PART 7 of 7
By
Kelleigh Nelson
July 22, 2012
NewsWithViews.com
In the February 29, 2012 meeting of the Tennessee General Assembly Conservation and Environment Committee, Representative Andy Holt requested of Chairman Hawks that Ed Pitts be allowed to speak. Ed is the Chairman of the Perry County Tea Party and Chairman of the 7th Congressional Coalition District. He fully understands what these codification bills would do. He and Woody met because Ed was there to speak to the concern of water rights. Here's what Ed said in the very few minutes he was allowed to speak by Chairman Hawk:
"I put together a presentation here, but I'm going to make it a little more brief than that. I have had personal experience with these mitigation programs. I've ranched a good deal of my life. I have friends in California where this all started. They've lost their entire ranch to this Wetland Mitigation. It started out somewhat similar to what they're presenting here and EPA is involved in this. As EPA goes on with this, their regulatory outreach becomes greater and greater. They pretty much do what they want to do in the end. It cost a personal friend of mine his ranch, they just took it. They had a nice ranch right on the ocean, 1,700 acres. It was a beautiful place and the EPA came in and just mitigated, actually they used the eminent domain issue to just take it from him. All because it was wetland, and they found a bird on it. Having said all that, that's just a personal story; it's not the real issue.
The real issue we have with this is that it is Agenda 21 encroaching upon our state. Before we go making little tin foil hats and all that, I would like to bring to your attention, I have four bills in front of me that are Agenda 21 that are before the Tennessee House and Senate right now. In addition to that, I have a document that infers that the National Republican Committee will take up Agenda 21 on its platform."
Hawk stops Ed and tells him to stay on the piece of legislation (SB2211).
Ed says, "This legislation does one thing that we really oppose. As Representative Sheila Butt pointed out, it sets up an entity that is separate and apart from the government to which public funds, power, and property is being forwarded to. This entity works outside and is not responsible to anyone that we can tell so far. I'm pleased to hear that the comptroller is on this. As far as we can tell, at least they're not responsible to this body inasmuch as what they do with the funds and properties they receive from the public. This is not a healthy government situation. With that I will conclude, we have more people I understand who wish to speak."
Republican Representative Andy Holt, House District 76, has spoken publically about these In-Lieu-Fees, and calls this extortion. The road builders benefit, the pipe builders benefit, anyone with a huge project to develop, a big developer benefits, but the little guy suffers. Andy Holt says he's called this extortion in every meeting he's had about it, but it's only extortion if you're the little guy. If you're a big developer, it's the cost of doing business.
The entire practice has been exposed and is under fiscal review now. Wolf River Airport took TDEC and the In-Lieu-Fee Program to state court, a decision was rendered, but the decision was suspended. The state court judge agreed with us, but suspended the ruling, knowing it was going to federal court. That is when our Governor stepped in through Woody's opponent, Sen. Mark Norris, with SB2211, which would codify (legalize) these illegal activities.
Woody and his brother went through all of this, they went through the flooding, through the letters to Tennessee Department of Environmental Conservation, many legal conversations, and nobody would do anything. He says, "We were flooded in exactly the same manner in which our engineers told us we would be flooded."
Governor Bill Haslam
According to a conversation real estate agent Ronnie Lee had with Woody Degan, Ronnie met Mr. Adair and became his “fisherman,” bringing Homebuilders to meet with Adair regarding building homes in the 4,200 home planned development of Piperton Hills.
He requested Woody and Reg to go and talk to Mr. Adair about the airport, and fitting it into the model of this development. Ronnie found some excellent road-builders with a new substrate composite for road construction. He also brought in Jon Albright, now with CB Richard Ellis, Memphis, (formerly with Investec Realty) to manage the sale and development of the corporate/industrial land around the rail yard. Woody thinks he solicited Jon Albright because he needed some separation in the deal as well as Albright’s expertise. Woody says, "Albright is a fine man, really top shelf." Adair told Woody and Reg two years ago that there were 36 corporations ready to sign letters and build. Of course, Adair will once again do all of the dirt work, roads, and building that he can. The question is still, "Just WHERE is all of that water going to go?"
Finally,
Ronnie Lee was also the initial contact to bring Governor Haslam down
to William Adair. He told Woody the entire story of how, in attempting
to meet the Governor, he met Haslam’s female assistant in the parking
lot at a venue where Haslam was speaking, and got his entre’ from
there. Haslam visited William Adair at the site, in the state car -- according
to Adair -- to cut the deal to provide diesel fuel to the train yard.
Remember the two deals Adair cut when he sold the land to Norfolk Southern?
One was the dirt work and the other is diesel fuel to the trains. Haslam
is now providing the diesel to the trains, and building a Pilot Oil/Flying
J truck stop at the corner of MS Hwy 302 and US72. Just those two deals
alone would result in $25 to $40 million net profit per year to Haslam's
Pilot Oil/Flying J.
Quite obviously Haslam doesn't want anything to stop this intermodal facility.
He introduced HR2349 and SB2211, and had Norris and Hawk carry these bills
for him so these large developments could continue unimpeded from State
and Federal restrictions.
Of special interest is the story that came out on February 3, 2012, in the Commercial Appeal in Memphis:
"Republican Gov. Bill Haslam's administration has fired two top officials at the Department of Environment and Conservation, while a third has announced his retirement. The department said in a statement today that the changes are "designed to streamline our structure and build management efficiencies."
Changes
are to include the creation of a single water resources division encompassing
the department's pollution control, water supply and groundwater management
programs, according to the statement. The fired officials are
Mike Apple, head of the department's solid waste management division,
and Paul E. Davis, who was in charge of water pollution control.
Meanwhile, Mike Carlton is retiring as director of Tennessee state parks.
(emphasis mine)
The Tennessean newspaper first reported the TDEC shakeup on its website this afternoon. Apple told the paper he had been called in to the office of deputy commissioner Shari Meghreblian earlier this week, and that he was given no explanation for the firing other than that "they wanted to make a change." The Governor's office deferred questions about the changes back to the department."
Makes one kinda wonder, doesn't it, just why these folks were fired by Governor Haslam. Shortly thereafter, on February 15, 2012, HB2349 is discussed in the House Conservation and Environment Committee in order to legalize the illegal activities. Woody and his brother Reg had already been discussing HB2349, when Haslam fired the TDEC people. Woody heard that once Haslam realized he wasn't going to get the bill out of the House Environment and Conservation Committee, he "topped off TDEC."
What Needs to Be Done
What Woody and his brother, Reg have found out is that this is a UN Agenda 21 issue. Ultimately, this is stripping of the rights of the citizens. In Tennessee, the code says we as citizens' all own the waterways of the State, the lakes, the ponds, the streams, the wetlands, the aquifers, all the waters.
The codifying of the "In Lieu Fee" program and putting it in the state code as was tried in SB2211 and HR2349 would have put all water under the control of the state and eliminated our rights. Never before had Woody and Reg heard about Agenda 21.
Woody says, "In short, Agenda 21 is the United Nations agenda for the 21st century for sustainable development. Chances are everyone has an office of sustainable development in their city and/or county. We have several right here in Memphis. Sustainable Development means, let's slow things down in the United States and stop this urban sprawl (suburbs and rural areas) and let's take the rights of the people away. Now this is not mandatory, they don't come in and snatch your rights away from you. What they do, as in the case of the flooding of our airport, is the authorities come in with stimulus grant money or a bill to codify something that seems like it is a good idea. In doing so and accepting that money it gets into the regulations of whatever they're trying to do. It may be land use control, or it may be water.
In the case of Memphis right now they have some groups that are studying the use of the land around the new Memphis loop which is an I-69 bypass, the I-69 Canada to Mexico Highway (this is the North American Union folks). Agenda 21 is specifically the agenda for the United Nations and it comes in through grant money and codifications of the law like what I am going through, and this will take your water rights away. Other things will take your land use away, or it will take your property ownership rights away. In 15 to 25 years we'll come down to the level of the rest of the world so we can all be equalized in this one big globally controlled Communitarian society. This is America! We have individual rights! We have the right that is God given to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. What I argue is, LIFE IS WATER and confirming that, Tennessee says, we all own the waterways.
Our Governor is a big oil governor. His family owns Pilot Oil/Flying J. Governor Haslam's goal in this deal is to supply diesel fuel for the trains at this Norfolk Southern intermodal rail yard. So when we got our suspended decision at the state level, the attorney for the Governor stepped in with SB2211. Senator Norris who put it forth for the Governor is a petroleum marketing attorney and he is my opponent in this race. That's why I'm running in this race, because Senator Norris moved to sell out the water rights of the citizens of the State of Tennessee so he could do an oil deal. "
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Woody is running for Senate District 32 in Tennessee. This is the kind of man we need representing the citizens of Tennessee. In fact, we need a slew of Woody Degan's to represent the citizens of this state in order to protect our unalienable God-given rights. When I think of my parents and grandparents and the America I grew up in, tears run down my cheeks for what we have lost and what we once were...the greatest nation on earth. I want her back, and so should every God fearing and freedom loving American.
Winston Churchill said;"The inherent vice of Capitalism is the unequal sharing of its blessings; the inherent vice of Socialism is the equal sharing of its miseries." Help us keep the America of shared blessings. We can do it with men like Woody Degan. The battle requires money. Please give what you can to Woody's campaign, even if you can only afford a few dollars. Support Woody Degan for Senator of the 32nd District. His website.
Click here for part -----> 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7,
© 2012 Kelleigh Nelson - All Rights Reserved
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Kelleigh Nelson has been researching the Christian right and their connections to the left, the new age, and cults since 1975. Formerly an executive producer for three different national radio talk show hosts, she was adept at finding and scheduling a variety of wonderful guests for her radio hosts. She and her husband live in Knoxville, TN, and she has owned her own wholesale commercial bakery since 1990. Prior to moving to Tennessee, Kelleigh was marketing communications and advertising manager for a fortune 100 company in Ohio. Born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, she was a Goldwater girl with high school classmate, Hillary Rodham, in Park Ridge, Illinois. Kelleigh is well acquainted with Chicago politics and was working in downtown Chicago during the 1968 Democratic convention riots. Kelleigh is presently the secretary for Rocky Top Freedom Campaign, a strong freedom advocate group.
Website: www.rockytopfreedom.com
E-Mail: Proverbs133@bellsouth.net
