Category Archives: Forestry

What’s the Industrial Authority’s Plan?

Appended is my LTE in the VDT today.
I’ve added links. -jsq



What is the Industrial Authority’s plan to bring in real clean jobs?


MAGE SOLAR is hiring for the first of 350 jobs
in its photovoltaic (PV) solar manufacturing plant in Dublin, Georgia, with half
the population of Valdosta, in Laurens County, with half the
population of Lowndes County. They’ve parlayed their position
between the Atlanta airport and the Savannah seaport for
many new clean jobs.

Suniva of Norcross’s second PV plant with its 500 jobs
went to Michigan.
Saginaw Valley calls itself Solar Valley and collaborates
with governments, academia, and industry, winning thousands of clean
jobs in wind and solar manufacturing and generating plants.


The Saginaw News remarked (7 Nov 2010):

Continue reading →

VLCIA biomass event Q&A



Here are videos that illustrate the VDT’s point today in

What We Think:

While officials continue to downplay local citizen anger about current
projects, citizens are organizing in a variety of ways to affect change
the next election cycle. When Sterling Chemical came to Lowndes County in
the 1990s, citizens were told the project was a “done deal,” and so
it was. Sterling is still here, but those in office at the time aren’t,
and the director of the Industrial Authority at the time is no longer
here either.

As has been shown worldwide, citizens are tired of being told what’s
best for them, having no say so in how their tax dollars are spent,
and having their concerns ignored.

Until officials understand that it is coming from all directions and not
just led by a few malcontents, the swell will continue to grow. And those
who continue to ignore the anger and frustration do so at their own peril.

Maybe the VDT is referring to this kind of response from the VLCIA panel
on 6 Dec 2010:

“these things do prop up the local economy, period, end of discussion.”

A previous questioner who had a job in Vietnam
notes he was lied to about Agent Orange

and asks “can you assure me that I won’t be affected by this?”

Continue reading →

Where’s the wood to come from and who will buy the electricity?



Here’s video of what I asked at the recent VLCIA biomass event
(6 Dec 2010) and the answers from the panel.

So there’s actually not any new study of wood sourcing
(Brad Lofton told me after the meeting that the study had been “completed”
after we met in June),
and the study that exists is not publicly available.
Someone from Sterling promised me after the meeting to redact the
private parts of the wood sourcing study and provide the rest
for public distribution. We’ll see.

Regarding my question about who will buy the electricity and
whether we’ll end up like Plant Scherer, selling electricity
to Florida while keeping the pollution here, the answer was:

Continue reading →

VLCIA Biomass “Forum” Tonight: Do they have a plan?



According to the
VDT’s What We Think of yesterday:

All citizens of Lowndes County and any other interested parties are
encouraged to attend the Biomass Forum Monday night, hosted by the
Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority, at 7:30 at the Conference
Center.

Forum? As in people will get time to get real questions answered?
And the VLCIA might be interested in real input?

The authority has invited a half-dozen individuals to speak, which will
last approximately 60 to 90 minutes, followed by “ample” time for
questions to be answered, at least 30 minutes, according to the Authority.

Hm, 3 to 1 they speak we listen.
Interesting definition of “forum”.
Also, despite VLCIA’s many complaints that people didn’t get involved
early enough in their previous public meetings about this plant,
if this event is listed on VLCIA’s own website, I can’t find it.
It’s not on the VLCIA’s facebook page, either.

Although on November 10th there are two VLCIA facebook posts saying:

The Industrial Authority stands behind its decision for the construction
of Wiregrass Power LLC and feels like this green project will be a
win/win for the community.

So much for looking for input.

Anyway, back to the VDT:

The Times has presented several stories with facts concerning the $140
million project, which will generate 20 to 25 local jobs once the plant
is up and running.

20 to 25 local jobs.

Meanwhile, in other places that have a plan:



What’s our plan, VLCIA?

How about we plant trees instead of burn them?

And I agree with the VDT on this:

And to the Industrial Authority and invited speakers, you are urged to
not insult the intelligence of those attending. They understand what
the plant will do. What they want to know is how this will affect them
in terms of health issues, air quality and safety, burning sewage,
the number of trucks on the highway so close to several schools, etc.

The onus is on you, the Authority, to handle this in a much more
professional manner than the last Sterling project.

More to the point, why is the VLCIA wasting its political capital
(and our tax dollars)
on this one polluting plant when it could be working to bring in
real clean energy?

Does the VLCIA have a plan to raise the local metro area out of

the bottom 10 for wages?
Or is this 20-25-job polluting plant the best the VLCIA can do?

If you can’t come to tonight’s “forum”, or even if you can,
here is

contact information for your elected and appointed officials,
including the VLCIA board.

-jsq

Brad Lofton’s Selective Memory

I see by yesterday’s VDT story about the Lowndes County Board of Education (LCBOE)
meeting that Brad Lofton, executive directory of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA), is reported as saying:

The people … that are opposing the plant … have yet to agree
to sit down and talk with the authority directly about the plant.

He said somehing similar at the 29 Sep 2010 meeting of the
Valdosta Board of Education (VBOE).
Except then he at least admitted that I had gotten the VLCIA presentation.
Yet even then he forgot about the other people in this picture
of that 10 June 2010 meeting at the VLCIA offices:




Pictured: Natasha Fast, Angela Manning, Allan Ricketts (Project Manager), Geraldine Fairell, Ken Klanicki, Brad Lofton (Executive Director)

Even earlier, Dr. Brad Bergstrom and Seth Gunning got a presentation from
the VLCIA.

I pointed all this out

a month ago, after the VBOE incident.

Why does Brad Lofton, a public employee,
keep standing up before elected bodies and
saying something that is not true?

-jsq

Video of Dr. Sammons’ talk at VSU



Here is

a video of most of Dr. William Sammons’ presentation
at the

SAVE Biomass Forum at VSU.
His slides from that talk
are available on the LAKE web pages, so you can follow along.

Instead of dirty biomass we could have clean efficiency and conservation (retrofitting produces twice as many jobs as biomass)
and solar power, which is booming nationwide,
burns no trees, and emits no pollutants.

You can also contact your
local elected or appointed officials.

-jsq

Due Diligence on Biomass Combustion, by Dr. William Sammons



Monday a week ago
Dr. William Sammons, a pediatrician
who has studied biomass plants nationwide, called them

“a medical atrocity.”
His

slides from that talk are now available on the LAKE web pages.

For example, he demonstrated that burning wood is dirtier than burning coal:


This slide shows data taken from biomass plant permits.
Also notice

Continue reading →

“Proposed plant said to be ‘medical atrocity'”



Johnna Pinholster writes in the
the Valdosta Daily Times (paper 25 Oct,

online 27 Oct 2010)
about the

the SAVE Biomass Forum at VSU:

A medical atrocity.

That is the phrase Dr. William Sammons used to described biomass energy
plants at Monday night’s biomass forum at Valdosta State University’s
Student Union theater.

Dr. Sammons answered many of the unanswered concerns about the biomass
incinerator, and,

unlike the lack of peer-reviewed evidence from the plant proponents:

Continue reading →

Bigger Hall: SAVE Biomass Forum at VSU



Due to popular demand, the SAVE Biomass Forum has moved to a larger hall,
the Student Union Theater.
That’s on the east side of North Oak Street, across from Baytree Road.

It’s still Monday, 25 October 2010 from 7 to 9 PM,
organized by Students Against Violating the Environment (SAVE)
at Valdosta State University (VSU).
The featured speaker is Dr. William Sammons, a pediatrician who
has spoken nationally on the subject.
Forum flyer
PDF
is available.
See
SAVE’s facebook event page for any updates.

Continue reading →

Subsidize Solar, not Coal or Biomass



The
WSJ article about economic problems of biomass plants
goes on to suggest the government subsidize biomass more.
Clean Technica suggests

a better idea:
If solar got the
same subsidies as fossil fuels,
solar would be cheaper than current grid power everywhere in the U.S.
Each taxpayer has spent about $521 towards coal over the past five years
and only $7.24 towards solar.
How about we reverse that?

Solar needs no fuel, no truck deliveries, and no emissions.

-jsq