According to Sabal Trail’s own numbers, twice as much land for
the entire three-pipeline Spectra -> Sabal -> FSC proposed gouge
through three states
as would be required to produce as much solar power.
STT’s solar acreage estimates from their Draft Resource Report 10: Alternatives (RR10) of November 2013, Continue reading
The same Energy Policy Act of 2005 that
subsidized dirty oil and fracked methane including LNG exports
also funded
that oxymoron “clean” coal such as Southern Company’s Plant Ratcliffe
in Mississippi,
ethanol production lining the pockets of Monsanto, and
the $8.3 billion loan guarantee
to Georgia Power for the new nukes at Plant Vogtle.
2005 was a very long time ago in solar PV years:
prices are halved, and installed solar power production is up more
than ten times and growing exponentially like compound interest.
We need to stop throwing money at dirty, water-sucking,
centralized baseload 20th century non-solutions and get on with
clean 21st century distributed solar and wind power
for jobs, for energy independence, and for clean air and water,
not to mention less climate change.
-jsq
Anticipating water and wastewater needs,
coordinating with Florida and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,
comparing water usage to available resources in the face of droughts,
floods, and climate change,
Georgia’s regional water management council for this area
considered all this and more when it met
in Valdosta to finalize a document:
Regional Assessment of Implementation Status.
Here are videos of the whole meeting.
Video. Attendees included:
All thermal power generation requires water for cooling, with nukes so vulnerable no private insurer will cover them anyway and failing frequently in recent heat waves. “Natural” gas is no better than coal or oil for water use; maybe worse because all those pipelines vulnerable to backhoes or corrosion or attack. Even hydro is vulnerable to lack of rainfall. Carbon sequestration doesn’t get good marks, while conservation and efficiency get rave reviews from a study of insurance perspectives on power generation. What’s the one power source this article about insurance risks does not say is fragile in the face of climate change? Hint: look up.
Limiting Liability in the Greenhouse: Insurance Risk-Management Strategies in the Context of Global Climate Change, by Christina Ross, Evan Mills, and Sean B. Hecht, Stanford Environmental Law Journal and the Stanford Journal of International Law, Symposium: on Climate Change Risk, Vol. 26A/43A:251, 2007.
Supply-side energy choices that may be made to reduce the carbon-intensity of energy services have their own distinctive liability characteristics. For example, switching to lower-carbon electricity generation technology based on thermal power plant technology (e.g., by substituting natural gas for coal) results in systems that are still heavily dependent on water resources for cooling. The Electric Power Research Institute has documented considerable risks to traditionally cooled power generation systems as a result of climate change-induced droughts.242 Similarly, “zero-emissions” hydroelectric generating systems are also sensitive to rainfall patterns.
242 Denis Albrecht, Electric Power Research Institute, Presentation: Climate Impact on Water Availability for Electricity Generation (April 11, 2006) (presentation slides associated with the Electric Power Research Institute).
Centralization considered harmful
Continue reading
What if, in addition to the record floods of 2009 and 2013 and 2014
apparently caused by local lack of planning in our watersheds,
what if we got 15 inches of rain in one 24 hour period like
Pensacola did a few weeks ago?
Local governments might get sued by insurers for lack of planning,
like 200 communities in the Chicago area already got sued.
Maybe we should plan ahead for greater weather variability
caused by climate change.
Eric Holthaus wrote for Future Tense on Slate 30 April 2014, The Calamitous Climate Responsible for Florida’s Record Rainfall, Continue reading
A major big city daily?
A local newspaper of record along the proposed pipeline path?
Nope: the Valdosta State University student newspaper, The Spectator,
has done what its bigger newspaper colleagues have not dared:
oppose the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline and demand renewable
energy instead.
Where students lead, maybe their elders will follow.
Editorial in The Spectator 1 May 2014 (I added the links and images), Pipeline a risk to Valdosta, Continue reading
There is something we can do about that proposed fracked methane pipeline.
Lindsay Abrams wrote for Salon today, The real secret to beating the Koch brothers: How our broken political system can still be won: A duo of activists has quietly bested the energy lobby, helping ban fracking in 172 towns. Here’s how they did it,
You probably haven’t heard of Helen Slottje, or, for that matter, of her husband, David. But in the past few years, the former corporate lawyers have become arguably two of the most powerful opponents of fracking in New York — not to mention the most successful. As the (sort of) public face of the duo’s efforts, Helen Slottje on Monday was honored with the Goldman Prize, the world’s largest environmental prize.
OK, what did they actually do? Continue reading
Georgia Power’s Plant Scherer is #1 among the U.S. dirtiest power plants.
But FPL owns most of one of the four units there,
dirtying Georgia’s air for Florida’s power.
The same FPL that wants the fracked methane Sabal Trail pipeline
through Georgia, destroying Georgia’s environment.
It’s time for Georgia to say no to destroying Georgia’s environment
for a company in another state.
Thomas Stackpole wrote for Mother Jones 11 September 2013, 1 Percent of America’s Power Plants Emit 33 Percent of Energy Industry’s Carbon, Continue reading
$78,892.56 for an unbid change order for Val Del Road.
The Board of Tax Assessors’
appeal to a Board of Equalizations
decision to grand PCA an unusual depreciation was approved
by the Lowndes County Commission
by a rare split decision, 2 to 1.
Greg Powell of Langdale Industries
appointed to KLVB.
And
Citizen Noll recommended the Commission pass a resolution
or ordinance about the proposed Sabal Trail pipeline.
Three voting Commissioners (Raines was absent and Page vacated his seat) unanimously approved three rezonings with nobody speaking for or against. They granted permission to the Sheriff’s office and to Emergency Management to apply for equipment grants. There was a weather report, and a report on an animal adoption event the previous weekend.
Here’s the agenda, with links to the videos and a few notes. See also the videos of the previous morning’s Work Session.
LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERSContinue reading
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, APRIL 7, 2014, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, APRIL 8, 2014, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street — 2nd Floor
Although the Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) didn’t overflow in the rains earlier this week, and apparently not yesterday, either, there were manhole sewage overflows then and according to the Florida Department of Health there were similar overflows yesterday, from Valdosta into the Withlacoochee River.
WCTV posted yesterday a News Release: Florida Department of Health,
TALLAHASSEE- The Florida Department of Health today issued an advisory to residents in counties surrounding the Withlacoochee and the downstream Suwannee River. The City of Valdosta has reported a spill, made up of a combination of storm water and untreated sewage, that has overflowed into the One-Mile Branch, Two-Mile Branch, Sugar Creek and Cherry Creek which flow into the Withlacoochee River. Lab test results received April 18, 2014, indicate higher than normal levels of fecal coliform bacteria in the river waters.
Oddly, there doesn’t seem to be anything about this on the city of Valdosta’s own website yet, but no doubt there will be. More in later posts about what that.
-jsq