.
I congratulate Roy Copeland on his membership.
I can’t quite make out whether he also received an
award from the same organization.
Anyway, here’s the video:
-jsq
Former VLCIA Executive Director decides based on rants in the VDT
to come say “I trust in you” and
“If it turns out to be wrong, then we live with that.”
Ken Garren (Brad Lofton’s predecessor as executive director) speaks in support of the current VLCIA and the biomass plant, 18 Jan 2011.
“I made a decision that although I’m concerned about a lot of things, and I’m concerned about anything….I have to trust those people who are in those positions will do their homework and make the right decision. Then I will live with that. If it turns out to be wrong, then we live with that.
What bothered me was when I started reading in the paper about the veiled threats. The personal issues. …
When I started reading about veiled threats. When I started reading about people being chastised because they didn’t accept a brochure or some literature. You know, that bothered me.
Then when I read one of the rants about it; they wondered how you folks were chosen. If you don’t know how these people are chosen…. They ought to do their basic homework.
But I’m here tonight to say that: I’ve looked at it; I’ve researched it; I don’t always agree with all the things the authority does… but I trust in you….”
Update 2014-03-31: VDT wrote 3 March 2014 that Garren joined VLCIA after Sterling Chemical came in.
Then he praises Sterling Chemical which came in on his watch,
and while Norman Bennett (currently on the VLCIA)
was Chairman of the County Commission.
See for yourself:
In the current fashion he begins by saying when he first moved here (1965). Is that what’s required these days to be worth listening to? Continue reading
I
asked the VLCIA board (18 Jan 2011)
about my
previously submitted questions about house refitting for insulation and efficiency,
and about rooftop solar,
such as have been successful in Austin and Houston, Texas.
Mary Gooding answered:
“That really would be the city… we’re industrial development.”
She didn’t say which city. There is more than one city in the county. The question as sent to them in writing refered to Hahira; maybe that’s the city she meant. Should Hahira not expect any help from VLCIA?
And what about us who don’t live in any of the cities?
So far, all the new solar rooftop installations are in unincorporated
parts of the county, although
both are in Hahira’s 31632 ZIP code.
Col. Ricketts, at the direction of the board, has since sent me a response, which will lead off tomorrow morning.
VLCIA seemed somewhat confused as to what their protocol is as to answering questions: Continue reading
Bobbi Anne Hancock asked a question at the VLCIA board meeting 18 Jan 2011,
and Chairman Jerry Jennett explained that he’s a businessman,
not a scientist, he has to trust the experts, and he’s not prepared
to answer questions.
He says she can state a position, though, and she does so.
See it for yourself:
Apologies for missing the first part, and for the muddy sound. Professional staff of a tax-funded organization could probably do a far better job of taking and publishing videos than a tiny all-volunteer activist organizations such as LAKE. Video by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
-jsq
I was recently reading “Masterpieces of Eloquence,” which includes a speech delivered by the fourth Earl of Chesterfield to the House of Lords in Feb., 1743. “The bill now under our consideration appears to me to deserve a much closer regard than seems to have been paid to it in the other House, through which it was hurried with the utmost precipitation, and where it passed almost without the formality of a debate. Nor can I think that earnestness with which some lords seem inclined to press it forward here consistent with the importance of the consequences which may with great reason be expected from it.” He goes on to say, “surely it never before was conceived, by any man entrusted with the administration of public affairs, to raise taxes by the destruction of the people.”
I find this quote applies exactly, mutatis mutandis, to the present situation. The effects of these toxic chemicals are far more devastating to my mind than the effects of gin. The science panel assembled by Michael is more credible than the assurances of the industrial authority expert. In fact, the emissions from the plant are so close to the permit threshold that they could easily exceed that threshhold on occasion. Would the IA expert then continue to hold the position that there is “No health hazard to the public?” I don’t think anyone who favors the proposal is aware of the enormity that could result if the plant goes into operation. They have left the public health out of their equation. They have just enough science, they think, to push the deal through over the objections of an easily deceived public.
Matt Flumerfelt
Valdosta
Continue readingThe recent biomass meeting was a great example of democracy in action. Concerned citizens gave up an evening to educate themselves and it was heartening to see many in the audience participate. I’m no political scientist, but this must be what the founders of the constitution had in mind in conceiving that document.
The evening was not without controversy. Several speakers spoke passionately, even vehemently, prompting someone to question the tone of some on the anti-biomass side. One wonders how closely he follows events in the area?
Valdostans are frustrated at the blatantly anti-democratic tactics employed by local government that result in our getting things rammed down our throats. Biomass is just the latest example.
Did the VLCIA board just back off from its staff’s very close association with Wiregrass Power LLC’s biomass plant?
After pointing out that LAKE posted videos of the entire previous VLCIA board meeting as a proof of concept that if it could be done by a tiny volunteer activist group it could be done by a tax-funded professional staff, and complimenting VLCIA on finally posting videos of their 6 Dec 2010 event a month after LAKE posted videos of the Q&A and the rest of that meeting, I asked the VLCIA board who is going to buy the electricity from the biomass plant. Chairman Jerry Jennett answered:
“That’s not our problem.” [waves hands] “You see, industry comes and it’s his job to sell whatever his output is… the manufacturing plant… the output is electricity…”
So I asked how does that match with Col. Ricketts in the previous board meeting referring to a public/private partnership between VLCIA and Wiregrass Power LLC and frequently saying “we”.
Col. Ricketts responded that he was only referring to the solar plant and the GEFA grant. Well, yes he said that then, but he also said… Continue reading