“The SONAT pipeline that broke in
Berrien County, Georgia was only a 9- or 10-inch line,
I’m told at 800PSI. Sabal Trail proposes a 36-inch
line, at much higher pressure. I’m no expert, but that
seems like at least twenty times the explosive capacity. I
don’t want that risk for any of my neighbors anywhere.”
Filed with FERC 15 November 2014 (PDF), posted by FERC 17 November 2014 as Accession Number: 20141117-5040. 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
Looks like some of them have been (or are thinking of) going to
an
Area Development Conference & Forum,
about Best Practices for Economic Development.
Here’s the agenda.
Valdosta-Lowndes Development AuthorityContinue reading
Tuesday, November 18, 2014 5:30 p.m.
Development Authority Conference Room
103 Roosevelt Drive Monthly Meeting Agenda
Here is the board packet for the 11 November 2014 Regular Session and 10 November 2014 Work Session of the Lowndes County Commission.
Although the County Clerk once again provided this packet only on paper
and only in black and white, we got via CD-ROM color maps for
REZ-2014-17 Grand Bay Estates
and
REZ-2014-18 White
from County Planner Jason Davenport in response to a separate Open Records Request.
The request to the County Clerk also asked for
electronic copy, but once again she chose not to honor that part of the request.
But who can say? Perhaps things will be different after the Open Government Symposium this Friday, 21 November 2014.
Meanwhile, I have already filed an Open Records Request for the board packet for the next County Commission meeting, which is in December.
-jsq
Not the Onion: VDT front page Saturday 15 November 2014, County plans open government meeting Friday,
VALDOSTA — An Open Government Symposium this Friday in Valdosta will be hosted by the Lowndes County Board of Commissioners.
Valdosta Daily Times Editor Jim Zachary, director of the Transparency Project of Georgia, will be joined by Hollie Manheimer, executive director of the Georgia First Amendment Foundation, for the open government training event.
Lowndes County leaders approached Zachary and Manheimer about bringing the symposium to Valdosta after they attended the first in a statewide series of open government training sessions held in Macon at the Center for Collaborative Journalism Oct. 17.
The article noted that Commissioner Clay Griner was among the attendees at the previous symposium in Macon and had asked for this local meeting.
All the events are Continue reading
The U.S. and China made a historic deal on climate change this week.
Here’s the good (it’s real, it’s huge, and it’s positive economically
for both countries), the bad (nuclear is first on the list of those “clean energy” sources), and the ugly.
Also this week China made a second huge natural gas deal with Russia:
what does that mean to the current U.S. push for LNG exports,
including the proposed Sabal Trail pipeline gouge through Georgia?
Rebecca Leber, The New Republic, 12 November 2014, The World Has Waited for the U.S. and China to Take Action on Climate Change. They Just Did.
President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping announced on Wednesday commitments to reduce both countries’ greenhouse gas emissions. The surprise announcement, which came while Obama visits Beijing this week, is the clearest sign yet the two countries are serious on climate change.
After months of negotiations Continue reading
Repeat speaker Dr. Michael Noll asked the Commissioners
to do what Dougherty County has done and pass a resolution
against the unnecessary and hazardous Sabal Trail pipeline,
in
the 11 November 2014 Lowndes County Commission Regular Session.
Video. Like the previous speaker, Dr. Noll asked everyone there about this topic to stand up, and about 30 people did. Continue reading
A first-time speaker against the Sabal Trail pipeline
demonstrated there was opposition and reminded us all we have
a voice, and asked the Lowndes County Commission to speak up as well,
in
the 11 November 2014 Lowndes County Commission Regular Session.
Video. Robbie Dixon said he had been approached by their contractors asking to reroute the pipeline onto his property, which would take about half his property. He asked anybody in the audience who was there about Sabal Trail to stand up. About 30 people did. He said he did that because there are a lot of rumors that only a few people were concerned. He said there was no local benefit to landowners, and any potential tax benefit to the county shouldn’t be considered without consideration of the ill effects to landowners. Continue reading
The county staff and Commission listened at length to opponents and proponents of a rezoning back to agriculture with no conditions, and came up with a compromise, in the 11 November 2014 Lowndes County Commission Regular Session. It’s curious to me that people are more concerned about a few cows of very minimal effect, rather than about a yard-wide pipeline that could adversely affect the whole county.
7.b. Public Hearing REZ-2014-18 White, Whitewater Rd
Video. Here’s the board packet item, thanks to County Planner Jason Davenport in response to an open records request. In response to a question from Commissioner Demarcus Marshall he said he though the Planning Commission 6 to 0 recommendation for denial would have been different if Continue reading