\nCitizens\u2019 rights are paramount\n<\/blockquote>\nBut only if the citizens insist.\n\n-jsq\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The VDT explains how to effect change, if anyone is listening. Editorial, 13 Jan 2010, Powerless to stop the power plant: This week as the rhetoric around the proposed biomass facility has continued heating up, leading up to last night\u2019s forum, one of the main themes has been that \u201cgovernment should do something.\u201d While 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":[97,120,141,49,16,41,19,88,1867,21,22,32,23,73,289,54,133,178,700,55],"tags":[679,8738,1747,944,5168,3354,4571,5167,8751,3716,5166,4419,7,8734,1873,2953,8712,1879,1714,5169,225,6,2900,8742,8749,8796,8748,5073,4554],"class_list":["post-2509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-biomass","category-co2","category-elections","category-environment","category-health-care","category-history","category-lowndes-county-commission","category-mlk","category-planning","category-politics","category-pollution","category-renewable-energy","category-safety","category-science","category-valdosta-city-council","category-vdt","category-vlcia","category-wace","category-water","tag-ashley-paulk","tag-biomass","tag-brad-lofton","tag-citizens","tag-crowds","tag-david-rodock","tag-dontaye-carter","tag-experts","tag-florida","tag-gadsden-county","tag-georgia-valdosta-lowndes-county-industrial-authority","tag-gretna","tag-lowndes-county","tag-lowndes-county-commission","tag-martin-luther-king","tag-opposition","tag-politics","tag-power","tag-strategy","tag-tactics","tag-tallahassee","tag-valdosta","tag-valdosta-daily-times","tag-vdt","tag-vlcia","tag-wace","tag-wctv","tag-william-sammons","tag-wiregrass-activists-for-clean-energy"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-Et","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2509","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=2509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2509\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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<\/a>\nThe VDT explains how to effect change, if anyone is listening.\nEditorial, 13 Jan 2010,\n<\/a>\nWhile the Times does not condone or condemn\n\nChairman Paulk\u2019s actions in the commission meeting Tuesday night,<\/a>\nunderstanding the situation may\nhelp shed light on the issue. The county is powerless to do anything to\nstop this power plant. The only governmental entity with any power over\nthe project is the city, and that\u2019s only in the form of the services\nbeing extended and the water being sold to the company, as well as the\nsewage sludge that\u2019s being burned. They too are powerless at this\npoint to stop it.\n<\/blockquote>\n\n
<\/a>\nThe editorial continues with the tired old excuse “they can be sued”.\nDon’t they have insurance for that?\nIf the whole thing goes as bad as some opponents predict,\nthey could be sued for the kind of financial disaster\n\nthat faces Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.<\/a>\n
<\/a>\nIt taxes, it spends, it makes decisions “for the community”.\nThat’s government. It needs to be more responsive to the community,\n\nas I pointed out in Tuesday’s County Commission meeting.<\/a>\n
<\/a>\nSure, the VLCIA board is\n\nset on moving forward with this plant<\/a>.\nBut things can change.\nIf they were to seriously consider\n\nwhat their opponents’ experts were saying,<\/a>\ninstead of refusing to name them and referring to them only as\n\n“folks come into the community”,<\/a>\nthe VLCIA might find all sorts of reasons to halt the plant.\n
<\/a>\nSee that first word? “If”.\nBack at the December 6th VLCIA “Forum” I asked\n\nWhere’s the wood to come from and who will buy the electricity?<\/a>\nThey claim to have a wood sourcing study, but they won’t release it.\nBoth Georgia Power and Colquitt EMC have said they won’t buy the power,\nand VLCIA doesn’t know who will.\nI asked Brad Lofton about the electricity\non January 6th and he still didn’t know.\nInvestors won’t invest if the plant can’t sell its power.\n
<\/a>\nLack of investors and other concerns caused\n\na biomass plant set for Tallahassee to pull out<\/a>\nin January 2009.\nPublic opposition caused\n\nAdage to pull a biomass project out of Gretna, in Gadsden County, Florida.<\/a>\nAnd who spoke in Gretna before that?\nWhy look, it’s\n\nDr. William Sammons!<\/a>\n