Stonewalling costs Erie County, NY

Matthew Spina writes in the Buffalo News, Fighting jail suit was costly to county: Bill for protecting records tops $27,000
The Chris Collins team last summer tried to block the New York Civil Liberties Union’s attempt to find out how much Erie County spends fending off jail-related lawsuits.

Collins’ county attorney at the time, Cheryl A. Green, refused to turn over a trove of county records that would answer the Civil Liberties Union’s questions. She was then brought into court and thumped so soundly Erie County was ordered to both turn over the documents and pay the opposition’s legal fees.

But Erie County also was paying $250 an hour to an outside law firm in its effort to keep those public records from public view. With that bill recently paid, the cost of the failed Collins-Green stonewall can now be tallied: $27,523.

Continue reading →

Covering the planners to connect the dots

Monthly LAKE Meeting
When: 5:30 PM, Tuesday 4 January 2011
Where: Smok’n Pig B-B-Q Express at Bemiss
3960 Macey Drive, Valdosta GA

Help cover food, water, transportation, incarceration, solar energy, biomass, and regular local government meetings. If you can take notes, pictures, or videos at meetings, or find out who’s meeting when, or talk about how things got the way they are, or if you have ideas about how to improve things locally to everyone’s benefit, you can help. See LAKE’s website or this blog, On the LAKE Front, for more ideas, or bring your own.

If you like, you can sign up for this event on LAKE’s new facebook page, which I hope you will like. Continue reading →

Brad Lofton’s memory fails him again

On 28 Dec 2010 Brad Lofton wrote:
No one but WACE has made any claims about our efforts to substantiate this project.
Who are all these people, then, asking questions at the VLCIA’s 6 Dec 2010 event?

For example, this one, following up about the Environmental Impact Study he requested back at the EPD air quality hearing (see video of that event). He didn’t get an answer then, and at VLCIA’s 6 Dec event he still only got allusions to studies and standards that were not produced.

You can see Brad Lofton in that video, listening. Did he forget so quickly?

What about SAVE’s event at VSU at which Dr. Sammons spoke? What about the well-attended Biomass Town Hall that Pastor Angela Manning organized? And other events.

What about my question at the 6 Dec 2010 VLCIA board meeting? Continue reading →

“In other words, you do not have any proof!” –Noll to Lofton

Continuing the Noll-Lofton email exchange: eight messages in this post. -jsq
From: Michael G. Noll
Date: Tue, 28 Dec 2010 23:42:44 +0000

Mr. Lofton.

Let’s remain focused on the health risks associated with your biomass project, the most important issue for our community. (WACE will deal with other claims you make, yet can’t back up with scientific studies, on January 13.)

The only thing the public has received in regard to your claim that biomass is safe are your “assurances” and the testimony by a hired gun, who is not even a medical professional, and who also could not back up his claim. No scientific studies. No statements by medical organizations. No links to scholarly publications. Nothing.

At the same time,

Continue reading →

“folks come into the community.” –Col. Ricketts responding to WACE in VLCIA board meeting

Previously I promised to post the rest of what Col. Ricketts and Brad Lofton said about biomass in the 21 Dec 2010 VLCIA board meeting.

In these two videos, Col. Ricketts responds to materials sent to VLCIA by WACE. He dismisses certain material as being from Massachusetts or being from “folks come into the community.” That’s rather rich, since as near as I can tell, all of VLCIA’s “expert” panelists at their 6 Dec 2010 event were from not from around here. Some were from states a thousand miles from here. Maybe somebody can transcribe Brad Lofton’s enumeration of those “experts” from the board meeting, since as near as I can tell VLCIA has provided no written list of them. And of course Sterling Planet is located in Atlanta, not Lowndes County.

In the first video, Col. Ricketts says he’s responding to WACE materials: Continue reading →

“We will not, however, debate you over e-mail.” –Brad Lofton to Dr. Noll

Breaking his self-imposed nonresponse policy, Brad Lofton responds to Dr. Noll’s summary. -jsq
To: “Michael G. Noll”, “Mary B. Gooding”, “Ricketts, Allan” <aricketts@industrialauthority.com>, “Copeland, Roy”, “‘John S. Quarterman'”, “Susan R. Wehling”, Kay Harris
From: “blofton@industrialauthority.com” <blofton@industrialauthority.com>,
Date: Tue, 28 Dec 2010 09:56:14 -0500
Subject: RE: Wiregrass Power, LLC

Good morning Dr.Noll-

We have provided ample evidence supporting our project over a very lengthy period of time, and I am sorry that you simply can’t come to terms with that. No one but WACE has made any claims about our efforts to substantiate this project. If we had done no additional due diligence at all (and we have done plenty), the seven month environmental study and approval by the state Environmental Protection Division was completed, and they found this project safe for Georgia. The Feds not only support it, but they are providing tax credits and have publicly called biomass a great tool to reduce GHGs.

We’ll be happy to review all of the additional studies and vast amount of environmental and other support with you for the tenth time if you would choose to finally meet with us in person as we’ve been asking for over two years. We will not, however, debate you over e-mail. As I promised, we will add your e-mail today to our file, but with all approvals and permits in hand, we are indeed moving forward now and are excited about a Spring groundbreaking.

Thanks,
BL
Sent from my Verizon Wireless Phone

“their ‘assurances’ … remain empty words.” –Dr. Noll

Receiving no response from Brad Lofton to his previous message, Dr. Noll summarizes. Interestingly, attached to Dr. Noll’s message was a copy of Dr. Teaf’s slides which I didn’t notice until just now. See also Col. Ricketts’ re-presentation of those slides to the VLCIA board on 21 Dec 2010. Both are linked here. -jsq
Date: Tue, 28 Dec 2010 14:19:00 +0000

Good morning everyone.

As a scientist and President of WACE it is my duty to point out that, more than three weeks after their latest panel, Mr. Lofton and the Industrial Authority have, yet again, not been able to share conclusive evidence with the community that biomass is safe. At the same time, WACE has time and again provided scientific studies and statements made by medical organizations that prove that biomass incineration bears significant health risks for our community.

Evidence provided by the pro-biomass panelists on December 6 (none of whom were medical professionals or represented a medical organization) was at best circumstantial, as can be expected from such a one-sided panel. Moreover, neither Dr. Teaf nor any of the other panelists have given us any evidence since then that biomass is safe, as their presentations lacked any sources or links to check the validity of their statements (see attached presentation from Dr. Teaf as an example). In other words, their “assurances” too that biomass is “safe”, like those repeatedly made by the Industrial Authority, remain empty words. The time for playing semantics and simply “assuring” our community that biomass is safe, without providing scientific studies to back up such claims, is over.

(The same pattern of mis-information can be observed in regard to claims that the biomass project is supported by groups like the Sierra Club, that biomass incineration is carbon neutral, or that biomass is economically speaking a safe investment. WACE will address these too on January 13.)

With best regards and wishes for a Healthy New Year,
Michael G. Noll, President
Wiregrass Activists for Clean Energy

“we won’t stop until the incinerator goes.” –Dr. Wehling

Dr. Wehling responding to Dr. Noll. -jsq
From: “Susan R. Wehling”
To: “Michael G. Noll”, “blofton@industrialauthority.com”, “Mary B. Gooding”, “Ricketts, Allan”, <aricketts@industrialauthority.com>, “Copeland, Roy”, “‘John S. Quarterman'”, “Susan R. Wehling”, Kay Harris
Subject: RE: Wiregrass Power, LLC
Date: Mon, 27 Dec 2010 21:47:28 +0000

thanks Michael-we won’t stop until the incinerator goes. Sad that our reps, good people like Roy and Mary, continue to go along with this.

Susan

“the health and well-being of my community.” –Dr. Noll to Brad Lofton

Dr. Noll responding to Brad Lofton’s offer to “make sure they get in the appropriate file.” -jsq
From: “Michael G. Noll”
To: “blofton@industrialauthority.com”, “Mary B. Gooding”, “Ricketts, Allan”, <aricketts@industrialauthority.com>, “Copeland, Roy”, “‘John S. Quarterman'”, “Susan R. Wehling”, Kay Harris
Subject: RE: Wiregrass Power, LLC
Date: Sat, 25 Dec 2010 21:37:05 +0000

Mr. Lofton.

If there is one thing I am passionate about, it is the health and well-being of my community. You do not seem to share that passion. Since you seem to be passionate about keeping files, why don’t you finally share your documents with us that prove that biomass is safe. While we are at it, the environmental impact analysis you keep referring to would also be useful.

In the mean time, WACE will keep you and the community up-to-date in regard to newly canceled biomass plants, shut down biomass plants, and biomass moratoriums … and all due to a combination of economic and environmental issues and the well established health risks.

Best regards, Michael G. Noll.

“no way shape or form” –Brad Lofton on Dr. Teaf

A week after Brad Lofton failed to produce evidence and offered to file Dr. Noll’s correspondence “in the appropriate file”, VLCIA has still not published the videos or slides from their 6 Dec 2010 event at the Rainwater Conference Center.

However, Brad Lofton and Col. Ricketts summarized that event for the VLCIA board at their recent board meeting, and they never presented any actual evidence there, either.

Brad Lofton said his toxicologist says the biomass plant in “no way shape or form” will cause health problems. Then he rattled off a long list of supporters of a Gainesville biomass plant. The rest of this post has videos of what he and Col. Ricketts said, plus screenshots of each of Dr. Teaf’s slides: see if you can find the details. Continue reading →