Tag Archives: WACE

How does the hierarchy work? —Mario Bartoletti



Mario Bartoletti, the first to carry a protest sign into a VLCIA board meeting,
said that as a member of WACE he wants to know
the hierarchy and to whom does VLCIA report.

Sticking to their current policy of never answering directly anything
said in Citizens to be Heard, the board did not answer.
(My opinion follows in a separate post.)

More about Dr. Bartoletti in

this writeup in the VDT by David Rodock of 25 April 2011.

Here’s

the video:




How does the hierarchy work? —Mario Bartoletti

Irregular Meeting, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA),

Norman Bennett, Roy Copeland, Tom Call, Mary Gooding, Jerry Jennett chairman,

J. Stephen Gupton attorney, Allan Ricketts Acting Executive Director,

Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 14 June 2011.

Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

Musical protesters @ VLCIA 14 June 2011



When I got there at 5:30 the biomass protesters were breaking up so some
of them could go inside and speak. Matt Flumerfelt is visible heading
in the door with his trumpet.
Videos of his and other remarks to the board will follow.

Here’s

the video:




Musical protesters @ VLCIA 14 June 2011

Irregular Meeting, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA),

Norman Bennett, Roy Copeland, Tom Call, Mary Gooding, Jerry Jennett chairman,

J. Stephen Gupton attorney, Allan Ricketts Acting Executive Director,

Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 14 June 2011.

Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

Biomass down for now: next?



Congratulations to all who worked against the biomass plant:
today was the deadline on its most recent extension,
so it’s gone for now.
Congratulations to WACE and SAVE and NAACP and New Life Ministries
and everyone else who was involved, especially Natasha Fast, Seth Gunning,
and Brad Bergstrom, who were working against it before almost anyone else.

Congratulations to those who were instrumental even though they were not
exactly or originally biomass opponents, especially

Ashley Paulk,
who came out and said what needed to be said,
and

George Bennett, who
was willing to admit in public that he was one of the earliest
proponents of the biomass plant but new knowledge caused him to think differently.

A big shoutout to the
VSU Faculty Senate,
the only traditional non-activist body that went on record as opposing
the biomass plant with an actual vote before the extension deadline.
The VSU Faculty Senate did what the Valdosta City Council, the Lowndes County Commission and the Industrial Authority Board would not.
Go Blazers!



A special strategic mention to Kay Harris and David Rodock of the
Valdosta Daily Times, who came to realize they were not being told the
whole truth by the Industrial Authority.
The VDT even

gave a civics lesson on how to stop the biomass plant.

And a very special mention to the people who did the most to make the
name of biomass mud in the public’s eye:


Brad Lofton, Col. Ricketts, and the VLCIA board.
Without their indoctrination sessions and paid “forum” and stonewalling,
people wouldn’t have been turned against that thing nearly as fast!

Yet it ain’t over until it’s over.

According to

David Rodock in the VDT today:

Continue reading →

VSU Faculty Senate passes anti-biomass resolution

Karen Noll reported on WACE’s facebook page that
the VSU Faculty Senate passed a resolution Thursday 19 May 2011 that
biomass will not be considered renewable for VSU’s climate commitment goal.

Why?

Because
leading medical associations have identified woody biomass
incineration as increasing risks of
“a variety of illnesses, some life-threatening”,
because biomass incineration
produces more CO2, NOX, and fine particulates than existing coal plants,
and because it
“may lead to
unsustainable forestry practices and a net increase in global greenhouse
gas emissions”.

Who proposed this?

Continue reading →

The backfire effect, and how to leapfrog it

If you have evidence against something that will harm public health
or waste money, just tell everybody and they’ll understand and stop it, right?
Nope, humans don’t work that way.
More likely you’ll provoke the backfire effect,
reinforcing beliefs in the bad information that caused the problem
in the first place. Here are some ways to jump over that effect to get at solutions to the problem.

Shankar Vedantam wrote in the Washington Post 15 Sep 2008 about

The Power of Political Misinformation,
illustrating with a couple of well-known examples of misinformation
(you’ll recognize them), and continuing:



Nearly all these efforts rest on the assumption that good information
is the antidote to misinformation.

But a series of new experiments show that misinformation can exercise
a ghostly influence on people’s minds after it has been debunked —
even among people who recognize it as misinformation.

Countering bad information directly just reinforces it.

Chris Mooney wrote more about why that is in Mother Jones 18 April 2011,

The Science of Why We Don’t Believe Science:

Continue reading →

How to get public officials to respond to the citizens?

Leigh Touchton

asked me,

Mr. Quarterman, what can we do, do we have to go to the state legislature
to get a law passed to force these so-called public officials to answer
questions and respond to the citizens?

First of all, my compliments to anyone such as Leigh Touchton
who has been doing politics around here longer than me for asking
my opinion, because that indicates they are pretty good at it
and are probably asking many people their opinions.



My answer: carrots along with sticks, and shine some light!
That all builds political capital, which will be needed for elections.

We need many people building a community doing many things.
If I knew a simple answer that would change things magically overnight,
I’d recommend it, but I don’t.
I don’t even know if I know a long answer, but I’m pretty sure that
any answer will require a community, because

Continue reading →

Georgia #3 state that could benefit most from solar electricity

Matthew Croucher wrote
29 November 2010 in asu news,

Who would benefit most from solar energy?”

The Top 10 states that would benefit from solar deployment through
generating and exporting energy to other states are:

  1. Arizona

  2. Colorado

  3. Georgia

  4. Texas

  5. Hawaii

  6. Arkansas

  7. Wyoming

  8. Alabama (tie)

  9. Missouri (tie)

  10. California

This is according to a
study from the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University,

“Optimal Deployment of Solar Index,”
published in The Electricity Journal,

This article found on WACE facebook page;
thanks for locating it, WACE!

-jsq

A letter from a local physician —Dr. Noll

This comment from Dr. Noll came in today on
“Because it would be monitored. -jsq

Because it would be monitored?

Our community could subsequently also “monitor” increases in respiratory
illnesses, cancer rates, cardiovascular diseases, and mortality
rates. Just ask the American Lung Association, the American Cancer
Society, and the American Heart Association.

This is incredible. A city council member who still hides behind an
EPD air permit, and who chooses to ignore the testimony of thousands of
medical professionals throughout the United States. At the same time,
we have a City Council that continues to isolate itself from its citizens
with a policy that undermines open dialogue.

The continued silence of our City Council and Mayor in regard to biomass
is mind-boggling. Haven’t they noticed the developments of the past
couple months? The regular protests? Hundreds and hundreds of signatures
and voices in opposition to biomass? Ashley Paulk’s statement? George
Bennett’s statement? Even a statement, it appears, by Wesley Langdale
who said that biomass is economically not feasible … which is something
WACE stated as far back as October 2010, supported by an article from
the Wall Street journal called “(Bio)Mass Confusion”.

Dr. Mark George once asked all City Council members the following
question: “What is it you still need from us, so that you understand
that biomass is a bad deal”? To my knowledge that question was never
answered.

Last night I shared a letter from a local physician

Continue reading →

Wake-up and break off the spell of the Leviathan —George Boston Rhynes

This comment from George Boston Rhynes arrived just now,
on “Talk to my chairman”. -jsq



I was at

the last LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS MEETING when
Chairman Ashley Paulk shared information about the Biomass Project
extension being denied and the alleged secrecy surrounding keeping the
general public ignorant.

“Because certain people won’t share with you and I think it’s
unfair. We were approached about three weeks ago, Mr. (Joe) Pritchard
(County Manager) was, by the Industrial Authority, and we were tentatively
asked to make a move to ask that they not extend the contract.”
(Chairman Paulk!)

Chairman Paulk words prove that there is an apparent pattern and practice

Continue reading →

I’m all for openness —Tom Call



The member who hardly ever speaks at board meetings makes a strong case for openness.

Tom Call

called me back about the biomass plant,
and we talked about a number of other matters.
He remarked that he was not an appointed spokesperson for the Industrial
Authority, so this is just him talking.

I asked him about

Ashley Paulk’s remarks in the 26 April 2011 Lowndes County Commission
meeting.
Tom Call said VLCIA was not standing behind any other body,
and he clarified what had happened.

He said the biomass plant had been brought to the Industrial
Authority by

Continue reading →