Tag Archives: WACE

Waste Not, Want Not —Michael Noll

VDT LTE today. -jsq
We can only prosper as a society if we work together. Despite the differences we might have, we share so much more in common. Yet it seems that we prefer to fall into separate camps, that we seek to view issues in black and white, and that we like to belong to those who have “got it all figured out”. Just pick your side (liberal, conservative) and you “know” who got it all wrong.

I have been humbled by the wide-ranging support WACE received to stop a biomass plant that was once considered a done deal. In the end what mattered was the realization by people across all ages, racial and ideological lines that we want to breathe clean air, and that we don’t want to waste millions of tax dollars on a project that will lead to increases in respiratory illnesses, heart diseases, and cancer. Thus the people spoke up, and with the help of elected representatives and the Industrial Authority “no biomass” became the consensus.

In the last couple of months I noticed another issue many agree on.

Continue reading →

Because of my mother —Dr. Noll @ VLCIA 19 July 2011

Dr. Noll, president of WACE, welcomed VLCIA’s new executive director Andrea Schruijer, and then reminded the board that the honking cars outside indicated an ongoing community assessment of biomass, and he encouraged them to consider previously presented materials and to prevent the biomass plant from finding a back door to come back in.

He remarked that he had visited his mother in Germany:

One and half years ago she was in the intensive care unit for about three weeks because she had severe lung issues. She moved away after that to an area where there isn’t the kind of air pollution she was exposed to before hand, and every single day she wakes up she feels like she’s on vacation.

Here’s the video:


Because of my mother —Dr. Noll @ VLCIA 19 July 2011
Regular Meeting, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA),
Norman Bennett, Tom Call, Roy Copeland chairman, Mary Gooding, Jerry Jennett,
Andrea Schruijer Executive Director, J. Stephen Gupton attorney, Allan Ricketts Project Manager,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 19 July 2011.
Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

Arrests for speaking in an Arizona town

Something seems familiar about this story of a couple of people being arrested at small town council meetings for speaking up.

Ben Popken wrote for the Consumerist 15 July 2011, Small Arizona Town In Furor After 2nd Citizen Arrested For Speaking At Town Meeting:

The town of Quartzsite, AZ, population 3,466, is in disarray after a video showing police hauling away a citizen for speaking at the town meeting podium went viral. The woman was saying that the town council had been violating open meeting laws.

It was the second citizen arrested at a Quartzsite town meeting in two weeks.

What’s all this about? Continue reading →

protest outside the Industrial Authority —Dr. Noll

Received today on Dancing around the issue. -jsq
Please join WACE at a protest outside the Industrial Authority:

** July 19 (Tuesday), 5-6:30pm **

The Industrial Authority is located on the corner of Park Avenue and Patterson Street, and parking is available behind the building.

Since we expect high temperatures, we will provide water. Even if you can only stay for a short time, any minute and any voice counts!

Regards, Michael G. Noll, President
Wiregrass Activists for Clean Energy

Dancing Around the Issue —Dr. Noll

Received this morning on Biomass plant land offer. -jsq
It is unbelievable that despite all the concerns in our community about biomass, the Industrial authority is still considering to sell the land to a company like Wiregrass Power LLC. This is the same company the Industrial Authority once stated it had no faith in anymore. This is the same company that just missed another deadline as stipulated by their contract. And this is the same company that apparently does not have the best interest of our community in mind.
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Many ways Valdosta can stop biomass

VDT says Only city can stop biomass. Well, maybe not only, but they could, by some of the things VDT suggested.

There are other things Valdosta could do, such as what the VSU Faculty Senate did: pass a resolution opposing biomass. Remember, the mayor of Gretna, Florida did that. If little old Gretna can do it, TitleTown USA can do it!

The Valdosta City Council could also hold an ethics investigation of their own appointees to the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority, on the topic of why those appointees are in favor of a project with demonstrated health hazards to the community.

Short of that, Valdosta could demand transparency from VLCIA: Continue reading →

Lowndes County could stop biomass plant

VDT is not quite right when it says Only city can stop biomass. The Lowndes County Commission could do it.

According to Ashley Paulk, a few months ago VLCIA approached the Lowndes County government, asking them to ask VLCIA not to extend Sterling Planet’s contract for the biomass plant. Chairman Paulk refused to accept that hot potato and instead laudably told the community what was going on. Yet there was a bit of a good idea in what VLCIA was asking. Lowndes County could pass an ordinance such as VDT is suggesting banning the incineration of human feces.

Remember, Lowndes County rezoned the land for the plant. It’s time to review that rezoning to see if in light of new information it should be rescinded. According to the VDT, Wiregrass Power LLC supplied a fake timeline, so it wuld not be interesting to know what else they said wasn’t true?

For that matter, wasn’t the rezoning to build a certain biomass plant according to a certain plan which has no expired? Maybe the rezoning is already null and void and the Commission just needs to declare it so.

Short of that, the Lowndes County Commission could demand transparency from VLCIA:

Continue reading →

Only city can stop biomass —VDT

VLCIA has once again passed the buck on biomass, and the Valdosta City Council could pick it up and finally deal with it.

VDT editorial yesterday: after the

In a recent Valdosta council meeting, longtime councilman Sonny Vickers asked if there was any way to put the biomass issue to rest once and for all. The good news, Councilman Vickers, is that there is and it’s all in the city’s hands.

The Industrial Authority signed an agreement with Wiregrass Power LLC which allows the company to purchase the land from the Authority and proceed with the project on its own. Although the Authority hasn’t yet voted on the issue, it appears that they don’t have a choice and may be compelled to honor the agreement.

Compelled? Give me a break! VLCIA has an attorney, and one of its board members is an attorney. If they can’t find a way to break a land purchase contract because conditions have changed, they need new legal counsel.

Why didn’t they discuss that in their yet another special called meeting Thursday morning, in which they apparently discussed that offer from Sterling Planet to buy the proposed biomass plant site?

VDT continued:

And once the land is purchased, as long as the company complies with existing zoning laws, there is not a way to prevent the plant from being built.

Oh, but there is.

Continue reading →

A mix is the way to go —Dr. Noll

This comment from Dr. Noll came in today on San Antonio promises to shut down a coal plant:
Of course we can! And “a mix of energy efficiency, [energy conservation,] and new renewable energy projects” (e.g. solar, wind, geothermal)is the way to go. We simply need the political will and communal support to make such a transition possible.

I am still in Germany and am amazed to see just how much progress has been made here in these past couple of years. Solar thermal and solar voltaic installations abound on private residences; wind mills can be seen in many regions; cars are more fuel efficient, houses better insulated, public transportation accessible and affordable, recycling thoroughly organized, etc.

We may still have a long way to go, but until Continue reading →

“I’m obviously here on one issue.” —Karen Noll @ VLCIA 14 June 2011

Karen Noll asked the VLCIA board to put a no-biomass clause in any purchase agreement regarding the proposed biomass site.

She began with these words:

I’m Karen Noll. I hope some of you already have seen my writing and have read my letters to you in the past. I’m obviously here on one issue. I hope that in the future I can be talking to you about other issues. But right now I’m talking to you about biomass. And we celebrated that it was dead and it was gone and now it’s not. Because we really don’t know … what the plan is.
By “we” I’m guessing she meant WACE. Some of us who are not members of WACE warned that it ain’t over until it’s over, and it only took a week to discover that VLCIA already knew Sterling Planet wanted to buy the proposed biomass site.

Karen Noll made a pitch based partly on saving taxpayer money. In addressing health concerns, she handed the board a letter from local doctor Craig Bishop. She handed the board a petition with “at least 700 signatures” and she said for each signature there was probably at least one more that didn’t sign. Some of what she said appeared to be drawn from a letter that is appended in this post after the video.

Here’s Part 1 of 2: Continue reading →