Received today, with this note.
FYI—this is now open to any residents of Lowndes County, not just City of Valdosta. Please spread the word. It is a great way to learn a LOT more about your local government.
Tim Carroll
Councilman District 5
City of Valdosta
Here’s the application. Continue reading
A county
no bigger than Lowndes County has
agendas and minutes online for
its Board of Commissioners, Board of Health, Local Emergency Planning Committee,
Board of Adjustment,
Board of Elections,
Social Services Board,
and yes, its Planning Board.
Why can Nash County, NC afford this yet Lowndes County Chairman Bill Slaughter
says Lowndes County can’t afford to put agendas and minutes online for
the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission?
And if a county can require a solar farm to follow stormwater management
and numerous other regulations, why can’t a county require a natural
gas pipeline to follow local regulations?
It can, if its elected officials actually stand up for their citizens.
And why can Nash County, quite a bit north of Lowndes County,
install solar farm after solar farm while there are none in Lowndes County?
The Nash County online documents also include the details of what the various boards were considering, such as in the Agenda and Minutes of the Nash County Planning Board 21 October 2013, which include this item:
- Conditional Use Permit Request CU-130901 (Previously Tabled Item).
Made by Chris Killenberg With Community Energy Solar on Behalf of Castalia Solar LLC to Develop a Solar Farm on an Approximately 22.91 Acre Portion of Two Tracts Located on the West Side of N NC Highway 58 and South of NC Highway 56 in the A1 Agricultural Zoning District.
And not just the agenda item, also extended discussion in the meeting, including: Continue reading
Here’s a handy form by EFF to oppose the secretly-negotiated privacy-deleting corporate-greed-defending natural gas export pipeline-enabling Trans-Pacific Parternship treaty.
Parker Higgins and Maira Sutton wrote for the Electronic Frontier Foundation 28 December 2013, 2013 in Review: The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement,
The biggest TPP story this year was the publication by WikiLeaks in November of the chapter titled “Intellectual Property.” Unfortunately, its contents confirmed many of our worst fears: from ratcheting up copyright term lengths around the world, to boxing in fair use, to mandating a draconian legal regime around DRM software, section after section contained clauses plucked from corporate wishlists and snubbed the public interest altogether.
And then there’s Ted Poe’s House Subcommittee pushing TPP for LNG exports that would propel “natural” fracked gas pipelines such as Spectra Energy’s Sabal Transmission gas pipe through private property and public rivers and watersheds and aquifers.
Here’s what’s up next: Continue reading
The VDT report doesn’t say when or where, and doesn’t say whether
Dexter Sharper (District 177) wasn’t invited or chose not to attend.
There’s nothing about this meeting in the online agendas or calendar, even though that calendar lists Pictures with Santa at the Historical Courthouse (12/19/2013).
There is this undated public notice with no agenda:
The Lowndes County Board of Commissioners will meet with members of Lowndes County’s Legislative Delegation on Friday, December 20, 2013, at 4:00 p.m. in the Commissioner’s Conference Room located on the 3rd floor of the Judicial-Administrative Complex, 327 North Ashley Street, Valdosta, Georgia.
K. Paige Dukes, County Clerk
pdukes@lowndescounty.com 229-671-2400
Matthew Woody wrote for the VDT 22 December 2013,
Commissioners host local delegation,
oddly omitting the when and where and much of the why from
the traditional
who, what, when, where, and why of journalism.
The Lowndes County Commission hosted Continue reading
Here’s Susan Waller of Spectra
refusing to even listen to a question that she had just asked for:
FERC-required Open House about the
Sabal Trail natural gas pipeline
by Sabal Trail Transmission and Spectra Energy,
Video by Blake Clark, Madison, Madison County, Florida, 17 December 2013.
Blake Clark remarked on this video he took:
This short clip speaks for it’s self. Notice Susan Waller’s condescending tone through out the clips entirety. It is assumed, and I have witnessed her speaking to most landowners inquiring more information in the same tone here. Are the people at Sabal (Spectra) or “what ever they may be calling themselves this week” really concerned for you, your questions, or your property? You decide!
Visit Spectrabusters.org for more information on the Sabal Trail Pipeline, Thank you!
Earlier
she complained that someone who presented her with evidence
was “disruptive”.
What I wanted to ask her about was Continue reading
When someone took Susan Waller up on her offer to answer questions about the Sabal Trail pipeline, she seemed to find the truth as reported by her own company to a federal pipeline oversight agency to be “disruptive”.
Disable Sabal – Sabal Trail (Spectra Energy) Open House Madison, FL,
We are a very genuine, safe, law-abiding company.So said Spectra VP or Shareholder Outreach Susan Waller. She then complained that “your group” was “disruptive” and “you don’t want to hear the truth”.
So Ben Vieth showed Waller lists of incidents of corrosion reported by Spectra to PHMSA. To which another Sabal Trail rep. said, “We have a safe operation”.
Here’s the video:
Video of Spectra answering a question about Sabal Trail in Madison, FL
Sabal Trail natural gas pipeline,
FERC-required Open House, Sabal Trail Transmission and Spectra Energy (Sabal),
Video by Blake Clark, Madison, Madison County, Florida, 17 December 2013.
It’s interesting that even after Continue reading
Lowndes County landowners Larry Rodgers and Mindy Bland on the
Chris Beckham radio show right now.
“Veiled threats” –Mindy Bland.
Larry Rodgers said:
These people do not have a customer in Georgia, so eminent domain does not apply in Georgia.
His attorney (Bill Langdale) responded to a Sabal Trail lawyer letter saying that, and as yet there is no response.
You continue paying taxes on that property forever. They continue making profits on that property forever.
Chris Beckham remarked that there’s no other 36 inch pipeline in Georgia, and Mindy is explaining Continue reading
This was an op-ed submission to the VDT, which didn’t respond.
Today’s the GA PSC vote, so I’m blogging it now.
On Tuesday, the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) wants to do for coal what the Florida PSC already did for that gas pipeline Sabal Trail wants to gash through here: raise utility customer rates!
Who wants a Christmas present of higher electricity rates and
continued coal smoke, plus increased guaranteed profit for Georgia
Power of 11.5%? They
already raised rates each of the last three
years for gas and nuclear plants not yet even built; why should we
permit more rate hikes when the PSC votes December 17th? Last week’s
Public Policy poll
found 69% of Georgia voters oppose that rate hike.
Is a one-time payment enough to let a huge 36 inch fracked methane
pipeline gash through our communities while Spectra Energy of
Houston and FPL of Juno Beach, Florida profit forever, and your
property values go down and your hazards go up?
Those FPL profits come from rate hikes on your cousins the Florida ratepayers. AARP opposes that, saying: Continue reading
Received today on
Spectra reps unfamiliar with Spectra fines @ LCC 2013-12-09. -jsq
Take a stand against the the pipeline by sending in your comment to FERC.gov. At the website you eRegister and they send you an email. Once registered you can submit a comment on docket # PF14-1. Find below an example of a comment, feel free to copy any or all as you please:
Sabal Trail pipeline proposal poses a significant safety threat to our community through accidents. Leaks from such pipelines in the US
have caused explosions and have destroyed homes and killed people 29 times this year alone. Since the proposed pipeline is much larger than any of these recent explosions, a pipeline of 36 inch radius could do extreme damage if such an accident should occur in the
Lowndes county area where it is proposed. Not only those living near the pipeline but Continue reading
Both of Spectra’s principal representatives to the Lowndes County Commission
and the Dougherty County Commission claim not to be familiar
with Spectra’s well-known public record of safety violations,
and some of what they say contradicts the public record,
so how can we believe any of their safety assertions about
Spectra’s proposed Sabal Trail Transmission pipeline?
Update 3PM: more evidence from Pennsylvania and elsewhere.
As I’ve mentioned before, Spectra’s Andrea Grover told us that everyone in Pennsylvania was happy now, after I asked her about the Steckman Ridge compressor station leak in front of reporter Matthew Woody, at the 16 October 2013 Spectra meeting at Wiregrass Tech in Valdosta. There’s more beyond the article about pipeline fines and incidents Woody wrote 24 November 2013 for the Valdosta Daily Times (VDT), the local newspaper of record.
Her excuse for the compressor leak, if I recall correctly, was that Continue reading