It’s a bad week for Sabal Trail and its proposed fracked methane pipeline,
with three back-to-back protests today alone (March and Protest in Valdosta, GA plus Development Authority meeting, and Protest at Sabal Trail Open House in Jasper, FL, plus Hamilton and Suwannee County Commission meetings)
after one yesterday (at Albany Open House and Dougherty County Commission) and more to come. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Spectra Energy
The Case of the Six Missing Screams: Nydia Tisdale’s video edited by sheriff’s office?
It looks like the “public” Pumpkin Farm Republican campaign rally headlined by Gov. Nathan Deal not only caused a citizen journalist to be roughed up and evicted, and her camera taken, apparently the local law edited her video recording to remove the sound of her screams.
Jim Galloway wrote 22 September 2014,
The Case of the Six Missing Screams,
You’ll remember Tisdale as the citizen-journalist from Roswell who was arrested in August at a GOP rally at a pumpkin farm in Dawsonville for pointing a video recorder at candidates. Which is what she does.
In front of the top of the GOP ticket, including Gov. Nathan Deal, Tisdale was grabbed — then roughed up. Her camera was Continue reading
VDT Open Government Symposium: in Macon?
Yay open government symposium!
But why in Macon, why not in Valdosta,
if it’s organized by the new VDT editor?
Sure, Macon is the geographic center of the state, but it’s only
about an hour from Atlanta, and one thing most people in Atlanta don’t
understand is how big Georgia is, so asking them to drive four hours
to Valdosta would be educational for them.
And if the VDT is so interested in government transparency,
why doesn’t it investigate the county’s lawsuit against local business Deep South Sanitation
at the expense of the local taxpayers that benefits nobody but
“exclusive franchise” ADS and its investors in New York City?
Why is the VDT’s front page story that gave a platform for
Spectra’s Andrea Grover no longer online, especially now that
the Sabal Trail deadline she announced has been busted?
Let’s see the VDT lead the way.
Here’s a first test:
Gretchen is going to Macon with the LAKE video camera.
Will the VDT let her video?
Unsigned article, VDT, 11 October 2014, VDT leading way in open government, Continue reading
China can go 80% sun, wind, water power by 2050 –WWF
If the most populous country in the world can do it,
even the Sunshine State and the rest of the world can do it.
With no new nuclear,
depending heavily on on energy efficiency and conservation,
using China’s huge number of rooftops for solar power,
with almost as much wind power, plus a bit more hydropower,
China can go 80% renewable energy by 2050.
While reducing energy use per capita and increasing
GDP per capita.
So this path will not only improve Chinese quality of life
by getting rid of massive pollution by
reducing emissions 90% from
otherwise-projected levels; it will also give Chinese citizens
more money in their pockets.
China has no more sunshine than the U.S. or much of Canada does,
so there’s no reason the Canada, U.S., and pretty much every country can’t do this, too. Continue reading
SolarCity in Buffalo: 1,000 megawatts capacity, 3,000 jobs
Three times as many millios of dollars invested as expected, 3,000 jobs, and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo says “they could have gone anywhere on the planet”. They could have come here. They went to snowy Buffalo.
David Robinson wrote for Buffalo News 23 September 2014, ‘Historic day for Buffalo,’ Zemsky says of SolarCity RiverBend plans,
SolarCity’s planned factory in South Buffalo — and the 3,000 jobs that come with it — packs a powerful economic punch.
To be built on the former Republic Steel plant site in South Buffalo, the factory is expected to bring more new jobs to the region than the steel maker ever had in its heyday.
With the ability to make enough solar panels to generate more than 1,000 megawatts of electricity, the factory would be Continue reading
Suwannee County Chairman denied his Sabal Trail coments after FPL talked to him
Last month,
Phil Oxendine volunteered that he and the county attorney were
looking into passing a resoulution against the Sabal Trail pipeline
like other counties were doing.
Yet at this months meeting of the
Suwannee County Board of County Commissioners
he denied he even said that, after Florida Power and Light (FPL)
showed up.
Amber Vann wrote for the Suwannee Democrat 19 September 2014, Gas pipeline concerns continue, Continue reading
Videos: GP Investments, Hahira, Pipeline, Alapaha Water Trail @ LCC 2014-09-09
Five
citizens spoke, on topics including
the “horrible wretched smell” from ADS,
the
Sabal Trail pipeline,
the proposed local charter school,
and
the board packet and the Alapaha River Water Trail.
Chairman Bill Slaughter asserted there had been nineteen applicants
for the
Planning Commission appointment and seemed to think the public
should be happy about that, having learned it presumably by telepathy.
He didn’t divulge who those applicants were, and the only one
in the board packet (charming young white guy Brad Folsom)
was appointed after somebody reminded
the Chairman to at least get a motion first.
They also appointed Commissioner Joyce Evans to the
Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities.
On the
GP Investments water rezoning,
County Planner Jason Davenport didn’t know whether there had been
a dump site there or where the well would go, but they approved it anyway.
They also approved the bookkeeping
ULDC updates for Special Events, Zoning Map, Fees
and they have since put the new zoning map online!
They approved unanimously the annual prisoner work detail contract without even mentioning the cost. And unanimously with no discussion they approved the Hahira extratorial request.
Here’s the agenda with links to the videos and some notes. See also the board packet, obtained for you by LAKE through an open records request, and the LAKE videos of the previous morning’s Work Session, which have quite a bit more information, including applicants for appointment speaking.
LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERSContinue reading
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2014, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2014, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
Videos of Dougherty County citizens opposing Sabal Trail pipeline @ DCC 2014-09-15
As a Commissioner said,
“It don’t pass the smell test”
that Sabal Trail already bought land for a compressor station
before they even filed for a formal permit.
A Commissioner said
“We have to be more aggressive.”
Well, then, time to
pass a land-user ordinance against pipelines!
Thanks to Jennifer Maloney, you can see for yourself Albany and
Dougherty County citizens and Commissioners
opposing the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline
in
a community effort
at a Dougherty County Commission meeting 15 September 2014. Continue reading
Solar or wind investment will produce more energy than oil or natural gas
We already knew solar and wind are better investments than nuclear or natural gas, and now we find they’re already better than oil.
In Impact Lab 18 September 2014, $100B invested in wind or solar will produce more energy than oil,
Kepler Chevreux, a French investment bank, has produced a fascinating analysis that has dramatic implications for the global oil industry. The investment bank estimates that $100 billion invested in either wind energy or solar energy — and deployed as energy for light and commercial vehicles — will produce significantly more energy than that same $100 billion invested in oil.
The implications, needless to say, are dramatic. It would signal the end of Big Oil, and the demise of an industry that has dominated the global economy and geo-politics, for the last few decades. And the need for it to reshape its business model around renewables, as we discuss here.
“If we are right, the implications would be momentous,” writes Kepler Chevreux analyst Mark Lewis.
“It would mean Continue reading
Alapaha River Water Trail @ VLCIA 2014-08-19
I talked about the Water Trail that WWALS Watershed Coalition, Inc.
is developing on the Alapaha River with a tiny grant from the
Georgia River Network, and how that was a plus for local economic
development that wouldn’t cost VLCDA a dime.
They seemed to like that, at the
19 August 2014 Regular Meeting of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Development Authority.
Here’s the video, followed by some pictures, links, and notes:
Continue reading