Center for Public Integrity takes stance against ReVenture-like energy plants

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Wednesday, April 27, 2011

News Center for Public Integrity takes stance against ReVenture-like energy plants

Posted By Rhiannon Fionn-Bowman on Wed, Apr 27, 2011 at 8:02 AM

The Center for Public Integrity is taking a stance on biomass energy plants, like the proposed waste-to-energy-incinerator-gasification plant that's been proposed in west Charlotte. (Read our post about that plant, which is part of the proposed ReVenture Eco-Industrial Park, from yesterday.)

From the iWatch News site:

Just 12 miles apart in the belly of California, a pair of 12.5 megawatt power plants fouled the air with a toxic brew of pollutants — nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, ammonia and particulate matter. They released thick plumes and visible dust. They failed to install proper monitoring equipment, and failed to file reports on their emissions.

Another instance of coal plants polluting the environment?

Not quite. These are biomass power plants, part of the so-called green wave of the future.

Pitched as a smarter, environmentally-friendly way to produce power, the electricity generating stations are spreading nationwide, spurred by hundreds of millions in stimulus dollars and big muscle support from members of Congress and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Generating electricity by burning trees, construction debris, poultry litter and agricultural mass has become a key element in a larger push to develop sources of alternative energy, and popular because it’s been around for decades and is reliable.

Yet green energy is not always so green.

Worries about the potential health effects have sent ripples through communities where new plants are being built. The industry and its allies in Washington, meanwhile, have managed to delay for three years finalizing a study into the legitimacy of claims that biomass pollution fouls the air and harms health , perhaps even contributing to asthma and heart disease.

Biomass plants emit nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide, though in lower quantities than at coal plants, the EPA said, and in varying amounts depending upon the type of biomass burned and generator used.

The Biomass Power Association — whose slogan is “natural energy, naturally” — stresses environmental and consumer benefits that include “improving forest health, protecting air quality, and offering the most dependable renewable energy source.”

Such assertions, coupled with big pots of federal money made available to spur the industry’s expansion, have fueled a wave of construction from Georgia to Massachusetts to Washington state — along with a strong reaction from citizens.

Many communities, already wary of earlier industrial growth that fouled their water and air, are pushing back, even as Washington opts to aggressively promote the industry.

Read the rest of the post, by Ronnie Green, here.

Learn more about the Center for Public Integrity here.

Now, remember: ReVenture's plant is a hybrid of incineration and gasification technology, so it may not be quite the same as the plants mentioned in the above post ... but it's not all that different, either.

Mecklenburg County is looking at signing a multimillion dollar, 20-year trash deal with ReVenture. That trash is what's going to be incinerated/gasified in the company's energy plant. As I pointed out yesterday, the people who live near the plant, and its tentacles — Foxhole landfill and the sorting facility off North Graham Street, want some reassurances that their traffic, roads and health won't be negatively impacted by the plant's activities.