"Proposed plant said to be 'medical atrocity'"

Johnna Pinholster writes in the the Valdosta Daily Times (paper 25 Oct, online 27 Oct 2010) about the the SAVE Biomass Forum at VSU:

A medical atrocity.

That is the phrase Dr. William Sammons used to described biomass energy plants at Monday night’s biomass forum at Valdosta State University’s Student Union theater.

Dr. Sammons answered many of the unanswered concerns about the biomass incinerator, and, unlike the lack of peer-reviewed evidence from the plant proponents:

Sammons was meticulous in pointing out where his data came from citing scientific studies and journals and even the Environmental Protection Agency, along with health organizations like the American Cancer Society and the American Lung Association.

The people who approve the plant and the people who own the biomass plant will not being paying the medical bills in the future, Sammons said, community members and their children will be.

The reason the country has seen an uptick in the building of biomass plants in recent years relates to the number of tax incentives, both locally and at the state and national levels, that have become available, he said.

When taken at cost, biomass plants are just as expensive as nuclear plants, Sammons said.

If the more than 300 proposed biomass plants come online the federal government, Sammons said, will be on the hook to spend $250 billion dollars through tax incentives and tax credits.

“That’s your dollars,” Sammons said.

And that's despite repeated assertions from the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA) that the local biomass incinerator will use no tax dollars.

How about we repurpose those subsidies, and the massive fossil fuel subsidies, to real clean energy, such as wind offshore, solar inland, and efficiency and conservation everywhere?

As Dr. Sammons concluded:

Sammons told the audience that this was a preventative issue and that other means of energy production and conservation are available.

Currently, Germany leads the world in solar installations, he said.

Valdosta, Sammons said, gets 70 percent more sunlight than any city in Germany.

“You have another source of energy here,” he said.

There's much more in the VDT article; the whole thing is well worth reading. More pictures in the flickr set. Videos forthcoming.

-jsq