How about a profit-sharing venture the pipeline partners and
the County?
A VSU professor asked that at the

10 December 2013 Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission.

Dr. Hochschild listed a few benefits Spectra rep. Brian Fahrenthold

had claimed the previous morning.

Considering the vast profits Florida Power and Light and Sabal Trail
stand to make from the use of our land,
I know they can do a lot better than hotel stays, Big Macs, and temporary jobs.
Mr. Fahrenthold claimed the pipeline would be economically beneficial
because it will supposedly bring in $460 million in property taxes
over the next sixty years.

First I’d like to know if an independent agency came up with that projection,
or if those are Florida Power and Light’s and Sabal Trail’s numbers.
The problem with estimated projections of course,
is that they are almost guaranteed to be incorrect.
I would like to request that Sabal Trail provide the
data and metrics used for that calculation so that the Lowndes County
Board of Commissioners and Lowndes residents can conduct an independent
analysis.

If it is indeed the case that Florida Power and Light is going to pay
$460 million in property taxes over the next sixty years,
how many tens or hundreds of millions of dollars do they stand to profit
over those same sixty years?
I’d like to ask them to disclose their projected profits from the
pipeline for the next sixty years.

At this very moment while we’re having this meeting,
we’re the third poorest Metropolitan Statistical Area in this country.
The third poorest out of 318
Metropolitan Statistical Areas in the country.
I think Florida Power and Light and Sabal Trail are in a great position
to help us out.
We have the supply; they have the demand.
They want to make enormous profits by using our land;
we want to climb out of poverty.

I want to propose a profit-sharing venture
between Florida Power and Light, Sabal Trail, and Lowndes County,
where a percentage of their corporate profits
are given to the neediest families in Lowndes County.
This profit-sharing venture would fit nicely into

Florida Power and Light and Sabal Trail’s core values
of ethical behavior and community enhancement.

Thank you for considering this.

Here’s

the video:

The supposed pipeline economic benefits –Thomas Hochschild

Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),

Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),

Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 10 December 2013.

-jsq