Indiana Citizens Skeptical of Trash Incinerator

- by Mitchell Kirk, June 26, 2013. Source: Pharos-Tri­bune 

A group of Logans­port cit­i­zens is hold­ing a ques­tion-and-answer ses­sion with ener­gy, envi­ron­men­tal and busi­ness lead­ers tonight to dis­cuss the city’s pow­er plant project.

“Our goal is to fos­ter dis­cus­sion among key peo­ple in the com­mu­ni­ty who may not yet be com­mit­ted to the Pyrolyz­er (trash-to-elec­tric­i­ty) pro­pos­al and would like more infor­ma­tion on low­er­ing elec­tric rates now,” said Mer­cedes Brugh, who orga­nized the event, in a statement.

The pan­el will include Mor­ton Mar­cus, retired direc­tor of the Indi­ana Busi­ness Research Cen­ter; Bradley Angel, exec­u­tive direc­tor of San Fran­cis­co-based Green­ac­tion for Health and Envi­ron­men­tal Jus­tice; and Mike Ewall, founder and direc­tor of Philadel­phia-based Ener­gy Jus­tice Network. 

The free event is spon­sored by the Cit­i­zens’ Alliance for Respon­si­ble Ener­gy, or CARE, which a press release describes as “an inde­pen­dent group of Cass Coun­ty res­i­dents con­cerned about the fis­cal and pub­lic health impact” of the city’s pow­er plant project.

The event will air on WSAL AM 1230 and on the Com­cast local access cable chan­nel in Logansport.

The city issued a request for pro­pos­als last Novem­ber in search of a way to address its future ener­gy needs, which offi­cials said would even­tu­al­ly require spend­ing mil­lions of dol­lars in upgrades in order to con­tin­ue with its cur­rent elec­tric­i­ty dis­tri­b­u­tion and fees that will be imposed on coal-burn­ing plants by the Envi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion Agency.

Ear­li­er this year, Logans­port City Coun­cil vot­ed in favor of nego­ti­at­ing with Pyrolyz­er LLC, out of Boca Raton, Fla., to build a plant pow­ered by refuse-derived fuel for a cost that has ranged from $400 mil­lion to $566 million.

The devel­op­ment of the plant will be fund­ed by pri­vate investors who will own the plant before trans­fer­ring it to the city for a peri­od of time spec­i­fied in a build-oper­ate-trans­fer agree­ment, the details of which are cur­rent­ly being worked out in nego­ti­a­tions that are expect­ed to go into October.

Although investors will be fund­ing the devel­op­ment, the city has spent more than $1.5 mil­lion on con­sult­ing fees for the project. Logans­port May­or Ted Franklin has said he plans to pur­sue reim­burse­ment for the con­sult­ing fees dur­ing the negotiations.

The project has been the source of much debate, with packed pub­lic meet­ings, a vocif­er­ous Pharos-Tri­bune pub­lic forum sec­tion and a law­suit cur­rent­ly await­ing a response in both the Court of Appeals of Indi­ana and Indi­ana Supreme Court.

Logans­port Coun­cil­man Chuck LaD­ow, who vot­ed against Pyrolyzer’s pro­pos­al, said while he admires the the­o­ry behind Pyrolyzer’s process, he has reser­va­tions because the com­pa­ny has nev­er attempt­ed a project of this scale.

“Any­thing we can do to edu­cate the peo­ple about the future poten­tial pow­er pos­si­bil­i­ties in Logans­port is a good thing,” he said of the Q‑and‑A this evening. “Being com­plete­ly trans­par­ent is the key. I don’t see any­body los­ing if every­body is com­plete­ly forth­right and hon­est with what what can be accomplished.”