VLCIA Payments for 6 Dec 2010 biomass "Forum"

VLCIA spent more than $17,000 on speakers and catering for their 6 Dec 2010 "Forum", according to VLCIA's response to an open records request. Yet local speakers against the biomass plant who would have charged nothing were not invited to be on the panel. VLCIA insists on referring to it as an "information exchange", even though their hand-picked moderator said "we're not going to get into debate."

Here is a summary of the expenses:

• $1,313.41 to Milster Engineering, L.L.C. of Iowa City, Iowa. Ferman Milster is an Associate Director of the University of Iowa Power Plant, which burns oat hulls.
• $3,242.00 to the Parton Group of Lilburn, Georgia.
• $6,330.75 to Hazardous Substance & Waste Management Research, Inc. of Tallahasee, Florida, which is Dr. Christopher Teaf's group. It's long list of public sector clients curiously does not include VLCIA.
• $4,681.55 to Greenfield Advisors LLC of Seattle, WA, which also has an Atlanta office, and lists Dr. Clifford A. Lipscomb as an analyst.
• $1,092.97 to James H. Rainwater Conference Center, Valdosta, Georgia for food, service, and room.
• $274.88 to James H. Rainwater Conference Center, Valdosta, Georgia for Chef's Choice Buffet Dinner, Banquet Furnishing Fee, and service.
• $499.00 = 5 * $99.80 to Hampton Inn and Suites for rooms for each of Ferman Milster, Stan Parton, Cliff Lipscomb, Bob McCann, and Gil Waldman. Robert McCann, Jr. is with Golder Associates Inc. Gilbert Waldman is vice president and general manager of Sterling Energy Assets, the parent corporation of the Wiregrass Power LLC shell corp. Dr. Teaf's group itemized $77.00 as travel expenses.
• $17,434.56 total

Some of these expenses include telephone calls, research, and preparation of reports, in addition to speaking at the event and travel to and from.

Curiously missing from the list is any costs for the videos the City of Valdosta videographer took of the event for VLCIA. Who paid for those?

This accounting of expenses was obtained through an open records request and given to LAKE. More information on that event is available on the LAKE website.

-jsq

Comments

[matthew richard]

great example of how money corrupts our political process. how much does it cost to deceive the public? how much does it cost to create a bogus narrative that says that biomass is "clean, green, and cheap?" and that this toxic mess is an economic boon for Lowndes County?

well, here's a down payment of $17,000. undoubtedly, there's a heck of a lot more money changing hands . . . thanks for this post . . .

[Boondoggle]

And don't forget over $6,000 to Dr. Christopher Teaf, the "health expert."

That man never met a chemical he wouldn't endorse, or a polluting industry he wouldn't shill.

[Leigh Touchton]

I sat in front of Brad Lofton at WACE's public forum. When Joy Ezell, former Sierra Club Conservation Chair of Florida, talked about the vast number of exposes that a reporter named Hauserman has done on Dr. Christopher Teaf, I overheard Mr. Lofton say "I didn't know that."

Mr. Lofton is paid a six-figure salary but couldn't take time to research Dr. Teaf's scientific credibility? I spent ten minutes on the internet researching Dr. Teaf's endorsements and he's been thoroughly discredited as a reputable scientist, particularly his outrageous endorsement of arsenic-treated wood for playground equipment. But that doesn't stop biomass corporations from bringing him to endorse their polluting industry: he's come to Valdosta twice, he's been paid to go to Gainesville, and who knows how many other cities to promote biomass boondoggles.