Tag Archives: emissions

Arglass GA-EPD air permit application for a second facility to produce glass containers 2023-07-17

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The Arglass glass container manufacturing plant off of Rocky Ford Road southwest of Valdosta, Georgia, has filed an air quality permit application for a second furnace. This is the phase 2 that was in the plans since at least 2016.

[Maps, Arglass air permit application 2023-07-17]
Maps, Arglass air permit application 2023-07-17

What they want to do is more pithily summarized in a local variance Arglass already got from the Valdosta-Lowndes County Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBOA) on June 6, 2023:

  1. VAR-2023-13- All or part of Tax Map 0059-Parcel 094 and a part of Tax Map 0063- Parcel 012. A request from Arglass for a Variance to Table 4.01.02 (E) of the ULDC as it pertains to standards for building location. The subject property is located at 1 Arglass Road, Valdosta, Georgia in a M-2 (Heavy Manufacturing) zoning district.

In the minutes, Trinni Amiot explains for Lowndes County, “Arglass needs a second furnace. The only way for the bank lending officer, to support that is for it to be on its own parcel. What they’re suggesting is to create a second parcel, put the furnace on that with zero lot lines, and then it’ll meet the requirements of the lending company. What they’re suggesting is to create a second parcel, put the furnace on that with zero lot lines, and then it’ll meet the requirements of the lending company. It’s on M-2 surrounded by E-A. Those black lines are the current parcel lines. Now, those will be reconfigured. The expansion of the Arglass will more than double the footprint of the existing facility and includes the second furnace. The lending agent requires that the furnace is on the side of the parcel. To maintain efficient operations, the new expansion must be connected to the existing facility and the variance request is for zero lot lines between the two tra[cts].”

There was apparently a map of the proposed new plant area in the ZBOA packet, which I have requested from Lowndes County.

Lowndes County parcel 0059-094 is the current site of the plant in 80.93 acres owned by the Valdosta-Lowndes Industrial Authority. Parcel 0063-012 is the much larger parcel owned by LANGDALE CAPITAL ASSETS INC from which the plant parcel was split out in 2016. Continue reading →

From pipelines to renewable energy and efficiency –Sierra Club 2017-08-29

“Once the court officially returns the matter to FERC, the pipeline should cease operations while FERC undertakes the new analysis,” wrote Elly Benson, lead attorney for the case Sierra Club just won against Sabal Trail.

She summed up: ”Instead of sacrificing our communities and environment to build unnecessary pipelines that “set up surefire profits” for pipeline companies at the expense of captive ratepayers, the focus should be on transitioning to clean renewable energy and energy efficiency—especially in the Sunshine State. Forcing federal agencies to grapple with the true climate impacts of dirty fossil fuel projects is a big step in the right direction.”

She leads off this fourth in a WWALS news roundup series (1, 2, 3) about that case, followed by Gordon Rogers, Flint Riverkeeper, another party to the case.

WWALS is not a party to that case and does not speak for the parties, so I can be a cheerleader for them. Shut it down! Let the sun rise!

How many pipelines do we want? None! When do we want it? Never!
How many pipelines do we want? None! When do we want them? Never! —WWALS at the Sabal Trail Suwannee River crossing, 15 August 2015.

Court suggests FERC is derelict of duty about pipelines including Sabal Trail

Two judges accused FERC of not doing its duty. At stake: shutting down Sabal Trail, and maybe reforming FERC, in oral arguments today on Sierra Club, Flint Riverkeeper, and Chattachoochee Riverkeeper v. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Case No. 16-1329 in the U.S. DC Court of Appeals.

Lena Moffit, Sierra Club Florida News, 18 April 2017, Sierra Club attorneys argue against Sabal Trail gas pipeline at DC Circuit Court of Appeals,

Judge [Judith W.] Rogers said at one point to the FERC lawyer, regarding their need to assess the full climate impacts of the project, “So, FERC just doesn’t have to do it’s duty because it thinks someone else will?”

Ellen M. Gilmer, E&E News, 18 April 2017, Judge slams FERC’s climate review,

[Judge Thomas B.] Griffith also appeared skeptical of FERC’s position, asking Continue reading →

Videos: Suwannee BOCC backs down against Sabal Trail 2015-12-10

They did fix the two typos, but they didn’t approve or send the letter, as you can see in their own video. Here’s more discussion of why they should send such a letter, and pass another resolution.

For more details, see previous blog post and Carl McKinney, Suwannee Democrat, 10 Dec 2015, County not sending pipeline opposition letter.

Regarding Commissioner Gamble Wainwright’s comment that “my business depends increasingly on energy” OK, but “energy is going to cost more and more money”, sorry, not so. See Continue reading →

Suwannee BOCC backs down against Sabal Trail 2015-12-10

Chairman Bashaw cited “economic impact” and backed down, according to Debra Johnson by telephone and Bridge broken at river and Carl McKinney on twitter. SBOCC meets again Tuesday evening, and people may want to tell them what they think about this.

Debra says Sessions also backed down, and one of them referred to natural gas as a “bridge fuel”, an old position Sierra Club abandoned years ago after realizing methane is a bridge to nowhere, because it is a worse greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Apparently they talked to somebody named Evans (presumably Mark R. Evans) of the Army Corps Jacksonville office and somebody from Orlando, presumably a Sabal Trail contractor.

So after calling an emergency meeting and drafting an excellent letter the Suwannee County Board of Commissioners fell for misinformation from fracked methane proponents and backed down.

A bridge to nowhere: methane emissions and the greenhouse gas footprint of natural gas, Continue reading →