Since the appended message was sent to a publicly elected
\nboard chartered by the state of Georgia,
\nthat makes it subject to Georgia’s open records law,
\nso I am publishing it here.<\/p>\n
\n-jsq<\/p>\n
\nFrom: Brad Lofton
\n
\nSent: Tuesday, September 28, 2010 12:52 PM
\n
\nTo: Karen Ruff Noll, [and Valdosta Board of Education members]
\n
\nCc: Allan Ricketts; gkbielmyer@valdosta.edu; bergstrm@valdosta.edu
\n
\nSubject: Re: Thank you to the Valdosta Board of Education<\/p>\n\nGood afternoon ladies and gentlemen:<\/p>\n
\nWe were honored last night to provide you an update on a project that enjoys
\nso much support from environmental groups all across America, and we are
\nthankful for your invitation and partnership. Mrs. Noll won’t admit that no
\ngovernmental group or environmental group in this country that is charged
\nwith setting environmental policy is opposed to our project. Not one. In
\nfact, they collectively point to biomass as the way forward for our country,
\nwhere nearly 45 percent of our existing renewable energy portfolio is
\nbiomass. We were prepared last night to go into specific details regarding
\nthe air permit and provide the actual facts for you as opposed to the
\ncontinued misinformation you are receiving from this core group. We ran out
\nof time and apologize for the length. Please let us know when and where we can have that discussion. Our plant will be carbon neutral, with a mercury
\nlevel that is so low it’s considered statistically insignificant by EPD.
\nThere is a dramatic difference between what the state and federal law allows
\nunder a statutory air permit and what our plant actually produces. This
\ngroup is stating the “permitted” allowances despite the fact that the actual
\nemissions are a very small fraction of that. Again, if Mrs. Noll and any of
\nher “experts” would actually meet with us, we would explain that.<\/p>\n\nRest assured that this is a safe, green, renewable energy plant\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nthat has
\nbeen vetted by scores of environmentalists, all the major universities in
\nGeorgia (including Dr. Tom Manning, a biomass researcher at VSU), and
\napproved by every level of government. If Mrs. Noll has further concerns, I
\nwould recommend her talking to President Obama, the U.S. Dept of
\nAgriculture, the U.S. Department of Energy, the Federal Environmental
\nProtection Agency, the state EPD, the Sierra Club, the World Wildlife
\nFederation, the state of Georgia’s Center of Innovation for Renewable
\nEnergy, GA Tech, UGA, the Valdosta Daily Times (who support us), and scores
\nof others who support us.<\/p>\n\nWe will not participate in a back and forth with this group. We’ll be happy
\nto meet with any of you in person to provide additional information and
\nfacts. Everyone is entitled to an opinion, but not the facts. Thanks so much
\nfor what each of you do for our community, and it’s an honor to serve you.<\/p>\n\nRegards,<\/p>\n
\nBrad<\/p>\n
\nSent from my BlackBerry Smartphone provided by Verizon\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Since the appended message was sent to a publicly elected board chartered by the state of Georgia, that makes it subject to Georgia’s open records law, so I am publishing it here. -jsq From: Brad Lofton Sent: Tuesday, September 28, 2010 12:52 PM To: Karen Ruff Noll, [and Valdosta Board of Education members] Cc: Allan […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[97,120,141,48,14,15,16,740,2,733,21,32,23,73,289,1106,178],"tags":[5312,8750,5133,8738,2113,4469,1747,5311,4129,2043,8745,8753,2061,4919,4566,8722,1909,188,5315,8801,8701,5310,2417,1790,5219,793,1691,154,2081,4020,7,1809,1603,5220,8863,1197,4530,4874,5221,1327,8715,5306,5314,34,5313,4533,5308,5307,410,6,1619,2900,1175,180,8816,8742,8749,8743,294,4123,5309],"class_list":["post-2611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-biomass","category-co2","category-code-enforcement","category-economy","category-education","category-environment","category-forestry","category-government","category-media","category-planning","category-pollution","category-renewable-energy","category-safety","category-science","category-vboe","category-vlcia","tag-adm","tag-agriculture","tag-air-quality","tag-biomass","tag-board-of-education","tag-brad-bergstrom","tag-brad-lofton","tag-cadillac","tag-carbon-dioxide","tag-clean","tag-co2","tag-coal","tag-electricity","tag-environmental-protection-agency","tag-environmental-racism","tag-epa","tag-epd","tag-executive-director","tag-federal-clean-air-act","tag-forestry","tag-georgia","tag-georgia-center-of-innovation-for-renewable-energy","tag-georgia-tech","tag-green","tag-gretchen-bielmyer","tag-industry","tag-karen-noll","tag-landfill","tag-langdale","tag-leigh-touchton","tag-lowndes-county","tag-mercury","tag-michigan","tag-mud-creek-wastewater-treatment-plant","tag-naacp","tag-paper-mill","tag-particulates","tag-pca","tag-perimeter-road","tag-permit","tag-pollution","tag-president-obama","tag-sewage-sludge","tag-sierra-club","tag-timber","tag-tom-manning","tag-u-s-department-of-energy","tag-u-s-dept-of-agriculture","tag-uga","tag-valdosta","tag-valdosta-board-of-education","tag-valdosta-daily-times","tag-valdosta-state-university","tag-valdosta-lowndes-county-industrial-authority","tag-vboe","tag-vdt","tag-vlcia","tag-vsu","tag-wastewater","tag-wiregrass-power-llc","tag-world-wildlife-federation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2611","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=2611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2611\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}