Biomass Plant Permit Challenged (DOCUMENTS)

 Some two dozen Gulf County residents and a conservation group have filed a petition for an administrative law hearing regarding the air emission permit for the Northwest Florida Renewable Energy Center (http://video.onset.freedom.com/starfl/kyiohi-psjbiomasspetitionfinal21810.doc

On Jan. 27 the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) advertised its intent to issue an air emissions permit for the woody biomass plant proposed for the old Material Transfer Industries site along the Intracoastal Canal.

A stormwater management permit for the plant has also been advertised.

The notice of intent on the air emission permit triggered a public comment window and, in the case of the Port St. Joe plant, a petition for an administrative hearing to contest the issuance of the permit.

According to a spokesperson in the FDEP Office of General Counsel, the agency has 15 days upon receipt of the petition to review it to determine if it meets legal standards. If not, the petition is dismissed with the parties given a set time frame to amend the petition to make it legally sufficient.

The spokesperson indicated they had not yet seen the petition.

Once the petition is found to be legally sufficient, it would be forwarded to the Department of Administrative Hearings (DOAH) for assignment to a judge.

“We are trying to ensure the biomass combustion plant proposed for Gulf County gets a full and careful review to ensure (carbon dioxide) emissions are not ignored,” said Meg Sheehan of the Massachusetts-based The Biomass Accountability Project.

Sheehan is an attorney and filed the petition.

“We don’t feel the DEP review was thorough enough,” Sheehan added. “The question is what is the plant going to be producing as far as emissions? There are a lot of assumptions about the fuel to be used. There is nothing binding about fuel in the permit.

“There are also assumptions about how they would secure the wood and sustain a supply of clean wood. They say it is carbon neutral and that is a fraud. It has been debunked by current science.”

From the arrival of Biomass Gas and Electric, a Georgia-based company which has proposed to build the $160 million plant, company officials insisted they would use only woody biomass – primarily forest residue and fast-growing grasses – to power the plant.

That would make the plant carbon neutral, company officials contend, and the plant is already under contract to supply electricity to Progress Energy.

However, the petition for an administrative hearing on the air emission permit disputes the contention the plant is carbon neutral, arguing that in terms of emission tonnage per kilowatt hour of energy produced, the NWFREC would produce more carbon dioxide and particulate pollution than two coal-fired plants in the Northwest Florida region.

The petition for an administrative hearing is part of a larger movement questioning various claims pertaining to biomass plants around the country.

While the state of Florida and the federal government champion biomass as a renewable energy source – Gov. Charlie Crist has said biomass is a key component to reducing greenhouse gas emissions in Florida by 20 percent over the next 10 years – a grassroots movement has taken shape to challenge some of the claims behind biomass technology.

The actions surrounding the plant in Port St. Joe adhere to a similar evolution, with elected and economic development officials championing the Port St. Joe biomass plant.

Meanwhile at least two dozen residents express concern about air pollution from the plant and impacts in a county with higher than normal cancer rates and one that has finally seen the demise of the paper mill and Arizona Chemical plant which pumped considerable emissions into the air.

In significant part, the push against the Port St. Joe plant builds on the momentum of critics who assailed proposals by the same company for a similar plant in Tallahassee, the resulting controversy forcing BG&E to look elsewhere to build.

Dr. Tom Termotto, a Tallahassee-based physician and critic of claims about biomass pollution, said, “Port St. Joe is a precedent we want to set. We love Port St. Joe and that’s why we are doing this.”

Due to a loophole in the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) guidelines, Sheehan said, biomass plants are not subject to the same air emission standards as other power plants, such as coal-fired plants.

“And they are not counting, in the case of the plant in Port St. Joe, the emissions from truck traffic for the fuel supply to the plant or to remove the ash waste from the plant,” Sheehan said. “And they are not figuring in the running of heavy equipment to cut the trees or collect the forest residue to power the plant.”

Sheehan added that many companies across the country are pressing to permit biomass plants before next month when, due to a federal court ruling, the EPA is proposing to issue standards on carbon dioxide emission from mobile sources and then stationary sources such as power plants, including biomass.

“The companies that want to build these biomass plants are targeting small rural communities where people are not as familiar with these kind of plants,” Sheehan said, noting proposals to build plants in Ohio, Indiana, Washington state and Massachusetts.

She also noted that a significant amount of federal taxpayer money is being pushed into biomass plants, be it through a cash grant program through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) or a loan guarantee program through the U.S. Department of Energy.

Officials for the NWFREC indicated recently that they are pursuing funding through the Department of Energy’s loan program.

 “This is a fraud on the American people,” Sheehan said. “These plants should be subjected to scrutiny because of the immediate health concerns.”

Several of those who signed the petition and were interviewed for this story noted that the economic development benefits – 30 or so permanent jobs at the plant with a ripple effect of another 75-100 jobs on the fuel procurement end on top of 180 construction jobs – are outweighed by the potential for health problems stemming from the emissions from the plant.

The American Lung Association, in response to a move to place a similar biomass plant in Gretna, one of more than a dozen plants in North Florida under various stages of permitting, stated that the organization had serious reservations about the carbon dioxide and particulate emissions from biomass plants.

Those signing onto the petition for a formal administrative hearing on the air emissions permit for the biomass plant proposed for Port St. Joe include Marilyn Blackwell, Wayne Childers, Margery Stitt, Sally Malone, Help Save the Apalachicola River Group, Inc., Victor Ramos, Janet Reinhardt, Robert Reinhardt, Joseph Romanelli, Marie Steele, Harry L. Paul, Zebe Schmitt, Denise Williams, Effie Browning, Landy Luther, Nancy Luther, Mark Schultz, Mary Schultz, Gloria Austin, Jonathan Hooper, Debbie Hooper, Joseph Heslin, Nicole Widdersham and Bobby Cheek.