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.
Continue reading
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.
AGENDAContinue reading
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