\r\n\r\n\r\n
<\/a>\r\nNow, it should go without saying that the purpose of councils,\r\ncommissions and public office in general is to represent the varied\r\ninterests of the citizens, and hopefully through consensus- seeking\r\nachieve some semblance of collective wisdom; and then, if we’re\r\nreally lucky to apply said wisdom in charting our course toward a\r\nMobile our great grandchildren will be proud to inherit.\r\n
\r\nYet, when it came to finding a voice to protect our drinking water\r\nfrom Big Oil, we heard nothing substantive from our local leaders,\r\neven though we marched on their doorsteps in boots that are still\r\nwet with BP oil.\r\n<\/p>\r\n
And now,\r\n\r\n
<\/a>\r\n when Big Coal comes into our lovely town in need of a place\r\nto store dusty mounds of coal coke, where do they want to set up\r\nshop? Nowhere other than the banks of our river, and the shores of\r\nour bay! Why, on the very doorsteps of our city!\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n
\r\nAnd in a county that\r\n\r\naccepts Superfund wastewater, coal ash, and PCBs into its landfill<\/a>\r\nand then makes an exclusive contract with that landfill operator,\r\nsues a local business about it, and even appeals, is it any wonder that\r\na toxic methane pipeline company would want to go through that county?\r\n<\/p>\r\n
\r\n\r\nAnd Big Coal knows very well how to handle our local council\r\n“representatives.” And it can easily tickle the\r\nbusiness-friendly ribs of appointed commissioners to get its way.\r\nLike the oil that will soon to flow through our water source, the\r\npiles of blue creek coal look like a done deal.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n
\r\nBut of course lots of things have been done deals, like\r\nthe San Onofre nuclear plant restarting, until some local\r\nschool boards and city councils and the state PUC and\r\na few U.S. Representatives complained.\r\nAnd in Lowndes County, Georgia, a biomass plant and a private\r\nprison were done deals, until they weren’t.\r\n
\r\n\r\nThe habit of local career-politicians failing to truly serve the\r\ncitizens that hired them has become so commonplace as to look like\r\nbusiness-as-usual.\r\n<\/p>\r\n
\r\nThough we may have the structure of representative governance, it is\r\nclear that, represent us, they do not.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n
\r\nSometimes local governments try, as in Colquitt County,\r\nwhere the Commission\r\n\r\npassed a resolution for minimum pipeline depth<\/a>\r\nand the county attorney stood up and reminded FERC,\r\ncausing FERC to admit that FERC had itself required minimum pipeline depths\r\nin other states.\r\n
\r\nPreviously speaking against the pipeline:\r\n
\r\n
- \r\n\r\nGilchrist County Commission, FL<\/a>: 5 Commissioners + County Administrator + County Attorney, and they\r\n\r\nfiled a lengthy ecomment with FERC<\/a>.\r\n
- \r\nValdosta City Council member\r\nTim Carroll<\/a> filed an e-comment with FERC.\r\n
- \r\n\r\nDougherty County Commission, GA<\/a>: 1 Commissioner + County Attorney\r\n
- \r\n\r\nLowndes County Commission, GA<\/a>: 0 (zero, none, zip)\r\n
- \r\nColquitt County Commission, GA: County Attorney +\r\n\r\na resolution<\/a>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n
\r\nThere’s\r\n\r\nan election going on in Lowndes County, Georgia<\/a>.\r\nRemember who brought us toxic industry and toxic wastes.\r\nRemember who repeatedly stood up against that.\r\n
\r\nAnywhere you are,\r\nespecially anywhere in Georgia, Alabama, or Florida\r\nalong the proposed path of the Sabal Trail fracked methane\r\npipeline or its triplets Transco’s Hillabee Extension Project or Florida Southeast Connection,\r\n\r\nthis advice from Mobile<\/a>\r\nis just as good there:\r\n
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![](\"http:\/\/www.newamericanjournal.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Mobile_coal-terminal-site1.jpg\")
<\/a>\r\nCall your local politicians, visit a City Council or Planning and\r\nZoning meeting, and above all remind them who hired them and pays\r\ntheir salaries.\r\n<\/p>\r\n