Tank farm conclave at Mobile Government Plaza -- Wed. 11/19/14 The yellow vests of the tank farmers were the dominant fashion theme of the audience...seated at table in front were members of the old citizens tank farm advisory committee, new planning commission subcommittee on same topic, also a few lawyers and bureaucrats...one of the committee members (Gary Cowles) wore yellow vest to display his loyalties...audience told to keep quiet..mittee members spoke mostly to each other rather than to the crowd...so hard to hear everything clearly...most of the discussion was about risk vs benefits of tank farms...some about procedures for approving them via planning commission and city council...much of this discussion centered on Africatown, site of the biggest proposed tank farm (so huge its really a tank city)...although nobody around the head table lives there or has any evident personal or family connection with the area...(btw the informal name change is nearly official now--all speakers called it Africatown, not Plateau)...very few remarks were made about the hazards of placing such immense volumes of crude oil in proximity to the delta and the bay, and some of those few sounded dismissive...no remarks were made about hurricane winds and storm surges as threats to the integrity of the tanks...no remarks were made about the fate of the north Alabama potential tar sands mining zone if tanks are built on the Mobile waterfront to facilitate the export of that tar sands oil...no remarks were made about the fate of the worlds climate if Mobile, among other places, continues to expand facilities welcoming the arrival of fossil fuels whose combustion will dump ever more greenhouse gasses into the air...at some future meeting the public will be allowed to speak.
Posted on: Thu, 20 Nov 2014 23:06:11 +0000
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