That’s Albert in the hat bending my ear.
There was food, there was blown glass
and much other artwork, and bands.
As previously mentioned, SAVE was educating people
about the problems with biomass.
More pictures in the flickr set.
First Friday, Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 3 September 2010, Pictures and videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
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OK, let’s look at “solar” in the
online interactive map from
Joel Achenbach’s story about
The 21st Century Grid
in the July 2010 National Geographic.
It’s easy to count the proposed solar power plants in Georgia: zero.
Yet there’s one in Virginia, one in Maryland, and at least three in Florida,
adding to the
currently largest solar plant in the country near De Soto, Florida.
The map legend repeats the GEFA canard that
The Southwest is a solar-power hotbed. To supplement fossil fuel plants, long-distance transmission lines stretch from the Mojave Destert, which has plenty of sun.
Yes, that’s true, but what about this.
At least three solar plants are proposed around San Antonio and Austin,
which are not in the area of the southwest the map blurb is referring to.
In fact, the largest solar plant in the country is proposed for Austin.
Austin is one degree of latitude south of Valdosta,
and has been leading the country in solar deployment for many years now.
Texas in general
almost doubled renewable energy generation between 2004 and 2006
while Georgia did nothing.
Texas hasn’t stopped.
When will Georgia start?
The Austin solar solution doesn’t require massive new power lines, either. It’s mostly been accomplished with solar panels on houses and business roofs; panels that wouldn’t show up on National Geographic’s map because they’re small and distributed. Which is the point: they generate power where it’s needed, and at peak times when it’s needed, namely when it’s hot and sunny out and air conditioners are running on max. There’s no reason Georgia can’t do the same.
I would continue this series by showing wind generation proposed for Georgia, but there isn’t any of that, either. There could be, off the coast.
Which makes more sense: polluting our air with more coal and biomass plants, or getting a move on with solar and wind?
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Let’s select “other” in the
online interactive map from
Joel Achenbach’s story about
The 21st Century Grid
in the July 2010 National Geographic.
This map clearly shows the proposed Wiregrass LLC plant in Valdosta,
as well as two plants proposed just to the south for Hamilton County, Florida,
and one in Echols County, Georgia, which presumably would
be the Oglethorpe Power alternative site.
Several of the other plants shown are probably the other proposed Oglethorpe
Power plants.
Missing is Georgia Power’s Plant Mitchell in Albany, which is supposed
to convert from coal to biomass.
(Also if you select “nuclear”, the two Georgia Power proposed nuclear plants
on the Savannah River are missing.)
Apparently National Geographic edoesn’t have a complete list of proposed
biomass plants.
I wonder who does, if anybody?
Nonetheless, take this map of proposed biomass plants and combine it with the map of proposed new coal plants, plus the existing coal plants in Juliette, Georgia (dirtiest in the country) and Albany, and south Georgia is slated to become even more infested with polluting energy sources.
Does that seem like a good idea to you?
Next: proposed solar plants.
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In the July 2010 National Geographic,
Joel Achenbach writes about
The 21st Century Grid.
It’s mostly about how we need a smart grid and additional power lines
to redistribute power better,
but it does get into proposed power plants to generate new power.
Although everyone acknowledges the need for a better, smarter, cleaner grid, the paramount goal of the utility industry continues to be cheap electricity. In the U.S. about half of it comes from burning coal. Coal-powered generators produce a third of the mercury emissions in America, a third of our smog, two-thirds of our sulfur dioxide, and nearly a third of our planet-warming carbon dioxide—around 2.5 billion metric tons a year, by the most recent estimate.Then it talks about how it’s hard to get stodgy electric utilities to invest in anything else. However, there is at least one way:
A California law requires utilities to generate at least 20 percent of their electricity from renewable sources as of this year.OK, so what new energy plant are proposed for Georgia? The online interactive map lets you select different energy types. The map above shows four proposed new coal plants in Georgia, surrounding south Georgia (plus something nonrenewable in Florida near Tampa). I recognize the one in far southwest Georgia as the one proposed for Early County and fortunately still tied up in litigation. All four are in addition to the existing Plant Scherer at Juliett, GA, near Macon, the dirtiest coal plant in the country, and the one that generates 2/3 of our power for south Georgia (as well as selling a lot of power to Florida). Adding still more dirty coal plants does not look like progress.
Continued in next blog entry.
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Every year the Lowndes County Democratic Party (LCDP)
has a barbecue to which it invites candidates for public office.
These include local candidates. Here we have the two Democrats
running for Lowndes County Commission in District 2, in alphabetical order:
Debra M. Franklin
and
John S. Quarterman.
Notice the two candidates dining amicably side by side.
Debra M. Franklin: Continue reading
This is part 2 about the July 8th
town Hall meeting about the biomass plant proposed for Valdosta.
First let’s hear George Rhynes explain that it’s never too late to reregulate our minds:
Here I’ve selected videos of local County Commission candidates: Continue reading
The VDT writes about Foxborough two days in a row:
Several dozen residents of the Foxborough subdivision came to the Lowndes County Commission meeting Tuesday to again express their dismay at the possibility of having a McDonald’s fast food restaurant located by the neighborhood’s entrance.Candelario (I believe that’s the actual spelling of his name) provided a list of suggestions to the Commission, which Chairman Paulk addressed, including: Continue readingResident Pete Candelaria said he has been living in Foxborough for six years and was speaking on behalf of the residents.
It looks like the strategy I recommended
to the Foxborough opponents to McDonalds worked:
go to the County Commission work session and you may get in the newspaper.
Kay Harris writes in the VDT about
Issues with development,
Neighborhood upset about commercial encroachment:
According to Vince Schneider, the spokesman for the residents, the majority of the neighborhood is opposed to the possibility of a McDonald’s restaurant openin g there. The property is currently listed with Lowndes County as owned by First State Bank, but the county engineer, Mike Fletcher, confirmed Monday at the Lo wndes County Board of Commissioners work session that he has received a plat fo r the proposed development.Many of the residents only found out aboout the proposed McDonalds from a cryptic mention by Kay Harris in the VDT a few weeks ago. Naturally, the VDT ends the current story on a note of finality: Continue readingSchneider appeared before commissioners at the work session to request they rec onsider the commercial zoning in the area.
Complaints are more frequent along Mary Street, a short stretch a few hundred yards south of the plant. Residents there deal with more intense noise and odors.Nonetheless he didn’t say it affected his property values. However, that’s not the only issue.Craig Walworth’s home is among the closest to the plant. He walked up to his Jeep — a vehicle he cleaned the day before — and dragged his finger through a layer of film on the hood.
“Every morning, you have that to look forward to,” he said. “I clean my screens three times a year during the summer because they clog up.”
Meanwhile, about an hour north on the edge of Lake Michigan, in Traverse City local activism caused cancellation of a proposed biomass plant: Continue reading
In the VLCIA meeting with concerned citizens of 10 June 2010, one of the action items taken by the VLCIA was:
Obtain, if available, an analysis of the property value trends of residential/ commercial property adjacent to the Cadillac Michigan biomass electric generating plant.Col. Ricketts has reported back on that action item.
My transcription of what he said is rather long, so please follow the link.
Allan Ricketts’ summary: nobody could find a systematic analysis of property value trends. He did get various personal analyses (as above).
I agreed he’s made a good effort to find what he could find.
And that we would continue looking in other sources.
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