Tag Archives: Valdosta

Ask your Congress members to oppose TPP today

Here’s

a handy form by EFF
to oppose the secretly-negotiated privacy-deleting corporate-greed-defending
natural gas export pipeline-enabling Trans-Pacific Parternship treaty.

Parker Higgins and Maira Sutton
wrote for the Electronic Frontier Foundation
28 December 2013,

2013 in Review: The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement,

The biggest TPP story this year was the publication by WikiLeaks
in November of the chapter titled “Intellectual Property.” Unfortunately,
its contents confirmed many of our worst fears: from
ratcheting up copyright term lengths
around the world, to
boxing in fair use, to mandating a draconian legal regime around DRM software, section
after section contained clauses plucked from corporate wishlists and
snubbed the public interest altogether.

And then there’s

Ted Poe’s House Subcommittee pushing TPP for LNG exports that would propel
“natural” fracked gas pipelines
such as Spectra Energy’s Sabal Transmission gas pipe
through private property and

public rivers and watersheds and

aquifers.

Here’s what’s up next: Continue reading →

Spectra opens Valdosta office next to Industrial Authority, scene of 2011 anti-biomass protests

VP of Stakeholder Outreach Susan Waller doesn’t want visitors
at Spectra’s new office in Valdosta.
Which is in the same building as the Industrial Authority,
which also didn’t really want some visitors it got during
the biomass controversy.

Matthew Woody wrote for the VDT yesterday,

Sabal Trail opens Valdosta office,

Susan Waller, vice president of stakeholder outreach and
sustainability said, “That is our right-of-way office. It has
about 30 right-of-way agents, survey crews, our files and documents,
and a few meeting rooms.”

The office houses agents for three counties and will be open in
Valdosta for approximately five years, Waller said.

Sabal Trail has eight offices along the pipeline’s route, she said.

“These are not really the facilities for residents to drop by
to express concerns because all of the agents will be in and out of
the office constantly; however, they could call and make an
appointment.”

The VDT didn’t mention that Continue reading →

Sandy Hill Solar, Elm City, NC

Can’t miss this driving north on I-95:
acres of solar panels next to the highway,
paying a local farmer for decades.

MacDonald wrote for enerG September/October 2012,

Solar picking upsteam in the U.S. South,

The Sandy Cross solar farm is the most recent project completed by
O2energies, a mid-sized Charlotte-based solar development firm that
has built a reputation for combining sustainable agriculture and
sustainable energy production on farms in the southeastern U.S. The
company owns and operates several solar farms in North Carolina.

The company’s president, Joel Olsen, notes that agriculture and
energy production can complement each other. Solar farms have a low
profile, are noiseless, produce no pollution, and consume no water.

Olsen points out an interesting fact: solar farms can often be Continue reading →

South Georgia Growing Local 2014: Local food, economy, and community

You can have fun and support the local economy
at

South Georgia Growing Local 2014.

Farm Tour (citrus, sheep, olives, and row crops)
Friday 24 January 2014, plus also dinner and a movie.

Learn a lot and eat well with the local community at the

talks
Saturday 25 January 2014, about animals, orchards, gardens, health,
farmer experiences, and policy.

You can register
using this form.

And you can join

events on facebook
for the

farm tour
and the

talks
so everybody can see you’re going; don’t forget to register, too!

Here’s the conference flyer for more information: Continue reading →

The nuclear renaissance is dead: somebody tell the Georgia legislature the wind is blowing towards the sun

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 →

Tybee beach to be resanded

The Army Corps of Engineers has released a
Draft Environmental Assessment and a Draft Finding of No Significant Impact
for putting more sand on Tybee Island beach, also known as “renourishment”.

Mary Landers wrote for ajc.com yesterday,

Tybee beach renourishment plans move forward,

The renourishment process involves using a cutterhead dredge to move
about 1.7 million cubic yards of high quality sand from an area
located 1.5 miles from the southern tip of Tybee Island. The
deposited sand would be enough to compensate for the erosion
expected to occur over the subsequent nine years. The project will
include placing sand up to the north terminal groin. This northern
area was included in previous renourishment cycles, but not the 2008
renourishment.

“It is good news,” said Tybee council member Paul Wolff.
“Obviously we depend on the beach for our economy. Everything
that gets done to move the process forward helps. We’re optimistic
we’ll get the federal cost share again.”

Hm, I wonder if this contact information would work for other projects: Continue reading →

Warren Buffett moves from nuclear to wind

How to get Georgia Power and Southern Company off of

nuclear
and onto offshore wind and onshore solar power: stop approving

Construction Work in Progress (CWIP)
rate hikes for nukes that are already a billion dollars
over budget and more than a year late.
So far Mississippi is doing better about this than Georgia,
by

capping ratepayer and taxpayer costs for Kemper Coal.
Iowa did, and look what happened.

SimplyInfo wrote 23 December 2013,

What Power Companies Do When Nuclear Is No Longer An Easy Option, Continue reading →

Secret meeting of Lowndes County Commission and state reps @ LCC 2013-12-20

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 →

Last day to oppose NRC bad nuclear waste plan

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

Sabal Trail meeting leaves questions unanswered –VDT

Looks like we have a theme here, of
Spectra and Sabal Trail not answering questions,
often accompanied by mentions of threatening letters,
on
WALB (Spectra reps not familiar
with fines against their own company),
from

Shale Property Rights (“your statement is incorrect and misleading”),
on
WCTV
(“tonight’s meeting didn’t ease everyone’s fears”),
in

the Moultrie Observer (“Sabal began sending letters to landowners”),
on
Chris Beckham’s radio show (“veiled threats” and no response to

a landowner attorney’s letter of denial of access),
and spelled out in the headline of yesterday’s VDT article.

Matthew Woody
wrote for the VDT yesterday,

Sabal Trail meeting leaves questions unanswered,

The formats for both the Wiregrass and Clyattville meetings were
perceived by area residents as unfriendly and intimidating.

“It’s the same set up as the meeting at Wiregrass,” said
affected landowner Carol Singletary. “I am
disappointed.”

Brooks County landowner, Tracy Ryder, said the hardest part about
the layout of the meeting was that residents had to come with the
right questions to ask because Sabal Trail did not easily provide
the information.

“Overall, the meeting has good presentations, but not good
information. It seems to be designed to win admiration without
providing value. Some of the representatives have been courteous,
but they aren’t straightforward with residents,” said James
Ryder. “After this meeting, I feel kind of let down. I didn’t
get the information that I wanted.”

Many residents expressed concern about safety issues, property
values, paying property taxes on land that cannot be developed,
reselling their property, and proper compensation for the use of
their land.

Here’s

a report by the Ryders about
the 16 October 2013
meeting by Spectra:

We attended an open house meeting conducted by Sabal Trail in
Valdosta, GA, last October at which time people were able to view
charts and map and ask questions regarding the proposed pipeline and
corridors. Sabal Trail representatives were not releasing
information about the corridors and specific properties that were to
be impacted because they said they were still in the planning and
research stages. They did state they wanted to lay their pipeline
next to the SONAT line, and that they were no longer considering
utilizing the corridor affecting Tifton, Georgia because “there
were too many people involved”. My reply to that was that property
owners in Brooks County are people, too, and that we are already
negatively impacted by the pre-existing SONAT pipe line.

Most importantly, we did note that there was no representation of
Brooks County people at that meeting, or at any of the following
meetings in Lowndes County. Lowndes County citizens are quite
organized in their resistance to this new pipe line. We are
contacting you with a questionnaire to learn what your concerns are.
If Brooks County property owners organize and form a united front,
we should be able to have our concerns addressed. By organizing we
will have greater leverage to if not to change the course of the new
gas line, to demand and negotiate better compensation for our
losses. As I fear they will be significant.

And according to the VDT, the Ryders remain disappointed in the pipeline
company for not supplying information.
They’re not the only ones.