Category Archives: Renewable Energy

Houston’s Renewable Energy

For those people around Lowndes County who are living in the
past and still say solar doesn’t work,
Jonathan Hiskes interviews the former mayor of Houston, Bill White,

in Grist, 24 Sep 2010, and asks about solar energy and efficiency:



During White’s time as mayor of Houston, the nation’s fourth largest city, he ran a highly successful home-weatherization program and engineered a major purchase of 50 megawatts of clean energy, giving momentum to the state’s booming wind industry.

Hm, so VSU, for example, could buy wind energy from windmills off the Georgia Coast…

Read on about solar.

Continue reading →

Phyllis Stallworth: “I am gravely concerned and disappointed”

I received this on 7 Oct for posting.

-jsq

Valdosta is an innovative city with expanding opportunities for
our growing community. Valdosta has recently celebrated 150 years of
progress. As a citizen, I have spent most of my adult life experiencing
this progress. I’ve seen economic developments through recruitment,
retention and expansions that benefit our city, with tremendous support
from our communities. I’ve seen job opportunities that improve the
livelihood of our citizens, through the recruitment of national companies
who have established their businesses in our great city.

Our school systems are innovative, and they serve as models for
other school systems in our state, with great parental involvement and
encouragement toward improvements. Our University and College systems are
some of the best in the state, with phenomenal enrollment and retention
of traditional and non-traditional students in our city and abroad.

Our religious establishments are growing from leaps and bounds with more
and more people becoming citizens of our great city, who are leaving
larger unsafe, polluted, and unproductive cities, for a safer, less
polluted and productive small town lifestyle, such as our wonderful
city provides.

The development of small businesses, through our downtown projects, have
been a great success story for our city. The innovative improvements
make our city one of the most visited in our state. We pride ourselves
as a Titletown community, through continuous progress over 150 years.

When I contemplate our shared 150 years of progress, I find it disturbing
that our Industrial Authority would make such a bad decision as to bring
a Biomass incinerator into our community. As an advocate for the welfare
of children, women, and families I am gravely concerned and disappointed
that such a project has been endorsed by leaders who were elected to
carry out the wishes of the community for the betterment of all citizens.

Continue reading →

Excuse me? Nobody but me had gotten a biomass presentation from VLCIA?

An open letter to Brad Lofton and Allan Ricketts,

Watching

a video of your speeches to the Valdosta Board of Education (VBOE),
I was astonished to see Brad Lofton say nobody in the room but me
had sat down and gotten a presentation from VLCIA!

Brad Bergstrom has already reminded you that

Bergstrom and Seth Gunning sat down with VLCIA months ago.
I hope you weren’t failing to count Dr. Bergstrom
because he wasn’t physically in the same room at the time
you made that astonishing assertion.

And what about these people?


More

here.

Sitting directly in front of Lofton in those pictures of that June 10th
meeting in the VLCIA offices is Pastor Angela Manning.

I see later in the same video Allan Ricketts contradicts
Brad Lofton by referring to that very meeting that I organized on June 10th.
Yet one of Ricketts or Lofton (I can’t see which)
at the very end of the video claims VLCIA answered every one
of Pastor Manning’s concerns.



As I already pointed out directly to Brad Lofton before
the VBOE meeting, listening to the VLCIA persuaded Pastor Manning to
oppose the biomass plant, organizing

a town hall
at which numerous people spoke about the biomass plant, mostly against.
In case there is any doubt as to Pastor Manning’s position on the
biomass plant, she has since

spelled it out in a letter directly to Brad Lofton:

“I stand with the NAACP, the SCLC, the American Lung Association, and any other group fighting against the bio mass plant.”

In my

above message to Lofton, (sent, once again before
the VBOE meeting) I listed four unanswered concerns from the

June 10 meeting at VLCIA.
He responded by ignoring half of them
and inadequately answering two of them.
When I pointed this out to him,
he failed to answer any of them and asked for
assistance in recruiting jobs.
When I

offered such assistance
his

whole response was:

“We’re moving forward with permits in hand. Have a nice day.”

All the messages cited in the preceding paragraph were exchanged
before the VBOE meeting.
Yet Lofton and Ricketts stood up before the VBOE and asserted
all concerns had been answered.
Is that how someone acts who is seriously trying to answer concerns
of the community?

I do not appreciate Brad Lofton and Allan Ricketts using my name
to support the misinformation they conveyed in their
speeches to the Valdosta Board of Education.

When I first heard about this proposed biomass plant,
I thought it was green energy.
Attempts to obtain objective information about plant emissions
and fuel sources for all the similar nearby plants, together with
repeated presentations such as this from Brad Lofton and
Allan Ricketts, have persuaded me and others to oppose the
proposed biomass incinerator.

-jsq

John S. Quarterman

Videos of pro and con biomass speakers at VBOE

Karen Noll took these videos at the

29 September 2010
meeting of the Valdosta Board of Education (VBOE).
Much more about that meeting here.

-jsq
Dr. Gretchen Bielmyer speaking against the biomass plant.


Dr. Brad Bergstrom speaking against the biomass plant.

Brad Lofton and Allan Ricketts
speaking for the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA) and the biomass plant.

Michael Noll: “enough is enough”

Here is a followup to
the VDT story in the previous post.

-jsq

Dear Lowndes County Commissioners.

My sincere thanks for letting me present my concerns at yesterday’s
meeting. It is very much appreciated.

Please understand that what I presented is based on facts. I have
worked for ten years at VSU as an educator, and my students and
colleagues know me as a straightforward person. I may ruffle some
feathers at times, but I clearly was brought up in a no-nonsense
household.

If Mr. Lofton would not continue to ignore our concerns (as he again
did at the BOE meeting), to misrepresent organizations such as the
Sierra Club (an organization I happen to support), or to keep
bringing up names of those who endorse the biomass plant (yet
conveniently overlooks a conflict of interest), I  probably would
have never brought this up. However, during these past couple weeks,
and particularly with his behavior at the BOE meeting, Mr. Lofton
has added insult to injury, and enough is enough.

To substantiate the comments I made yesterday,

Continue reading →

Michael Noll: “We owe it to our children, our neighbors and friends”

Appended is an extract from the VDT’s writeup on the
Lowndes County Commission meeting of 28 Sep 2010.
The “area schools” was the
Valdosta Board of Education meeting
of the previous evening, 27 Sep 2010.
Much more about that

here.
The list of concerns Dr. Noll presented in writing is already blogged here as

Let’s Think About This!

-jsq



During the citizens to be heard portionof the meeting, Dr. Michael Noll
reiterated concerns his wife, Karen, presented to the board during its
last meeting regarding the proposed Wiregrass Biomass Plant.

Noll spoke about his concerns with the project and lack of straight
answers he has received from the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial
Authority’s (VLCIA).

Continue reading →

Pastor Angela Manning: “totally against the building of the bio mass plant”

Pastor Angela Manning sent this message to Brad Lofton Monday 4 October
and asked that it be posted here.

-jsq



Mr. Lofton,

I just want you and every one at the Industrial Authority to know that my
congregation and I are totally against the building of the bio mass plant.
There are people in my church who suffer from asthma and COPD. This plant
would only make those who already have existing breathing problems worse. We
have a number of children and babies too. According to the American Lung
Association this plant would be harmful to the health of healty human beings
let alone those who have problems. I stand with the NAACP, the SCLC, the
American Lung Association, and any other group fighting against the bio mass
plant.


Taking a Stand in the Community,

Dr. Angela Manning

Pastor Michael Bryant: the benefits to be realized

Leigh Touchton sent me this today.

-jsq

John,

This letter is from Pastor Michael Bryant, Webb-Miller Community Church,
Hahira. He would like to publish on the LAKE blog. Dr. Manning’s response
to Brad Lofton is also for publication.

Thank you,

Leigh



Given the complexity of the issue facing us as a community with regard to
the Biomass Project, it is incumbent upon all parties involved to recognize
that while the populations ill-affected will primarily be our children and
elderly, the most vulnerable among us, the real issue is the fact that only
25 job are going to be produced. Likewise, if the facts bear out as
proclaimed by both or either of the parties involved, and I believe if an
error is made, it should be on the side of safety, the benefits to be
realized are not nearly as great as the alternative approach provided by a
solar energy plant.

Continue reading →

Ontario shutting down all coal plants by 2014



According to

the province of Ontario:

Ontario families will breathe cleaner air after four additional dirty coal-fired units were permanently shut down, reducing smog-producing coal generating capacity by 40 per cent since 2003.

Today’s closing of two of eight units at Nanticoke and two of four units at the Lambton plant are part of Ontario’s plan to phase out dirty coal-fired generation by 2014 and replace it with wind, solar and other cleaner energy sources.

Hm, isn’t Ontario mostly north of Buffalo,
where
solar companies are booming
and U. Buffalo is building a solar array at its entrance?
And isn’t Toronto north of Buffalo, well more than a thousand miles north of here?
Tell me again why south Georgia can’t do solar?
The solar panels on my workshop say we can.

-jsq

Bergstrom, Noll, and Gunning biomass questions from June 2009

These are the questions Dr. Michael Noll submitted to the
LCC at its 9 June 2009 meeting.
I invite anyone else who submitted written comments to that meeting
to send them here and I’ll be happy to post them.

-jsq

TO: Lowndes Co. Commission

RE: Wiregrass LLC Biomass Electricity Plant

Date: June 9, 2009

Dear Lowndes County Commissioners.

As the county is currently considering the development of a biomass electricity plant, we wish to share some important concerns and questions with you, which we believe need to be addressed before any further action is taken.

First, the proposed biomass plant is being touted as a “Green Energy” project because it produces electricity from renewable materials. However, this wood waste and yard waste could have other uses—such as compost, landscaping mulch and forest soil amendments, which are much “greener” still and produce no pollution at all. The fact that these materials are labeled “waste” tells you something, and Reducing, Re-using, and Recycling waste should come higher on the list of green processing than incinerating it.

Continue reading →