"I don't feel my interests were adequately represented" --Matt Flumerfelt

First-time speaker Matt Flumerfelt notes the Valdosta City Council and the Lowndes County Commission both disclaim responsibility for the Industrial Authority even though both appoint its members, and he thinks that may make VLCIA's contract for the biomass plant challengeable on constitutional grounds. He also sent LAKE the appended article on 20 Jan 2011.

Video by John S. Quarterman of the regular meeting of the Valdosta City Council, 20 January 2011, for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

Faith In Technology Is What Got Us Into This Mess

by Matt Flumerfelt

Many people in the Valdosta-Lowndes County community have faith that the proposed Biomass incinerator won't harm anyone or anything, but faith in technology is what got us into our current environmental mess in the first place. Those old enough to remember the nuclear power debate will remember how many people gave assurances that nuclear power was safe, yet we see today how difficult nuclear waste is to dispose of and how much damage it has caused when things go wrong, which, human nature being what it is, they inevitably do. The recent gulf oil spill would not have happened if

those overseeing the oil drilling equipment hadn't tried to skimp and shortchange the inspections and other safety measures designed to ensure its safe operation.

This country is at a crossroads. We need leaders with vision and courage, not just practical sense, leaders who will make energy and other decisions that will reverse the trend toward more polluting technologies. We see where being practical has gotten us. It's time to be a little impractical and say no to some of these industrialists who can make no guarantees of public health and safety. Those who do end up getting sick from these insidious emissions will have no other recourse but to die. There is no smoking gun, just a huge smokestack.

The City Council and County Commission should lead the way in energy efficiency. The bottom line in all this is that we have to consume less.

The environment is a huge concern and business types are only too happy to compromise the environment if it puts more money in their pockets. It is an involved issue, which is why more people have chosen to remain uninvolved--they don't feel qualified to decide. Business interests take advantage of people's ignorance to push things through that a more enlightened populace won't stand still for.

I for one don't feel I was adequately represented when the Industrial Authority signed the contract with Sterling Planet. Even a simple risk-benefit analysis would show that the risks, measured in human lives and suffering, far outweigh the benefits, measured in dollars and cents.

All those birds dropping dead from the skies over Arkansas recently are a harbinger of things to come if we don't find ways to conserve that don't add to the problem. There are no good emissions, and this plant will only add to an already overburdened ecosystem. We only have one planet, one environment. Nature is irreplaceable and very fragile in many instances. Let's not kill ourselves and others through a misplaced faith in technology based on the biased opinions of those more interested in their profits than your health. If we let others make money their bottom line, it will be our bottoms on the line when the biocrap hits the fan.

See also his LTE to the VDT of 20 Jan 2011.

-jsq