{"id":2561,"date":"2010-12-06T09:50:38","date_gmt":"2010-12-06T14:50:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2010\/12\/vlcia-biomass-forum-tonight-do-they-have-a-plan.html"},"modified":"2010-12-06T09:50:38","modified_gmt":"2010-12-06T14:50:38","slug":"vlcia-biomass-forum-tonight-do-they-have-a-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2010\/12\/vlcia-biomass-forum-tonight-do-they-have-a-plan.html","title":{"rendered":"VLCIA Biomass &#8220;Forum&#8221; Tonight: Do they have a plan?"},"content":{"rendered":"<a href=\"http:\/\/www.industrialauthority.com\/\">\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;border:none;\"   src=\"http:\/\/profile.ak.fbcdn.net\/hprofile-ak-snc4\/hs625.ash1\/27538_265579862068_7988_n.jpg\"><\/a>\nAccording to the\n<a href=\"http:\/\/valdostadailytimes.com\/opinion\/x278367209\/Biomass-plant-forum-Monday\">VDT&#8217;s What We Think of yesterday<\/a>:\n<blockquote>\nAll citizens of Lowndes County and any other interested parties are\nencouraged to attend the Biomass Forum Monday night, hosted by the\nValdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority, at 7:30 at the Conference\nCenter.\n<\/blockquote>\nForum?  As in people will get time to get real questions answered?\nAnd the VLCIA might be interested in real input?\n<blockquote>\nThe authority has invited a half-dozen individuals to speak, which will\nlast approximately 60 to 90 minutes, followed by &#8220;ample&#8221; time for\nquestions to be answered, at least 30 minutes, according to the Authority.\n<\/blockquote>\nHm, 3 to 1 they speak we listen.\nInteresting definition of &#8220;forum&#8221;.\nAlso, despite VLCIA&#8217;s many complaints that people didn&#8217;t get involved\nearly enough in their previous public meetings about this plant,\nif this event is listed on VLCIA&#8217;s own website, I can&#8217;t find it.\nIt&#8217;s not on the VLCIA&#8217;s facebook page, either.\n<p>\nAlthough on November 10th there are two VLCIA facebook posts saying:\n<blockquote>\nThe Industrial Authority stands behind its decision for the construction\nof Wiregrass Power LLC and feels like this green project will be a\nwin\/win for the community.\n<\/blockquote>\nSo much for looking for input.\n<p>\nAnyway, back to the VDT:\n<blockquote>\nThe Times has presented several stories with facts concerning the $140\nmillion project, which will generate 20 to 25 local jobs once the plant\nis up and running.\n<\/blockquote>\n20 to 25 local jobs.\n<p>\nMeanwhile, in other places that have a plan:\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"\/blog\/2010\/12\/mage-solar-cuts-ribbon-in-dublin-georgia.html\">MAGE SOLAR is already hiring in Dublin, Georgia<\/a>\nfor the first of 350 jobs in a photovoltaic (PV) solar manufacturing plant.\n<li>\n<a href=\"\/blog\/2010\/12\/sunivas-500-new-jobs-went-to-michigan.html\">\nSuniva of Norcross&#8217;s second PV plant with its 500 jobs went to Michigan,<\/a>\nbecause nobody in Georgia tried very hard to keep it here.\n<li>\n<a href=\"\/blog\/2010\/12\/suniva-went-to-solar-valley-michigan-which-has-a-plan.html\">\nSolar Valley, Michigan, has a plan<\/a>\nthat has already brought in thousands of clean energy jobs,\nin addition to Suniva.\n<\/ul>\n<a href=\"\/blog\/2010\/03\/the-jobs-are-in-the-trees-reforestation.html?cid=6a0120a58214e4970b01310fc6389b970c\">\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;border:none;\"   width=\"307\" height=\"243\" src=\"http:\/\/www.grist.org\/phpThumb\/phpThumb.php?src=http:\/\/www.grist.org\/i\/assets\/infographics\/green_jobs_chart.jpg&#038;w=615\"><\/a>\nWhat&#8217;s our plan, VLCIA?\n<ul>\n<li>\nWhere&#8217;s our major solar generating plant?\n<li>\nOur solar academy?\n<li>\nOur solar manufacturing plant?\n<li>\nOur\n<a href=\"\/blog\/2010\/10\/houstons-renewable-energy.html\">\nhouse retrofitting strategy?<\/a>\n<li>\nOur local agritourism map?\n<li>\nOur <a href=\"\/blog\/2010\/03\/the-jobs-are-in-the-trees-reforestation.html?cid=6a0120a58214e4970b01310fc6389b970c\">\nreforestation plan, with twice as many jobs as biomass?<\/a>\n<\/ul>\nHow about we plant trees instead of burn them?\n<p>\nAnd I agree with the VDT on this:\n<blockquote>\nAnd to the Industrial Authority and invited speakers, you are urged to\nnot insult the intelligence of those attending. They understand what\nthe plant will do. What they want to know is how this will affect them\nin terms of health issues, air quality and safety, burning sewage,\nthe number of trucks on the highway so close to several schools, etc.\n<p>\nThe onus is on you, the Authority, to handle this in a much more\nprofessional manner than the last Sterling project.\n<\/blockquote>\nMore to the point, why is the VLCIA wasting its political capital\n(and our tax dollars)\non this one polluting plant when it could be working to bring in\nreal clean energy?\n<p>\nDoes the VLCIA have a plan to raise the local metro area out of\n<a href=\"\/blog\/2010\/08\/valdosta-in-bottom-10-metro-areas-for-wages.html\">\nthe bottom 10 for wages?<\/a>\nOr is this 20-25-job polluting plant the best the VLCIA can do?\n<p>\nIf you can&#8217;t come to tonight&#8217;s &#8220;forum&#8221;, or even if you can,\nhere is\n<a href=\"\/blog\/2010\/10\/contact-information-for-elected-and-appointed-officials.html\">\ncontact information for your elected and appointed officials,<\/a>\nincluding the VLCIA board.\n<p>\n-jsq\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"According to the VDT&#8217;s What We Think of yesterday: All citizens of Lowndes County and any other interested parties are encouraged to attend the Biomass Forum Monday night, hosted by the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority, at 7:30 at the Conference Center. Forum? As in people will get time to get real questions answered? And the [&hellip;]","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":[97,202,556,120,141,14,15,16,321,740,2,267,23,73,289,24,1569,133,178],"tags":[5209,8738,1031,4132,3507,5208,5210,4823,8713,5207,8714,2900,180,8742,8749,3209,8716],"class_list":["post-2561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-agriculture","category-air","category-biomass","category-co2","category-economy","category-education","category-environment","category-food-and-drink","category-forestry","category-government","category-mage-solar","category-renewable-energy","category-safety","category-science","category-solar","category-suniva","category-vdt","category-vlcia","tag-appointed","tag-biomass","tag-efficiency","tag-elected","tag-insulation","tag-j-economy","tag-officials","tag-reforestation","tag-renewable-energy","tag-retrofitting","tag-solar","tag-valdosta-daily-times","tag-valdosta-lowndes-county-industrial-authority","tag-vdt","tag-vlcia","tag-wages","tag-wind"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-Fj","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2561","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=2561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2561\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}