Tag Archives: Massachusetts

Brad Lofton: “simply walk down the hall”

This message from Brad Lofton was sent to
Dr. Brad Bergstrom and the Valdosta
Board of Education and some other people.

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Dr. Bergstrom-

As opposed to spending hours online and pouring through publication databases, I would respectfully recommend that you simply walk down the hall to actually discuss Dr. Tom Manning’s experience with Dr. Tom Manning. He’s in the same building with you I assume. No doubt on the same campus. Seems odd that you would publicly discredit a colleague here prior to even talking with him. Dr. Manning’s credentials certainly do not need your validation.

Thank you for finally acknowledging the Sierra Club and all of the other environmental support we have. You are the first to acknowledge it publicly. Our support goes well beyond the Sierra Club, and we provided the Board of Ed with dozens of nationally known environmental leaders who support our project.

If you would be so kind, please meet with us again, and we will provide you actual numbers

Continue reading →

Brad Bergstrom: “unsubstantiated assertions are not facts”

This message from Brad Bergstrom to the Valdosta Board of Education
is as he sent it, except instead of his blue font I’ve formatted
quotations the same as usual for the blog, and as usual I’ve not included
the entire list of email addresses copied.
He’s responding to
Brad Lofton’s message.

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To all:

I appreciate the opportunity Monday night to have briefly shared my perspective on the environmental impacts of biomass incineration with the BOE. It was at the urging of the "core group" (whom Mr. Lofton seems to disparage, below) that VBOE invited me
and my coleague Dr. Bielmyer to speak. As an ecologist and VSU professor for more than 24 years, I’ve long been interested in issues of conservation, forest resources and sustainable development in south Georgia. About a year-and-a-half ago, I met with Mr.
Ricketts, who kindly gave me and Mr. Seth Gunning a thorough presentation on the proposed biomass plant. Ever since then, I’ve been educating myself on the general issue of biomass power generation and specifically on the Wiregrass plant. I attended the
April 2010 public hearing (as did Mr. Ricketts and Mr. Lofton) conducted by EPD, and I asked several questions. I also submitted several written questions and comments to EPD for the public record, as did many others. All of those questions, and EPD’s answers,
and the complete application, and permit, can be seen here:

http://airpermit.dnr.state.ga.us/gaairpermits/

(After you open this link, type "Wiregrass" into the search box, then click on "Narrative"; the last 13 pages contain all the public comments and responses.)

I’m sure Mr. Lofton is a well-meaning and certainly a tireless advocate for new industry. That is his job. It is the rest of our jobs to determine what really is "fact" and "opinion." No matter how loudly one proclaims it, unsubstantiated assertions are
not facts, and inconvenient facts are not misinformation. I will point out some of these facts, along with links to document them, in blue font, interspersed among Mr. Lofton’s comments, below.

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Banned or Blocked Biomass Incinerators

Leigh Touchton responds to Brad Lofton’s letter of 22 September 2010.
WACE is Wiregrass Activists for Clean Energy; more on that new organization later.

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From: Leigh Touchton

Date: Wed, 22 Sep 2010 20:04:48 -0400

Subject: Mr. Lofton once again misrepresents the facts

To: wace-georgia@googlegroups.com

Cc: blofton@industrialauthority.com, [and the VDT and some elected officials and other interested parties]

Dear WACE:

1. Mr. Lofton stated: “Despite what Mrs. Touchton stated, we’ve been in
touch with the Massachusetts and Florida EPD, and in no way, shape, or form
is either state banning biomass facilities. In fact, there are 15 scheduled
now for New England, many in Mass, and a number in Florida. There have been
discussions regarding the level of incentives (tax credits) allowed, but no
moratorium. We’ll be happy to share our contacts with you.”

I would like for Mr. Lofton to share his contacts with WACE. Because
previously his contacts at the Sierra Club were misrepresented by him.
Sierra Club does NOT endorse Biomass Incineration, neither does any other
major environmental organization in America.

I would also like Mr. Lofton to share his private email list of stakeholders
with WACE, in particular the investors, because I would like to share some
information with them. I expect transparency in our public officials and
his refusal to address my letter to the editor of the Valdosta Daily Times
in the same newspaper in which it was published does not lead me to believe
that he is operating in good faith. I am very disturbed that any public
official would state that they did not want to “energize a forum for
misinformation” regarding published concerns in the local newspaper. Mr.
Lofton has a duty to respond to all citizens’ concerns publicly. I am very
disturbed that he thought he could privately email a group about my
published letter to the editor and that the first I learned of it was nearly
a month after he did so. And no, I still don’t wish to have a private
telephone conversation with him or a private meeting with him, I’ve been
reading all the public documents that have resulted from his supposed
lengthy due diligence period. As I stated, the first I learned of this
proposed biomass incinerator was when the EPD called for public comments.
Mr. Lofton and Councilman James Wright were both invited to the June Women
in the NAACP meeting and neither man showed up so I don’t really care to
engage in who didn’t return whose phone calls. Additionally he could have
made contact with the schools and churches in the area, or attended an SCLC
or NAACP meeting but he did not. All our our meetings are open to the
public, unlike his private list of stakeholders.

Here’s one internet article on the moratorium in Massachusetts.

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Leigh Touchton wonders what Brad Lofton is hiding

This message was sent to me by the author, who requested I blog it.

-jsq

Subject: My response to Brad Lofton, why doesn’t he want his correpondence in
the Valdosta Daily Times? What is he hiding?

From: Leigh Touchton

To: blofton@industrialauthority.com

Date: Thu, 16 Sep 2010 20:53:56 EDT

(Please see
correspondence below mine which I am responding to:

Mr. Brad Lofton’s email to his “stakeholders”
which he doesn’t want to put in the newspaper )

Mr. Lofton:

My title is President of the Valdosta-Lowndes branch of the NAACP, I am not
the Chairperson. I have a Master’s in Science in Biology from the
University of Virginia, I have taught Environmental Science classes at the
college level. It is incorrect and furthermore rude for you to refer to the
President of the NAACP as part of the “misinformation on the street.”

I would be happy to deconstruct your arguments on the trip to Cadillac,
Michigan, and how “green” Biomass Incineration can be. I invite readers to
research all the Biomass incinerators around the country that have been shut
down. They are banned in Massachusetts. They have been blocked in
Florida. They show up in areas of the country where wealthy industrialists
control the government and environmental regulations are lax. All the major
environmental organizations in this country oppose them because they burn
more wood that can be sustainably harvested. In the decade that is the
hottest on record, in a crucial period in human history when life literally
hangs in the balance over Global Climate Change, the Lowndes County
Industrial Authority has decided to implement a Biomass Incinerator which
spews more carbon dioxide than a coal plant.

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LTE: Biomass is Environmental Racism

This is a letter to the editor that appeared in the VDT on about 17 August 2010.

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When Wiregrass Power chose the site for their Biomass plant, they put
it near one of Valdosta’s most affluent black communities. There are
at least six black churches:  New Life Ministries, Morning Star,
Evangel Temple, Southside Church of Christ, Church of Prophecy, Church
at Pine Hill. Two predominantly black elementary schools are in the
area: Southeast and Moulton Branch. A large senior citizen assisted
living community, Sands Horizon, is located in the affected area and
serves over 60 families. Scott Park, where the Sands Horizon residents
enjoy outings and the local children enjoy baseball games, is located
nearby. Huge apartment complexes with several buildings, Park Chase
and Brittany Woods, whose residents are primarily people of color, are
located near the proposed site.

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Effects of proposed biomass plants in Massachusetts

Very interesting projection of

Massachusetts Forest Impacts if Proposed Biomass Incinerators Are Allowed
by Chris Matera, P.E., and Ellen Moyer, Ph.D, P.E., with
GIS analysis and programming by Gordon Green:



The animations add the demand for wood for 5 proposed biomass incinerators in Massachusetts to the current wood demand, which is mainly for lumber and cord wood. The animations demonstrate the land area in western and central Massachusetts that would be required to be logged to satisfy the total demand for these 5 plants which would add only about 1 percent to Massachusetts’ electrical generating capacity (see calculations below).

Quite a price for such a small percentage of electricity generation.
Solar, wind, and wave could generate far more electricity,
even in far northern Massachusetts.

And the animation above is a conservative projection.
Follow

the link for

…the extreme case where all forested land in central and western Massachusetts would be made available for biomass cutting – including rare species habitat, scenic landscapes, public “protected” land, and other protected open space. In this case, all forested land in central and western Massachusetts would be logged in only 16 years.

In Georgia, that would include places like Reed Bingham State Park.

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