{"id":2505,"date":"2011-01-17T12:59:01","date_gmt":"2011-01-17T17:59:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/01\/letter-to-city-council-matt-flumerfelt.html"},"modified":"2011-01-17T12:59:01","modified_gmt":"2011-01-17T17:59:01","slug":"letter-to-city-council-matt-flumerfelt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/01\/letter-to-city-council-matt-flumerfelt.html","title":{"rendered":"letter to city council –Matt Flumerfelt"},"content":{"rendered":"Received today. -jsq\n
\n\n<\/a>\nFrom: “Matt Flumerfelt”\n
\nDate: Sun, 16 Jan 2011 21:58:56 -0500\n

\nMy Dear Mayor, City Manager, and City Council Members,\n

\nYou who I know to be men and women of principle, you should know\nby now I have no axe to grind, no agenda except to see justice done, no\ndesire but to benefit the people of this fair community. I ask you to please\nput the brakes on the Industrial Authority and convince them that the\nWiregrass Power Biomass Electric Generating Plant may be complying with the\ncurrent laws and clean air requirements of Georgia, but it is still not\nsafe. Opening this plant is not in the best interest of our community.\n

\nWe are at an important crossroads in our nation’s history,\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n

\nwhen we must choose between our own economic self-interest and the interests of\nordinary men, women, and children. We can either go forward with the kinds\nof safe, clean, renewable energy sources we know will do the least damage to\nour environment and the health of our citizens, or comply with those who\nwould take advantage of economic hard times to sell us technologies that\nwill leave us sicker and less able to care for ourselves.\n

\nI know there are powerful economic forces at work that urge you\nto take immediate action to provide jobs, reduce energy costs, and help\nreduce the costs to the city of disposing of waste. But those who stand to\nprofit most from this plant are putting their own economic self-interest\nbefore the health of this community and turning a blind eye to the very\nharmful impact this Biomass plant will have on our air, water, soil, and the\nhealth of our citizens. There is a lot of science to back up this statement,\nnone of which the Industrial Authjority wants you to consider. We can and\nmust do better.\n

\nThere is a lot at stake here, too much to risk on the assurances of one or\ntwo Industry-paid experts. As Dr. Zeller pointed out at the recent VSU forum\non the potential health hazards that will result if this plant opens,\nSterling has taken advantage of every loophole in the permitting process to\nby-pass stricter safety regulations and emissions controls in the operation\nof this plant.\n

\nI am writing because I respect and care about every one of you. Valdosta is\nbeing sold a bill of goods. Please don’t wait until the health of this\ncommunity is severely compromised by emissions from this plant to realize\nthat this technology is a step in the wrong direction. Please have the\npolitical and personal courage to do whatever it takes to keep biomass from\ncoming to Lowndes County.\n

\nSincerely,\n
\nMatt Flumerfelt\n

\nWriter, musician, quondam journalist, longtime resident, friend, neighbor,\nand community partner\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Received today. -jsq From: “Matt Flumerfelt” Date: Sun, 16 Jan 2011 21:58:56 -0500 My Dear Mayor, City Manager, and City Council Members, You who I know to be men and women of principle, you should know by now I have no axe to grind, no agenda except to see justice done, no desire but to […]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_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},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[97,556,120,14,16,22,32,23,73,289,54,178,55],"tags":[8738,8704,8701,7,6,8749],"class_list":["post-2505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-air","category-biomass","category-economy","category-environment","category-politics","category-pollution","category-renewable-energy","category-safety","category-science","category-valdosta-city-council","category-vlcia","category-water","tag-biomass","tag-economy","tag-georgia","tag-lowndes-county","tag-valdosta","tag-vlcia"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-Ep","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2505","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=2505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2505\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}