Tag Archives: VBOE

Thomas J. Manning Responds

Brad Lofton sent me this today.

-jsq

From: “Brad Lofton”

Date: Thu, 30 Sep 2010 11:54:58 -0400

John:

Thank you for providing my correspondence on your blog. Here is an
e-mail below from VSU professor Tom Manning who has experience in
biomass research and instruction. He has supported our project
enthusiastically from the beginning. I would appreciate you including
this as well.

Regards,

BL

From: Thomas J Manning [mailto:tmanning@valdosta.edu]

Sent: Thursday, September 30, 2010 11:37 AM

To: ‘Bradley J Bergstrom’

Cc: ‘ReplyTo:’; ‘Cc: Allan Ricketts’

Subject: FW: Thank you to the Valdosta Board of Education

Dr. Bergstrom,

I believe you are playing a game of semantics with your
disparaging argument concerning my qualifications (quote below). Some
key points:

1. I did address the county commission on this topic over a year
ago – in a public forum at a scheduled meeting.

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Joy Towles Ezell: Florida Sierra Club biomass policy

A Sierra Club reply to

Brad Lofton,
copied to the Valdosta Board of Education and others.

-jsq

From: Joy Towles Ezell

Date: Wed, 29 Sep 2010 20:27:54 -0700 (PDT)

As the former Conservation Chair and the former Energy Chair of the Florida Chapter of the Sierra Club, and as the former Energy Chair of the Big Bend Group of the Florida Chapter, I must “set the record straight”. Today’s National Sierra Club policy is not as strong as the Florida Chapter’s policy was against burning biomass. I can speak only to Florida’s SC policy, so I submit to you the policies of the Florida Chapter and the Big Bend Group concerning the burning of biomass during my tenure, with our press release concerning the now defeated biomass plant in Tallahassee:

The Florida Chapter Policies were also published, in part, in The Pelican, Spring 2004, the official Florida Chapter newsletter.

Here is the Chapter policy on ‘biomass.’

Florida Chapter Sierra Club policy opposes biomass production:

“We continue to oppose the development of biomass production as an
alternative to solar and wind power. Biomass production depletes the
environment by decreasing topsoil, using more water, fertilizer and
diesel fuel than it is worth and creates more pollution.”
Page 8. http://florida.sierraclub.org/Pelican/spring04.pdf



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Brad Bergstrom: “unnecessary and very sad”

A reply to

Brad Lofton
and

Michael Noll, copied to the Valdosta Board of Education and others.

-jsq

Date: Wed, 29 Sep 2010 21:25:37 -0400

As Dr. Noll said, you do indeed have a reading comprehension problem, Mr. Lofton.  I most decidedly did not "discredit" my colleague; I said his opinion was just as valid as mine.  I discredited you, sir!  I replied to your, frankly, absurb misstatements with some documented facts, even the statistics made publicly available by the EPD.  And once again you respond with nothing but more unsubstantiated assertions.

As to your insinuations of my alleged "unilateral" opposition to some unnamed industry, I have no idea what you're talking about.  I think you are grasping at straws.  Your unsubstantiated assertions have now strayed into personal accusations and rumor mongering.  That’s completely unnecessary and very sad.

Brad Bergstrom

Michael Noll: “from the Sierra Club directly”

This message from Michael Noll was sent to the Valdosta Board of Education,
among others.
The interjections in square brackets [] where there when I received it.

-jsq

Date: Wed, 29 Sep 2010 20:41:26 -0400

Mr. Lofton.

Although your email seems to be addressed to Dr. Bergstrom, the nonsense
in it warrants a short reply, before I will go home and enjoy an
evening meal:

1) I am not sure how you did in terms of reading comprehension in school, but the fact is Dr. Bergstrom wrote:

"… even those groups that jumped
on the biomass bandwagon early–like Sierra Club–are having serious second thoughts."

To further elaborate, let me share some comments I got from the Sierra
Club directly in response to an email I sent to inquire about their
position on biomass:

"The [Sierra] Club absolutely opposes all combustion of
Municipal Waste, sorted or not [referring to the burning of sewage
sludge in the proposed biomass incinerator] …. We believe that biomass projects can be sustainable,
but that many biomass projects are not. We are not confident that
massive new biomass energy resources are available without risking
soil and forest health, given the lack of commitment by
governments and industry to preservation, restoration, and
conservation of natural resources …. Biomass incineration advocates [like yourself Mr. Lofton] have been
misrepresenting the [Sierra] Club for a long time on this." (Ned
Ford, Sierra Club, Chair of the Energy Technical Advisory
Committee, August 18, 2010.

In other words, your project does NOT have the (automatic) support

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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.

-jsq

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

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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.

-jsq

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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‘if Mrs. Noll and any of her “experts” would actually meet with us’

Since the appended message was sent to a publicly elected
board chartered by the state of Georgia,
that makes it subject to Georgia’s open records law,
so I am publishing it here.

-jsq

From: Brad Lofton

Sent: Tuesday, September 28, 2010 12:52 PM

To: Karen Ruff Noll, [and Valdosta Board of Education members]

Cc: Allan Ricketts; gkbielmyer@valdosta.edu; bergstrm@valdosta.edu

Subject: Re: Thank you to the Valdosta Board of Education

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen:

We were honored last night to provide you an update on a project that enjoys
so much support from environmental groups all across America, and we are
thankful for your invitation and partnership. Mrs. Noll won’t admit that no
governmental group or environmental group in this country that is charged
with setting environmental policy is opposed to our project. Not one. In
fact, they collectively point to biomass as the way forward for our country,
where nearly 45 percent of our existing renewable energy portfolio is
biomass. We were prepared last night to go into specific details regarding
the air permit and provide the actual facts for you as opposed to the
continued misinformation you are receiving from this core group. We ran out
of time and apologize for the length. Please let us know when and where we can have that discussion. Our plant will be carbon neutral, with a mercury
level that is so low it’s considered statistically insignificant by EPD.
There is a dramatic difference between what the state and federal law allows
under a statutory air permit and what our plant actually produces. This
group is stating the “permitted” allowances despite the fact that the actual
emissions are a very small fraction of that. Again, if Mrs. Noll and any of
her “experts” would actually meet with us, we would explain that.

Rest assured that this is a safe, green, renewable energy plant

that has
been vetted by scores of environmentalists, all the major universities in
Georgia (including Dr. Tom Manning, a biomass researcher at VSU), and
approved by every level of government. If Mrs. Noll has further concerns, I
would recommend her talking to President Obama, the U.S. Dept of
Agriculture, the U.S. Department of Energy, the Federal Environmental
Protection Agency, the state EPD, the Sierra Club, the World Wildlife
Federation, the state of Georgia’s Center of Innovation for Renewable
Energy, GA Tech, UGA, the Valdosta Daily Times (who support us), and scores
of others who support us.

We will not participate in a back and forth with this group. We’ll be happy
to meet with any of you in person to provide additional information and
facts. Everyone is entitled to an opinion, but not the facts. Thanks so much
for what each of you do for our community, and it’s an honor to serve you.

Regards,

Brad

Sent from my BlackBerry Smartphone provided by Verizon

Karen Noll thanks biomass opponents who spoke at VBOE

Karen Noll sent this letter to the Valdosta Board of Education (VBOE)
and asked that it be posted here:

Dear Valdosta City Board of Education,

I just wanted to thank you for responding to my concerns about the
proposed biomass incinerator by seeking further information. I also
want to thank Dr. Brad Bergstom and Dr. Gretchen Bielmyer for coming
and speaking before the board. Their expertise in the area of ecology
and toxicology provided valuable information to the discussion. At
the same time, I greatly appreciate that these two professors’
comments were succinct and to the point.

I am deeply disappointed that the Industrial authority chose to
consume the board’s time with a 45 minute presentation that never
answered the question: Is this plant safe for our students?
Never did Brad Lofton or Allen Pickett come close to discussing the
air pollution emissions and their effects on the health of our
children. Anecdotal information from hand-picked people in Cadillac,
Michigan does not convince me as to the safety of this proposed plant
for my children.

Meanwhile, the American Lung Association, a group that I trust,
has
spoken out against biomass and its emissions in regard to children’s
health:


http://www.lungusa.org/get-involved/advocate/advocacy-documents/Letter-to-Reps-Henry-Waxman-and-Edward-Markey-re-American-Clean-Energy-and-Security-Act.pdf

The American Heart Association collected many specialist to look at
the relationship between Particulate matter and our health and their
findings are frightening:

http://circ.ahajournals.org/cgi/content/full/121/21/2331?maxtoshow=&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=particulate+matter&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&resourcetype=HWCIT

The American Cancer Society finds that extended exposure to air
pollution increases risks of cancer:

http://www.cancer.org/Cancer/news/News/epa-estimates-cancer-risk-associated-with-air-pollution

Lastly, the world Health Organization presents air quality guidelines
to prevent health risks, which pertain to most of the emissions from
the plant:

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs313/en/index.html:

I am appalled at the disrespectful tone that Brad Lofton took when
addressing concerned citizens of this community. I am ashamed that
the Industrial Authority would be so callous as to waste the Valdosta
City Board of Education’s time with an endless sales pitch.

I truly appreciate the board’s effort to become informed about the
issue and hope that we can get to the bottom of the paramount
question: is the proposed biomass plant safe for our students?

Sincerely,

Karen R. Noll

Industrial Authority Response to Two Letters to the Editor

The appended message from a tax-supported public official
to many people about official business was forwarded to me;
perhaps the public would also like to see it.

The CCA press conference he mentions seems to have been
covered by the VDT in this article:
to be about
Private prison company picks Valdosta as potential site.

The rest of the letter is about issues related to the

biomass plant
proposed for Lowndes County by Wiregrass Power LLC
(wholly owned by Sterling Energy Assets of Atlanta)
and backed by the

Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA),
of which Brad Lofton is the Executive Director.
Here’s the letter from Leigh Touchton of the NAACP to which he refers.

-jsq



From: Brad Lofton [mailto:blofton@industrialauthority.com]

Sent: Thursday, August 19, 2010 4:37 PM

To: ‘Brad Lofton’

Subject: Industrial Authority Response to Two Letters to the Editor Yesterday

Importance: High

Good afternoon everyone:

Thanks to all of you that were able to attend our CCA press conference and
breakfast yesterday. We’ve had positive feedback today from around the
region, and we’ve received congratulations from most of the other 15
communities competing for the project.

After reading the two letters to the editor yesterday, I felt compelled to
e-mail our stakeholders to provide you an update with facts and information
related to the biomass plant. We have intentionally avoided a response in
the paper because we do not want to energize a forum for continued
misinformation. Despite numerous town hall meetings and other meetings
we’ve facilitated for two years, there is still plenty of misinformation on
the street.

Continue reading →