Category Archives: Renewable Energy

“Your determination to sell our community your biomass project” –Dr. Noll to Brad Lofton

First of a series. -jsq

From: “Michael G. Noll”

To: Brad Lofton <blofton@industrialauthority.com>, “John S. Quarterman,
Allan Ricketts, <aricketts@industrialauthority.com>

CC: “Susan R. Wehling”, “Mary B. Gooding”, Roy Copeland, Kay Harris

Subject: RE: Wiregrass Power, LLC

Date: Fri, 24 Dec 2010 13:46:25 +0000

Hello Mr. Lofton.

I can certainly admire your determination to sell our community your
biomass project as “green” or “safe”. However, as WACE already pointed
out, there is a difference between fiction and fact (see my guest
column in the VDT on December 12, 2010).

In the last couple months, WACE has provided the Industrial Authority
and the community with a plethora of scientific literature and
statements made by medical organizations that unequivocally state that
biomass is neither “green” nor “safe”. At the same time, neither you
nor Mr. Ricketts have been able to provide up-to-date scientific proof
to us to challenge the position that biomass is, in fact, dirtier than
coal and bears significant health risks.

Anyone who cares enough for the community he or she lives in, must
understand the responsibility to provide such proof. I have
difficulties to imagine that you or Mr. Ricketts do not share such a
sentiment, despite the disagreements we might have.
Let’s cut to the chase in regard to your panel of experts:

Continue reading →

Brad Lofton: “Please have anyone interested e-mail us directly.”

Brad Lofton answers

my response of 23 Dec 2010 Col. Ricketts.
Mr. Lofton appears not to have noticed that the press releases

are in the same post as Col. Ricketts’ message.
I’m still waiting for the videos the Valdosta videographer took
to appear on the VLCIA website.
Meanwhile, LAKE’s videos of the 6 Dec 2010 Q&A session
have been on the web since 19 Dec.
-jsq

To: John S. Quarterman, Allan Ricketts <aricketts@industrialauthority.com>,

From: Brad Lofton <blofton@industrialauthority.com>

Cc: John S. Quarterman, Michael Noll, Susan Wehling, Mary B. Gooding, Roy Copeland, Kay Harris

Subject: Re: Wiregrass Power, LLC

Date: Thu, 23 Dec 2010 14:49:56 -0500

John-

We enjoyed having you Tuesday night, and we were especially glad to
have you attend on the night we planned to review the expert panel’s
testimony regarding the positive environmental, health and economic
impacts of our project. We appreciate you agreeing today to provide all
of that data (or at least links) on your blog plus the recent flurry of
pro-biomass press releases. As you know, December has been very active
with EPA and USDA releases promoting biomass plus GA Tech and Duke
researchers announcing that renewable energy (including biomass) will
save Southeastern U.S. ratepayers $23 billion a year by 2030. That’s
great news for residential and industrial consumers alike. The
unanimous permission granted for the Gainesville, FL biomass facility
was good news, and we were amazed at the large amount of support they
received-from the FL State Department of Health, to the guardians of
the Suwannee River basin, the U.S. Corps of Engineers, and numerous
government and environmental groups in between.

Regarding access to our panel info, we have already e-mailed our
panelists’ presentations to members of the public, and we would be more
than happy to continue doing that. Please have anyone interested e-mail
us directly.

Continue reading →

Harrisburg, PA loses solvency and trust over incinerator



Michael Cooper wrote in the New York Times on 20 May 2010 about

An Incinerator Becomes Harrisburg’s Money Pit:

HARRISBURG, Pa. — Officials here decided seven years ago to borrow $125
million to rebuild and expand the city’s enormous trash incinerator,
which the federal government had shut down because of toxic air pollution.

But the incinerator burned through the money faster than the trash,
leaving Harrisburg residents feeling like they were living through a
sequel to the 1986 movie “The Money Pit.”

There were contractor troubles, delays, cost overruns and squabbles. The
city borrowed tens of millions more, shoveling good money after bad into
the job.

The Patriot-News Editorial Board wrote on 12 April 2010 about

Harrisburg incinerator fiasco deserves an investigation to understand how it happened:

Over nearly a decade, officials at the Harrisburg Authority and City
Hall made a series of decisions that sought to get the trash incinerator
working and profitable, but which instead brought Pennsylvania’s
capital to the brink of bankruptcy.

The 2003 deal that took on $125 million in debt to repair the incinerator
neglected to include a performance bond.

Inexperienced firms were hired. Fees were paid for work poorly done. Loans
were taken on disastrous terms.

Officials were aided, or rather misled, by the advice of numerous
attorneys, bankers and engineers apparently far more interested in
collecting handsome fees than they were in protecting the interests
of taxpayers.

As a result, there is a deep distrust of the fundamental institutions
that created this fiasco.

Something else sounds familiar about this situation:

While some of the seats have changed, many of the same people in
government today had their fingerprints on these decisions.

It’s the same old boy network locally as approved Sterling Chemical,
and the chair of the county commission at that time is now on the
Industrial Authority.
And the VLCIA has taken on what is reputed to be a $15 million bond issue.

How big is Harrisburg?

50,000 people,
same as Valdosta.
What is Harrisburg considering?
Bankruptcy.
Who profited anyway?
Local developers.

What’s the moral?

All of the guarantees proved worthless.

All of the fail-safes failed.

What say we have the investigation now, before the fail-safes fail?

-jsq

Seth Gunning LTE in the VDT

This is the text of Seth Gunning’s letter to the editor that the Valdosta Daily Times printed on 20 Dec 2010. Here’s video of the referenced
air quality permit hearing.
-jsq



Recently on Thursday December 16th, State Judge Ronit Walker denied
air quality permits for a proposed coal plant in Sandersville, Georgia.
Judge Walker cited the Georgia Environmental Protection Divisions failure
to properly review permits, and their lack of enforcement of basic Clean
Air Act standards for several hazardous emissions.

Flashback to April 27th in Valdosta Georgia when Environmental Protection
Division Air Branch Manager Eric Cornwell openly admitted to having NOT
READ the air permit application for Wiregrass Biomass LLC’s proposal to
build a hotly contested 40mw power plant&emdash; during a Valdosta EPD hearing
meant to evaluate those permits.

Today, the Valdosta Industrial Authority is hazardously entrenched

Continue reading →

jsq to Col. Ricketts about VLCIA

Here’s my response to

Col. Ricketts’ recent message. -jsq

From: John S. Quarterman

To: “Allan Ricketts” <aricketts@industrialauthority.com>

cc: “‘John S. Quarterman'”, “‘Michael Noll'”, “‘Susan Wehling'”,
“‘Brad Lofton'” <blofton@industrialauthority.com>,
“Mary B. Gooding”, Roy Copeland, Kay Harris

Subject: Re: Wiregrass Power, LLC

Col. Ricketts,

It’s good to hear from you.



I wondered during your re-presentation of slides you’d already
said the entire VLCIA board had seen at the recent VLCIA biomass
event, whether you would provide copies to interested parties,
such as those sitting in the room, but you did not at the time.

Considering the increasing amount of public interest in this topic,
as evidenced by the attendance and

questions at the VLCIA Rainwater Conference
Center event, and by recent newspaper activity, probably the
public would like to see those press releases directly from

the VLCIA’s web site. However, LAKE is always happy to link
to relevant material, so if you will please send me the URLs of
those press releases as you found them on the web, LAKE will be
happy to link to them.

Similarly, if Dr. Teaf’s information is as good as you indicated,

Continue reading →

Col. Ricketts on Wiregrass Power, LLC

I received the appended message from Col. Ricketts, Project Manager
for the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA).
My response will follow. -jsq

From: “Allan Ricketts” <aricketts@industrialauthority.com>

To: “‘John S. Quarterman'”

Cc: “‘Michael Noll'”, “‘Susan Wehling'”, “‘Brad Lofton'” <blofton@industrialauthority.com>

Subject: Wiregrass Power, LLC

Date: Wed, 22 Dec 2010 12:48:28 -0500

Norman Bennett, Gary Minchew,

Mary Gooding, Jerry Jennett (Chair),

J. Stephen Gupton (Attorney),

Brad Lofton (Executive Director)

Hello John,

It was good to see you at the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority
Board Meeting on Tuesday evening. I encourage you to attend more often.

I’ve attached copies of several recent press releases that we discussed
during the meeting. I look forward to seeing these posted on your
information exchange for folks to read.

Please let me know if you would like a copy of Dr. Christopher Teaf’s .ppt

Continue reading →

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 →

Real High Speed Rail: in China



Here in the U.S., we’re still thinking about maybe doing some high
speed rail lines.
None in Georgia.
And even the slow-speed passenger proposed rail network bypasses Valdosta
and Lowndes County.

Meanwhile, in China:




(Click on the detail map for the full map from johomaps 2010.)

Continue reading →