Received today, with this note.
FYI—this is now open to any residents of Lowndes County, not just City of Valdosta. Please spread the word. It is a great way to learn a LOT more about your local government.
Tim Carroll
Councilman District 5
City of Valdosta
Here’s the application. Continue reading
A county
no bigger than Lowndes County has
agendas and minutes online for
its Board of Commissioners, Board of Health, Local Emergency Planning Committee,
Board of Adjustment,
Board of Elections,
Social Services Board,
and yes, its Planning Board.
Why can Nash County, NC afford this yet Lowndes County Chairman Bill Slaughter
says Lowndes County can’t afford to put agendas and minutes online for
the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission?
And if a county can require a solar farm to follow stormwater management
and numerous other regulations, why can’t a county require a natural
gas pipeline to follow local regulations?
It can, if its elected officials actually stand up for their citizens.
And why can Nash County, quite a bit north of Lowndes County,
install solar farm after solar farm while there are none in Lowndes County?
The Nash County online documents also include the details of what the various boards were considering, such as in the Agenda and Minutes of the Nash County Planning Board 21 October 2013, which include this item:
- Conditional Use Permit Request CU-130901 (Previously Tabled Item).
Made by Chris Killenberg With Community Energy Solar on Behalf of Castalia Solar LLC to Develop a Solar Farm on an Approximately 22.91 Acre Portion of Two Tracts Located on the West Side of N NC Highway 58 and South of NC Highway 56 in the A1 Agricultural Zoning District.
And not just the agenda item, also extended discussion in the meeting, including: Continue reading
Utilities are trying increasingly desperate tactics in their
losing battle against distributed rooftop solar power.
It’s time for them to get out in front and lead instead.
Clare Foran wrote for NationalJournal Are Utilities Wilting From Heat of Solar Competition?
Regulatory battles over solar power payment models played out in several states this year. And as the dust settles, solar providers are claiming victory. Utilities, on the other hand, are trying to reframe the conversation entirely by insisting they aren’t an enemy of solar.
After discussing utlities’ attempts to bash net metering, she notes the Sierra Club hard-won victory over the ALEC solar tax:
In November, Georgia Power backed down Continue reading
Sombody should tell Georgia Power and Southern Company
they’re still pushing a dead power source.
It’s time to go from far-too-expensive nuclear directly
to solar onshore and wind offshore.
Remember in the last year or so five U.S. nukes have been shut down and five more have been cancelled while in Canada two more have been cancelled, plus maybe two more, and maybe as many as six are to be shut down. Dr Jim Green wrote for Ecologist yesterday, The nuclear renaissance is stone cold dead,
Perhaps the most shocking developments have been in the United States, where the industry is finding it increasingly difficult to profitably operate existing reactors—especially ageing reactors requiring refurbishments—let alone build new ones.
Almost half of the world’s reactors Continue reading
The VDT report doesn’t say when or where, and doesn’t say whether
Dexter Sharper (District 177) wasn’t invited or chose not to attend.
There’s nothing about this meeting in the online agendas or calendar, even though that calendar lists Pictures with Santa at the Historical Courthouse (12/19/2013).
There is this undated public notice with no agenda:
The Lowndes County Board of Commissioners will meet with members of Lowndes County’s Legislative Delegation on Friday, December 20, 2013, at 4:00 p.m. in the Commissioner’s Conference Room located on the 3rd floor of the Judicial-Administrative Complex, 327 North Ashley Street, Valdosta, Georgia.
K. Paige Dukes, County Clerk
pdukes@lowndescounty.com 229-671-2400
Matthew Woody wrote for the VDT 22 December 2013,
Commissioners host local delegation,
oddly omitting the when and where and much of the why from
the traditional
who, what, when, where, and why of journalism.
The Lowndes County Commission hosted Continue reading
Today you can object to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC)
inadequate plan for radioactive waste storage.
Comment through regulations.gov on Docket #NRC-2012-0246-0456; here’s a link to the comment form.
NRC’s web page on Waste Confidence:
The public comment period on the Waste Confidence Draft Generic Environmental Impact Statement and proposed rule ends on Friday, December 20, 2013.
Background from Beyond Nuclear:
No safe, permanent solution has yet been found anywhere in the world—and may never be found—for the nuclear waste problem. In the U.S., the only identified and flawed high-level radioactive waste deep repository site at Yucca Mountain, Nevada has been canceled. Beyond Nuclear advocates for an end to the production of nuclear waste and for securing the existing reactor waste in hardened on-site storage.
Facebook event with more information.
Here’s a petition:
The NRC, by court order, has been required to gather public input regarding a Generic Environmental Impact Statement (GEIS) regarding the storage of nuclear waste that is grossly inadequate and leaves over 150 million Americans who live within 50 miles of a nuclear power plant at risk.
The NRC has declared that it would only be a SMALL risk to the environment and communities near nuclear power plants to store nuclear waste on-site for 60 years, 160 years or even INDEFINITELY if no permanent repository is established….
And NRC’s oversight committee is the
Subcommittee on Energy and Power
of the
Energy and Commerce Committee,
which just held a hearing 12 December 2013 on
Oversight of NRC Management and the Need for Legislative Reform.
-jsq
Both of Spectra’s principal representatives to the Lowndes County Commission
and the Dougherty County Commission claim not to be familiar
with Spectra’s well-known public record of safety violations,
and some of what they say contradicts the public record,
so how can we believe any of their safety assertions about
Spectra’s proposed Sabal Trail Transmission pipeline?
Update 3PM: more evidence from Pennsylvania and elsewhere.
As I’ve mentioned before, Spectra’s Andrea Grover told us that everyone in Pennsylvania was happy now, after I asked her about the Steckman Ridge compressor station leak in front of reporter Matthew Woody, at the 16 October 2013 Spectra meeting at Wiregrass Tech in Valdosta. There’s more beyond the article about pipeline fines and incidents Woody wrote 24 November 2013 for the Valdosta Daily Times (VDT), the local newspaper of record.
Her excuse for the compressor leak, if I recall correctly, was that Continue reading
Would you trust a salesman of failed nukes to sell you a gas plant? Is eminent domain on your property and your community “reasonable and prudent” so Duke can make another bad bet, this time on methane, after Citi GPS and Edison Electric Institute and former FERC Chair Jon Wellinghoff all warned them that solar is going to overtake every other power source within only a few years?
That’s the same Sterling Ivey who announced 2 August 2013 that
Duke’s Levy County nuclear plants were cancelled
(
Duke Energy Cancels $24.7B Florida Nuke Plant Project,
ENRSoutheast,
08/02/2013,
by Scott Judy).
A few days later,
Florida PSC approved a rate hike to pay for Duke’s
forever-closed Crystal River nuclear plant.
Dave Heller wrote for WTSP
5 August 2013,
Florida regulators OK Duke Energy nuclear rate hike,
“These are reasonable and prudent costs as Continue reading
Nobody said
last Monday
that Commissioners had asked for a written response from Sabal Trail.
All we knew was
the four questions Commissioners asked.
Maybe the county should hire a public information officer;
I see they no longer
have one listed on their website front page,
and the last
website public notice is from April.
Fortunately, Commissioner Demarcus Marshall forwarded Spectra’s answers
yesterday. He also copied the Valdosta Daily Times, with
attached PDF.
-jsq
From: Demarcus Marshall
Date: December 13, 2013, 3:01:32 PM CST
Subject: FW: Sabal Trail/Lowndes County Commissioner response FINAL 12122013.pdfConcerned Citizens,
These are the responses from Sabal Trail regarding the questions forwarded to me. Please forward to those in opposition of the surveys and those that have agreed to them.
Commissioner Demarcus Marshall, M.P.A.
From: Fahrenthold, Brian C
Sent: Thursday, December 12, 2013 9:46 PM
To: Demarcus Marshall
Cc: Bill Slaughter; Joyce Evans; Richard Raines; Crawford Powell; John Page; County Manager; Belinda Lovern
Subject: Sabal Trail/Lowndes County Commissioner response FINAL 12122013.pdfCommissioner Marshall, Mr. Chairman, Commissioners and County Manager Pritchard:
Attached is a more detailed summation to the questions posed to the Commission by Ms. Singletary.
Should you need Continue reading
The Commission didn’t let citizens speak after
Spectra’s sales pitch for the Sabal Trail Pipeline Monday,
but some citizens spoke up in Citizens to Be Heard Tuesday
and WCTV covered that.
Winnie Anne Wright wrote for WCTV yesterday, Citizens Address Lowndes County Commission About Sabal Trail Pipeline,
Continue readingResidents covered topics such as the lack of economic impact on Lowndes County, the legality of the pipeline, and also the safety.
“As a mother of three, I don’t want to have to fear for my children as they sleep at night. And you hear a lot of people say that natural gas line explosions don’t happen, and for those that feel that they don’t, I really encourage them to go on the internet and google gas line explosions and then tell me that they don’t happen. As a mother, I feel like I have to step up and do what I can to protect my children”, says Mindy Bland, an impacted homeowner.