{"id":2623,"date":"2010-09-25T16:54:41","date_gmt":"2010-09-25T20:54:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2010\/09\/absolutely-not-an-issue.html"},"modified":"2010-09-25T16:54:41","modified_gmt":"2010-09-25T20:54:41","slug":"absolutely-not-an-issue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2010\/09\/absolutely-not-an-issue.html","title":{"rendered":"“Carbon is absolutely not an issue with our plant.”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Below is a response to my letter of 22 September 2010<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n-jsq<\/p>\n

\nDate: On Wed, Sep 22, 2010 at 3:16 PM
\n
\nFrom: Brad Lofton <blofton@industrialauthority.com><\/p>\n

\nJohn:<\/p>\n

\nThank you for your e-mail and the professional way in which you have come
\nand met with our staff to discuss these issues. I certainly respect your
\nconcerns, especially since you felt it important enough to take the time to
\nmeet with us a number of times to pursue dialogue and exchange information.<\/p>\n

\nYou are absolutely correct in stating that we provided you peer reviewed
\nscientific literature proving that biomass plants are indeed carbon neutral.
\nDr. Carl Manning, an environmental professor at VSU who has done
\nsignificant research in biomass, agrees and completely supports our project.
\nIt is also important to note that we will be using inert landfill material
\nthat would otherwise produce methane if left to rot in a landfill. As you
\nknow, methane is considered a greenhouse gas. This is another very positive
\nenvironmental benefit of our project (one of many). Carbon is absolutely
\nnot an issue with our plant.<\/p>\n

\nRest assured that no trees will be harvested for this plant. The plant’s
\nEPD permit is very specific about this point, and federal tax credits
\nrequire the use of “wood waste.” Any deviation will result in plant closure
\nby the EPD. Our Authority would not have supported “whole log” production,
\nbecause of the environmental impact and also because of the competition it
\nwould create for several of our large existing industries (PCA, Langdale)
\nthat count on whole logs for production. We made the use of “wood waste” a
\ncondition of moving forward.<\/p>\n

\nA couple of other areas of misinformation that we would like to correct:\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

\n1.) Despite what Mrs. Touchton stated, we’ve been in touch with the
\nMassachusetts and Florida EPD, and in no way, shape, or form is either state
\nbanning biomass facilities. In fact, there are 15 scheduled now for New
\nEngland, many in Mass, and a number in Florida. There have been discussions
\nregarding the level of incentives (tax credits) allowed, but no moratorium.
\nWe’ll be happy to share our contacts with you.<\/p>\n

\n2.) We are not spending $110 million in taxpayer’s money to build this
\nfacility. The funding is private and financed by Wiregrass Power, LLC.
\nWe’ve read this in circulated e-mails Mrs. Touchton has authored. In fact,
\nour facility is actually paying substantial dollars per year to the
\ncommunity.<\/p>\n

\nFinally, I think the raw facts dispute any ongoing issues related to
\nenvironmental racism.<\/p>\n

\nHave a great day!<\/p>\n

\nBL<\/p>\n

\nSent from my BlackBerry Smartphone provided by Verizon\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Below is a response to my letter of 22 September 2010. -jsq Date: On Wed, Sep 22, 2010 at 3:16 PM From: Brad Lofton <blofton@industrialauthority.com> John: Thank you for your e-mail and the professional way in which you have come and met with our staff to discuss these issues. I certainly respect your concerns, especially […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[97,120,141,216,48,14,15,16,740,2,41,21,32,23,73,289,178],"tags":[193,8738,5394,1747,4129,2043,8745,8753,8704,2061,4566,1909,188,8701,5343,1790,4131,5342,847,154,2081,4020,7,1809,1884,5220,8863,4530,4874,5221,1327,8715,8713,5314,8714,2535,6,2900,180,8742,8749,294,5374,4123,5375],"class_list":["post-2623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-biomass","category-co2","category-coal","category-code-enforcement","category-economy","category-education","category-environment","category-forestry","category-government","category-health-care","category-planning","category-pollution","category-renewable-energy","category-safety","category-science","category-vlcia","tag-allan-ricketts","tag-biomass","tag-black-neighborhood","tag-brad-lofton","tag-carbon-dioxide","tag-clean","tag-co2","tag-coal","tag-economy","tag-electricity","tag-environmental-racism","tag-epd","tag-executive-director","tag-georgia","tag-global-climate-change","tag-green","tag-incinerator","tag-jill-stuckey","tag-jobs","tag-landfill","tag-langdale","tag-leigh-touchton","tag-lowndes-county","tag-mercury","tag-methane","tag-mud-creek-wastewater-treatment-plant","tag-naacp","tag-particulates","tag-pca","tag-perimeter-road","tag-permit","tag-pollution","tag-renewable-energy","tag-sewage-sludge","tag-solar","tag-taxpayer","tag-valdosta","tag-valdosta-daily-times","tag-valdosta-lowndes-county-industrial-authority","tag-vdt","tag-vlcia","tag-wastewater","tag-whole-logs","tag-wiregrass-power-llc","tag-wood-waste"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2623","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=2623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2623\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}