Category Archives: Solar

No need for this pipeline. Solar power is what we should be doing. –WWALS on WCTV 2015-08-28

As we prepared to put in at US 84 to paddle up the Withlacoochee River to the proposed Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline crossing, WCTV interviewed us, and indeed she picked out the main point.

Update 2015-08-31: I’m told people did see this story live on air on WCTV.

Winnie Wright, WCTV, 28 August 2015, WWALS Watershed Coalition Files Petition Against Pipeline,

Hamilton County, FL—WWALS Watershed Coalition filed an amended petition Friday, opposing the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s intent to issue a building permit for a 36-inch natural pipeline under the Suwannee River in Florida.

“The combination of all this opposition, what we of course want to do is to stop the pipeline”, says John Quarterman, with WWALS. “There’s no need for this pipeline. Solar power is what we should be doing.”

Some of the other opposition I referred to was Continue reading →

WWALS signs on to Global Frackdown

Ban fracking before it spreads, and ban it quickly enough to stop new pipelines! WWALS signed the Global Frackdown organized by Food and Water Watch:

Fracking threatens the air we breathe, the water we drink, the communities we love and the climate on which we depend.

The specific message WWALS added when signing 29 June 2015 was:

Fracking is driving a company from Houston, Texas to try to gouge a pipeline across our fragile watersheds and drinking water aquifer. Georgia is already the fastest-growing U.S. market for solar power, and just passed a solar financing law that will make it grow even faster. Meanwhile, a shale gas basin has been discovered under south Georgia and north Florida. Ban fracking before it spreads, and ban it quickly enough to stop new pipelines!

Remember, WWALS supports a fracking ban in Floirida, and Continue reading →

EPA coal plant emission limits still in place during legal cost review

Justice Scalia never said the EPA emissions rule was struck down, rather the Supreme Court sent it back to a lower court to get a cost analysis from EPA. 300x305 Mercury, in Improving Air Quality in Georgia, by Georgia Power, 30 June 2015 Meanwhile, many of the emissions controls are already in place on coal plants (including Plant Scherer), other coal plants have closed or are closing, and investors are abandoning coal in droves. So what Scalia wants may or may not be impossible for EPA to deliver, but EPA actually already has helped sink dirty coal. Meanwhile, Georgia Power finally is helping the sun rise on Georgia. So the prognosis is good for less mercury in the Alapaha River.

Emily Atkin, ThinkProgress Climate, 29 June 2015, What Everyone Is Getting Wrong About The Supreme Court’s Mercury Pollution Ruling, Continue reading →

This sister earth now cries out to us –Pope Francis

Pope Francis makes a religious, ethical, humane, scientific, and practical case Pope Francis at the Jordan River, ABC News for stewardship of this earth and its waters, with moral and ethical bases for “the choices which determine our behaviour”. His case does not require any reader to be Catholic or Christian, as the Pope integrates his faith with the science of an integral ecology. You don’t have to agree with everything he wrote (I don’t) to agree with the gist of it, in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.:

“all life is interrelated”

Pope Francis’ letter to the world is long but well worth reading in full, and these excerpts I hope will encourage everyone to do that.

ENCYCLICAL LETTER LAUDATO SI’ OF THE HOLY FATHER FRANCIS ON CARE FOR OUR COMMON HOME, 18 June 2015, Vatican City. Continue reading →

Petition GA Gov. Deal to oppose Sabal Trail pipeline

Please sign this petition to Please Ban The Sabal Trail Fracked Gas Pipeline.

Congratulations to Push Back the Pipeline for convincing GA Gov. Deal and Lt. Gov. Cagle to oppose Kinder Morgan’s Palmetto Project and the Georgia Dept. of Transportation to deny KMI a permit.

Now it’s time for the same for the Sabal Trail Pipeline. The permitting process is different, but opposition from the state of Georgia could stop this invader, too.

While Sabal Trail has moved off our Withlacoochee River in Florida, it still wants to cross the Withlacoochee in Georgia at the Continue reading →

WWALS on environmental issues panel in Valdosta at LCDP 2015-06-01

WWALS will be among five organizations discussing environmental issues a the monthly Lowndes County Democratic Party (LCDP) meeting 6PM Monday June 1st 2015, at the Lowndes County Board of Elections, 2808 North Oak Street, Valdosta, GA.

Stopping Valdosta wastewater spills and restarting the Alapaha River Water Trail are among the topics WWALS President John S. Quarterman plans to mention. Solar power, the Sabal Trail pipeline, and fossil fuel divestment will also come up. Anyone can speak from the audience, so please come and join the discussion.

Other panelists, topics, and details in the LCDP post. Please join the facebook event.

-jsq

Florida pro-fracking bill failed


Photo: Jeff Burlew, via Tallahassee Democrat.

Thanks to Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson of Our Santa Fe River (pictured in blue shirts on left) and many others, a pro-fracking anti-open-records bill failed in the Florida legislature yesterday. WWALS helped persuade both its Florida counties, Madison and Hamilton, to pass anti-fracking resolutions, like so many other Florida counties did as OSFR tirelessly travelled the state. Bills in the Florida House and Senate to ban fracking outright did not pass. But neither did the fracking industry’s bill that would have exempt it from disclosure of its toxic chemicals, and would have prohibited local governments from banning fracking. No doubt the fossil fuel industry will be back next year with a Florida pro-fracking bill, but so will the opponents, with bills to ban fracking. And in another year, maybe Florida will catch on that when the Georgia legislature unanimously approved a solar financing bill, it’s time for the Sunshine State to put fracking behind it and get on with clean, safe, renewable sun, wind, and water power.

Orlando Sentinel, 29 April 2015, Florida fracking bill won’t pass this year, Continue reading →

Historic solar financing bill started in GA PSC more than a year ago

Friday the Georgia Senate unanimously voted for a solar financing bill, and WWALS helped with that historic Georgia turn to the sun for power, which will conserve our waters, including helping fight off invading pipelines.

Back in June 2013, Garry Gentry read to the Georgia Public Service Commission the WWALS letter about water and solar power (I also spoke), contributing to the historic GA PSC decision that July to require Georgia Power to add 525 MW of solar power, approximately doubling its request. A decision that catapulted Georgia in one year Continue reading →

WWALS supports Florida fracking ban

WWALS supports the proposed ban on fracking in Florida, by unanimous vote of the WWALS Executive Committee last night. For our Floridan Aquifer, our springs, and our rivers that run into the Suwannee to the sea. The Sunshine State can do what WWALS has helped Georgia do: turn to solar power for new energy.

Here’s some background on the bills in the Florida Senate and House and a petition you can sign. Plus you can help pass fracking bans by Florida counties, and there’s a rally at the old capitol in Tallahassee next Wednesday.

This ban would also contribute to WWALS long-standing opposition to the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline by opposing the fracking that drives new pipelines and LNG export. New York State already banned fracking, as have the entire countries of France, Bulgaria, Germany, and Scotland. Florida can be next.

Florida Senate

Continue reading →