What Jon Wellinghoff predicted a year ago is starting to filter
into the news media: solar is going to win, and very quickly.
Welcome to a sunny world!
Tom Randall, Bloomberg, 29 October 2014,
While You Were Getting Worked Up Over Oil Prices, This Just Happened to Solar,
After years of struggling against cheap natural gas prices and
variable subsidies, solar electricity is on track Continue reading
We are all Indians to the fossil fuel cowboys, but this time the
Indians won.
The U.S. Senate
yesterday rejected the Keystone XL pipeline.
It won’t end there, but it should, because solar power is cheaper, faster, cleaner,
and actually does bring jobs to the U.S.
Picture from US Uncut
Of course, TransCanada has a backup plan for getting its dirty Alberta tar sands
oil to overseas market:
a pipeline entirely through Canada to New Brunswick.
Which means the past several years of TransCanada insistence that Keystone XL
was necessary was just so much bs.
Which indicates how much we should believe other Keystone XL claims,
such as
those about jobs the pipeline would supposedly create.
Source: Reuters
Angelo Young, International Business Times, 8 October 2014,
No Keystone XL Pipeline? No Problem, Says Canadian Firm Planning To Send Crude East Instead Of South, Continue reading
In a year solar jobs increased more than 20% to 142,000,
according to the
National Solar Jobs Census 2013.
Let’s remember Politifact Rhode Island rated as true
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse’s claim that
there are already more solar jobs than coal mining jobs.
And already last year there were
more solar jobs than in production and nonsupervisory oil and gas extraction.
That was 119,000 solar jobs according to the
National Solar Jobs Census 2012
by the Solar Foundation; thus the 20% increase.
Meanwhile, “production and nonsupervisory employees” in the oil and
gas extraction industry increased 4% from 106,400 in September 2013 to
110,600 in September 2014, according to
Oil and Gas Extraction: NAICS 211 by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Total oil and gas industry employment increased 8% from
197,500 to 213,100 in the same period.
Of course, we really should be using the 2013 (not 2014) oil and gas figures
to compare Continue reading
Received as a response to
Outside corporation trumps Valdosta citizens about historical Nichols house? –Jim Parker @ VCC 2014-10-23. -jsq
The City Council’s deliberations on the 23rd had nothing to do with
any construction project, but rather focused on the sale of a parcel
— as
Councilman Carroll’s message of the 25th accurately
conveys. The Council’s vote was historic because it signified openly
the supremacy of certain private property interests (specifically,
those entailed in selling as a form of enjoyment) over civic
cultural interests, at least within the municipality of Valdosta. In
doing so it gave Valdosta’s citizens a peek behind a curtain that
had remained drawn over historic preservation here since 1980. The
construction of buildings, the demolition of buildings, the
remodeling or moving of buildings, the maintenance and preservation
of buildings, their sale and their purchase, their adaptive reuse
— all of those processes are historical processes that turn on
the resolution of conflicts among interests. Thus they all reveal
structures of power and the machinations of powerful individuals and
groups. How could they not?The construction of the Nichols house in
the early 1950s showed with a degree of clarity that probably no
other Valdosta building of that time did, the identity, values,
attitudes, and mode of operation of Valdosta’s leadership. Its
demolition will Continue reading
Received
27 October 2014
about
Whose rights come first? –Tim Carroll. -jsq
So because the owner of the property, which appeared to be a
national property owning corporation for the fraternity’s local
chapters, couldn’t, or more likely, didn’t want to see the cultural
and architectural significance of the Nichols’ House, and merely
wanted to unload the property as quick as possible, their property
rights trump all other citizens of Valdosta in regards to our
historical/cultural history and what we may wish to preserve? Do
private entities, which may not even live here, have carte blanche
to run roughshod and do whatever they please in our city
irregardless of the interests of the citizens that do?If you think I have a “lack of true understanding Continue reading
Received 25 October 2014 on
Too bad about the Nichols House –Jim Parker @ VCC 2014-10-23. -jsq
I realize many may think none on council heard what Dr. Willis had
to say, but that was not the case. What I think was missed by many
in the audience was the fact that the owner of this property was not
the applicant of this request, but was adamantly opposed to it. Not
only did they have an offer on the table to sell, but it was pending
the outcome of the vote regarding historic designation. To take away
the rights of a property owner at the request of another is a very
tricky thing. Whose rights come first? This was a tough decision in
and unto itself. To suggest that only the monetary value of the
property for taxation purposes drove the decision demonstrates a
lack of true understanding of the all the pertinent facts of this
case.-Tim Carroll
I think
the applicant’s frat alumnus attorney speaking for 15 minutes against probably tipped off most people about that first point. -jsq
Received 23 October 2014 on
Alfred Willis comments at Valdosta Historic Preservation 2014-10-06.
I added the [vote correction] and the links. -jsq
I attended tonight’s City Council meeting, and heard
Dr Willis’ impassioned advocacy
of the Council approving the historical
preservation of the Nichols’ House. Our Historic Preservation
Commission
reviewed this and request recommended approval by a vote
of five to one. Dr Willis sold me on the merits. Unfortunately, the
Council must not have heard what I did, and unanimously
voted against
[actually
all but one against]
approving the designation. It looks to me, that as it
stands, demolition of the house could commence tomorrow, and the
replacement construction of the apartments for VSU students can
commence.A huge number of apartment buildings have been built over the past
few years. First with the large complexes of Blanton Commons, The
Gardens, and The Grove, to the numerous buildings along West Mary,
Baytree Drive, Boone Drive and Oak Street, among others. Plans are
still on tap for the major development of the entire city block just
south of campus (one that I can actually appreciate). The question
was mentioned to me tonight whether Continue reading
If it’s old, it’s no good: tear it down!
Despite
Alfred Willis saying the
Nichols House was not just
historic like he presented in his October 1st lecture,
but perhaps the most historic,
a lawyer spoke against it,
and
the Valdosta City Council voted against preserving it
and thus in favor of demolishing it for the
Turner Brooks subdivision next to VSU.
Only Council Robert Yost, in whose district the Nichols House remains
for the moment,
voted for preserving it.
We’re told the
water issues noted by WWALS for that subdivision
are permitting issues, so we’ll see what happens with those.
See also
Alfred Willis’ comments to the Valdosta Historic Preservation Commission.
And the Council approved
Scintilla Charter School’s conditional use,
perhaps not coincidentally after local attorney Bill Langdale spoke for it.
Plus a
sidewalk,
streetlights, and other matters.
See
the agenda.
Here are videos of events as they transpired at the 23 October 2014 Regular Session of the Valdosta City Council.
The historic nature of the
Nichols House
in the proposed
Turner Brooks subdivision next to VSU,
which also has
water issues noted by WWALS,
will be considered at the Valdosta City Council tonight; the picture is of people at a previous Planning Commission meeting about this.
See
Alfred Willis’ comments to the Valdosta Historic Preservation Commission.
Also Scintilla Charter School’s proposed rezoning, a sidewalk,
streetlights, and other matters.
Here’s the agenda.
AGENDA
REGULAR MEETING OF THE VALDOSTA CITY COUNCIL
5:30 PM Thursday, October 23, 2014
COUNCIL CHAMBERS, CITY HALL
First all-electric house in Valdosta, new materials, unusual arrangement
of space for indoor-outdoor living on the same level outside as in, with light throughout because mostly only one room wide,
in a western atomic ranch house adapted for Valdosta.
Will what Dr. Willis had to say about
“a replete instance of the diffusion of Californian”
be enough to preserve the masterpiece of Lloyd Greer Sr. (1885-1952)
from development?
Announced as Continue reading
