Tag Archives: Marketing

Re: Videos from First Presbyterian Church, 6 Jan 2011



Mary Gooding, VLCIA board member, acknowledges receipt of my
heads-up (included below) to VLCIA about

the recent videos of Brad Lofton.
(More of those to come, by the way.)
-jsq

From: “Mary B. Gooding”

To: “John S. Quarterman”

Date: Mon, 10 Jan 2011 14:28:59 +0000

Subject: RE: Videos from First Presbyterian Church, 6 Jan 2011

John – Thanks!

Mary B. Gooding

Director of Marketing and Community Relations

Valdosta State University

229-333-7444

FAX 229-245-3891

IT’S A GREAT DAY TO BE A BLAZER!

—–Original Message—–

Continue reading →

Tom Call: New VLCIA Board Member

The Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA) has a new board member, Tom Call, local realtor and pesticider:


Roy Copeland

Roy Copeland
Tom Call

Tom Call
Mary B. Gooding

Mary Gooding
Norman Bennett

Norman Bennett
Jerry Jennett

Jerry Jennett,

Chairman

Since VLCIA’s website has no picture for Tom Call,
LAKE has used the one from his
Plaxo page.

He’s on the board of
Homeland Defense Corp.,
which does “Custom Automated Mosquito and Insect Misting Systems”
and says this:

Thomas B. Call graduated from the University of Georgia
with a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture. After a career
in the agricultural chemicals industry, Tom branched
out into real estate. Today, he is the owner of Coldwell
Banker Premier Real Estate, and owns a number of successful
businesses specializing in residential and commercial real
estate development.

www.Valdostarealtors.com

(Also on that board are

Continue reading →

In refusing debate, VLCIA staff are following orders from their board



We’ve seen Brad Lofton write

I will not debate you over e-mail
and

We will not, however, debate you over e-mail
meanwhile refusing to put tax-funded presentations and videos
up for public view through the VLCIA website,
and offering personal meetings instead.
Having experienced one of those personal meetings down at VLCIA HQ,
and
having heard from others who have attended them,
I know of no substantive debate that happened at those indoctrination sessions, either.
Any attempt at debate or even to get Lofton to produce the
scientific evidence he claims he has ends with a proclamation like

this one from September:

We’re moving forward with permits in hand.

or

this one from December:

We’re moving forward
now, and we are looking forward to the ground breaking which will be
Spring of 2011.

But let’s not be too hard on VLCIA staff.
At the 21 Dec 2010 board meeting, it became clear

Continue reading →

‘Mr. Lofton has no proof whatsoever that biomass is “safe”.’ –Dr. Noll

Since Brad Lofton has once again
wrapped himself in a self-imposed cloak of silence,
Dr. Noll gets the last word, including two attachments, which
you can find here.
-jsq

Date: Thu, 30 Dec 2010 03:10:58 +0000

Good evening everyone.

It is obvious by now that Mr. Lofton has no proof whatsoever that
biomass is “safe”. He does not have one statement by a medical
organization, not one scholarly publication he can share with us that
backs up his claim. (Coincidentally, the same is true for other claims,
as the event on January 13 will show.)

Members of WACE (and others in the community) have tried to receive
proof

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