{"id":2320,"date":"2011-03-15T16:57:15","date_gmt":"2011-03-15T20:57:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/03\/we-would-appreciate-it-if-our-position-was-no-longer-misrepresented-georgia-sierra-club.html"},"modified":"2011-03-15T16:57:15","modified_gmt":"2011-03-15T20:57:15","slug":"we-would-appreciate-it-if-our-position-was-no-longer-misrepresented-georgia-sierra-club","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/03\/we-would-appreciate-it-if-our-position-was-no-longer-misrepresented-georgia-sierra-club.html","title":{"rendered":"“we would appreciate it if our position was no longer misrepresented” –Georgia Sierra Club"},"content":{"rendered":"Here is a letter that Leigh Touchton forwarded, noting,\n“Ms. Colleen Kiernan gave me her permission to share it publicly.”\n-jsq\n
\n\nMarch 9, 2011\n
\nBrad Lofton\n
\nExecutive Director\n
\nValdosta Lowndes County Industrial Authority\n
\n2110 North Patterson Street\n
\nValdosta, GA 31602\n
\nRE: Sierra Club position on the Wiregrass Energy facility\n
\nDear Mr. Lofton:\n
\nCongratulations on the groundbreaking of your solar facility last month.\nThe Georgia Chapter of the Sierra Club is very pleased and excited to\nsee those types of clean, renewable projects coming online all across\nour state, after years of Georgia Power claiming that solar wouldn\u2019t\nwork in our state.\n
\nHowever, I am writing to you primarily on a different subject as it has\ncome to our attention that you continue to claim\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\nthat the Sierra Club\nsupports the Wiregrass Energy\u2019s proposed biomass facility. The truth is\nthat this proposal would be the type that Sierra Club policy says needs\nto be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. That evaluation has not been\ndone, and thus the Sierra Club is not supporting nor opposing the project.\n
\nIf you read our full energy policy, you will learn that we think that\nthere are environmental consequences to all types of energy generation,\nand thus, we like to support energy efficiency and conservation and make\nsure those are exhausted before any new generating capacity is built.\nAs Georgia is ranked 37th in energy efficiency policy by the American\nCouncil on an Energy Efficient Economy, we think we have a long way to\ngo, and are not convinced that this 40 MW addition to the ~12,000 MW of\nnatural gas capacity that has been added over the last 10-12 years is\nreally needed.\n
\nTo be clear on where the Sierra Club is coming from in terms of\nthe resources we prefer when new capacity is really needed, we\nprefer non-polluting alternatives, like on and off-shore wind, solar,\nlow-temperature geothermal. In the middle are energy resources that might\nbe okay, and then there are the types we oppose, like coal and nuclear.\n
\nThe policy you cite as our support is taken from our Biomass Guidance\nPolicy (http:\/\/www.sierraclub.org\/policy\/conservation\/biomass.aspx<\/a>),\nwhich was passed in 2000 and is currently being updated. You rely on\none section of the policy that deals with Agricultural Waste, which\ndoesn\u2019t address woody biomass specifically. The Narrative of your\npermit application states that \u201cThis boiler will be fired with clean\nwoody biomass from forestry residue, mill residue, and clean urban wood\nwaste; wastewater treatment plant sludge of approximately 0.5 percent\nof total heat input to the boiler….\u201d\n
\nOur current Biomass Guidance Policy does not address the co-firing of\nseveral different fuel sources. However, if we look at them one-by-one,\nthe wastewater treatment plant sludge is a non-starter, as our policy says\nthat such a facility must be permitted as a waste incinerator rather than\nan energy facility, which this facility is not Our policy does address\nforest biomass: \u201cWe oppose projects which rely upon ecologically\ndestructive clear-cutting, in-wood chipping where excessive amounts of\nbiomass are removed from the land, and conversions to non-native species\nwhich undermine native biodiversity. We oppose biomass energy production\non any land which relies upon logging activities that are unsustainable,\nor that jeopardize fully functioning forest ecosystems. We also oppose\nbiomass energy fuel production which interferes with ongoing restoration\nof ecosystems with native plants and animals, or with the reestablishment\nor protection of biological corridors to link isolated forest stands.\u201d\nThere is no condition in the permit that would prevent the use of woody\nfuel sources that we find objectionable.\n
\nFurthermore, it is our experience that facilities request permit\namendments that allow for a change in fuel or operating requirements\nbased on market conditions, thus, we are concerned that the ratio of\nsludge could be substantially higher, or additional objectionable fuel\nsources could be added at a later time. We are also concerned about the\nPTE calculations that show many criteria pollutants approaching the 250\ntpy threshold for a major source and that this facility was permitted\nas a minor source.\n
\nFinally, we do have policy that addresses siting of energy facilities\n\nhttp:\/\/www.sierraclub.org\/policy\/conservation\/energyfac.aspx<\/a>.\nIt is not clear whether the process to site this facility meets with our policy,\nbut understand it to be proposed for an area where the hazardous air\npollutants could pose a problem for the community.\n
\nSince the public comment period has long since closed, we will likely not\nspend the resources to fully evaluate this project and either support\nor oppose it. As such, we would appreciate it if our position was no\nlonger misrepresented on this issue by you or anyone on the Valdosta\nLowndes County Industrial Authority.\n
\nIf you have any questions or would like to discuss the matter, please\nfeel free to give me a call at 404-607-1262 x224.\n
\nSincerely,\n
\nColleen Kiernan\n
\nGeorgia Chapter Director\n
\nCc:\n
\nAllan Ricketts, Assistant Director\n
\nJerry Jennett, Chair\n
\nNorman Bennett\n
\nMary Gooding\n
\nRoy Copeland\n
\nTom Call\n
\nLeigh Touchton, President Valdosta NAACP\n
\nBrad Bergstrom, Professor of Biology, Valdosta State University bergstrm@valdosta.edu\n
\nMichael Noll, Wiregrass Activists for Clean Energy \u00a0\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Here is a letter that Leigh Touchton forwarded, noting, “Ms. Colleen Kiernan gave me her permission to share it publicly.” -jsq March 9, 2011 Brad Lofton Executive Director Valdosta Lowndes County Industrial Authority 2110 North Patterson Street Valdosta, GA 31602 RE: Sierra Club position on the Wiregrass Energy facility Dear Mr. Lofton: Congratulations on the […]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[97,556,120,21,32,289,24,178,3112,1521],"tags":[8701,7,6],"class_list":["post-2320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-air","category-biomass","category-planning","category-pollution","category-science","category-solar","category-vlcia","category-vlcia-15-march-2011","category-wiregrass-solar","tag-georgia","tag-lowndes-county","tag-valdosta"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-Bq","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2320\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}