This time, 24 March 2011,
Angela Manning, minister of the 1500-member New Life Ministries
in Valdosta near the proposed site for the Wiregrass Power LLC biomass plant,
read from the Valdosta City Council’s own mission statement and
asked,
How do you adhere to your mission statement?Here’s the video: Continue reading
“The shipping of fathers and mothers to private prisons in far-flung states is guaranteeing a new generation of frightened, angry, disenfranchised children, who are future inmates,” she said, adding that “families who try to visit loved ones are treated as suspects in many prisons. The children cannot understand the lack of warmth and hospitality in the visiting rooms.”
The Episcopal Church’s General Convention is on record in opposition to private prisons.
What school consolidation would get us is more of that. Not white flight, rather bright flight, to Lanier and other counties. Many of the leaders of the local African-American community already don’t live in Valdosta; they live in Lowndes County or even Berrien County. More of both black and white people will move out of a county with a consolidated school district, resulting in lower educational results not just for Valdosta but also for Lowndes schools. Is that what we want?
How about all the people who claim they know how to take our schools to “the next level” get on with doing that right now with the two existing school systems?
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As Dr. George said Continue reading
According to
Community College Week Magazine,
Valdosta Technical College (which is now Wiregrass Georgia Technical College) earned the honor as being the fastest-growing college in the nation among colleges with enrollments of equal size.Its size range is enrollments 2,500 to 4,999 (see page 8.) Enrollment went up at Wiregrass Tech 45% between Fall 2008 and 2009.
Also, the Technical College System of Georgia named Wiregrass Tech Technical College of the Year for 2010.
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Dr. Cristóbal Serrán-Pagán y Fuentes reminds us we don’t need a biomass plant
because:
We have plenty of sunshine here.You’d think the Valdosta City Council would know that, since only about a month ago Mayor Fretti assisted groundbreaking for Wiregrass Solar LLC. Maybe it takes somebody from Spain to remind everyone. Spain, which is a leader in solar power in the world. Spain, which is actually north of Georgia.
Here’s the video:
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Dr. George gets to the point!
After talking to several Valdosta City Council members, he has
observed that people make up their minds regardless of evidence.
So he wants to know:
What evidence would you need to see to conclude this is a bad idea?
Dr. George also gets at something even deeper that Council might
consider a wakeup call:
The public outcry about this across the political spectrum, from conservative to liberal.People against the biomass plant are not just black or white or young or old or conservative or liberal or college professors or unemployed: they are all of those things. The intransigence of elected and appointed officials is causing citizens to stand up and be heard on this and other issues around the county. This issue is serving as a catalyst for people to demand more transparent and responsive government.
Here’s the video:
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Let’s meet
the CUEE board and ask them a simple question.
The Chair, Leroy Butler, named them in this order: Rusty Griffin (Vice-Chair), George Bennett, Tom Kurrie, Walter Hobgood, Johnny Ball, Jack Edwards, Jud Rackley, Gene Godfrey, and “last but certainly not least” Ruth Council. (Not named but listed on CUEE’s website are David Durland, Terry Hunt, and Ronnie Mathis.)
As I told Rusty Griffin, I congratulate CUEE on holding public meetings about their plans.
Here’s the question:
How many of the current CUEE board are from the county outside of Valdosta?Continue reading
Their Key Findings:
They go on to detail effects on unemployment during economic recovery, downturn, and boom, and in each period Continue readingOverall, over the course of 25 years, we find no significant difference or discernible pattern of economic trends between the seven rural counties in New York that hosted a prison and the seven rural counties that did not host a prison. While prisons clearly create new jobs, these benefits do not aid the host county to any substantial degree since local residents are not necessarily in a position to be hired for these jobs. The most significant findings are as follows:
Here’s a four page explanation of that table.
Coal is not the cheapest: natural gas is. Onshore wind actually costs about the same as coal, and less than nuclear. Offshore wind is currently about 2.5 times more expensive.
Solar photovoltaic (PV) currently costs a bit more than twice as much as coal, and already less than offshore wind.
The table does not take into account the environmental costs of the various power sources, or obviously coal would fare far worse, and biomass would not be rated anywhere near as good as wind.
Remember, the cost of solar is falling rapidly, so solar will rapidly become more cost-effective compared to other energy sources.
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