Brad Lofton's memory fails him again

On 28 Dec 2010 Brad Lofton wrote:

No one but WACE has made any claims about our efforts to substantiate this project.

Who are all these people, then, asking questions at the VLCIA's 6 Dec 2010 event?

For example, this one, following up about the Environmental Impact Study he requested back at the EPD air quality hearing (see video of that event). He didn't get an answer then, and at VLCIA's 6 Dec event he still only got allusions to studies and standards that were not produced.

You can see Brad Lofton in that video, listening. Did he forget so quickly?

What about SAVE's event at VSU at which Dr. Sammons spoke? What about the well-attended Biomass Town Hall that Pastor Angela Manning organized? And other events.

What about my question at the 6 Dec 2010 VLCIA board meeting?

Maybe Brad Lofton is refering only to nobody after the 6 Dec 2010 event, similarly to how he used weasel words when at the 29 Sep 2010 Valdosta Board of Education meeting he claimed that nobody but me (jsq) had sat down and gotten a presentation from VLCIA, omitting Dr. Bergstrom because he had left the room before Lofton made that assertion. Maybe he's forgotten once again about the rather large number of people who have sat down with him and Col. Ricketts.

OK, what about when Gary Minchew asserted in the 21 Dec 2010 VLCIA meeting that there had been enough presentations and all concerns about the biomass plant had been answered: I responded by noting that the carbon debt question had not been answered. Back at the 10 June 2010 meeting I organized with interested parties in the VLCIA offices with Lofton and Ricketts, they claimed that a stack of powerpoint slides they wouldn't hand over until the meeting was over proved that the plant was carbon neutral. I pointed out to the board that Lofton had claimed they were peer-reviewed evidence when plainly they were not. Furthermore, I pointed out to the board that Col. Ricketts had earlier in that same board meeting asserted that there was no local regional study about the carbon debt from biomass plants, so VLCIA's own staff had demonstrated that question remained open.

Now I don't have video of that exchange at the VLCIA board meeting, because I wasn't videoing while I was speaking or they were responding. This is partly because I'm just an amateur videographer, and partly because not one VLCIA board member had been willing earlier to comment on camera about Lofton and Ricketts' biomass or solar presentations.

Incidentally, Brad Lofton introduced me at that board meeting as with LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange, so he knows the difference between WACE and LAKE.

How about the front page Year in Review #2 story in the VDT?

Despite those who continue to say only a small number of citizens are concerned, public forums, comments, letters to the editor, and community discussion show otherwise. This facility remains of great concern to many, despite assurances from the Industrial Authority that they have shown all they need to in the way of safety measures and environmental impact studies to citizens.

Brad Lofton offered Dr. Noll yet another indoctrination session:

I will be pleased to sit down with you at your convenience to discuss the project in detail and provide the information you desire. Seems like a pretty fair offer to me.

Seems maybe not so fair to those of us who have been there and not gotten answers.

Besides, what's the point of meeting with Brad Lofton if forgets questions raised before his own board?

-jsq