Biomass power outperforms carbon capture technology for GHG Reduction

"Overall, producing electricity from biomass instead of fossil fuels with CO2 sequestration, can be a cost effective solution in helping to reducing GHG emissions as well as reducing fossil energy consumption from electricity generation. This also avoids the concern about the fate of sequestered CO2 and its long term environmental effects."

http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy04osti/32575.pdf

COP Climate Change Conference

I have been asked by Businesswire to serve as a renewable energy industry expert for media questions and inquiries concerning the Copenhagan Climate Change Conference and President Obama's pledge of U.S. support for its climate change initiatives...

December 08, 2009 12:35 PM Eastern Time
Experts Available to Discuss COP15, Climate Change Conference

--(BUSINESS WIRE)--ExpertSource:

TOPIC: President Obama changed his schedule and will attend the climate summit in Copenhagen on its last scheduled day, according to an article by The Los Angeles Times. Obama pushed back his arrival date at the conference, to coincide with other world leaders, in order to play a more active role to help reach an agreement. The White House has stated that the United States will pay “its fair share” to assist developing countries transition to low-emission energy sources.

EXPERTS: ExpertSource can offer several highly qualified experts to comment on this story:

Valerie Davis, EnviroMedia Social Marketing
Whether sounding a warning to greenwashers on NBC’s TODAY show or spending all day in a landfill to show her dismay at the state of U.S. recycling efforts, Valerie Davis passionately speaks out about injecting ethics and authenticity into companies' sustainability programs and communications efforts. Davis co-founded Tuerff-Davis EnviroMedia Inc. in 1997, as the nation's first full-service advertising and public relations firm dedicated solely to environmental and public health campaigns, and helped found America Recycles Day with Vice President Al Gore as honorary chair. Among Davis’ key client and project accomplishments: leading the Don’t Mess with Texas campaign to victory in the America’s Favorite Slogan Competition, beating Nike’s “Just Do It” and “Got Milk?”; and overseeing a water-saving education campaign which helped curb projected daily peak-day water use within one region by an estimated 200 million gallons a day. In January 2008, Davis was interviewed by the TODAY show from the Federal Trade Commission's "Eco in the Market" workshop kicking off the regulatory review of its "Green Guides" for environmental marketing standards. It was at this FTC workshop that EnviroMedia launched GreenwashingIndex.com in partnership with the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Advertising. GreenwashingIndex.com is the world's first online forum that allows consumers to post and rate real green ads from television spots to billboards and print ads. Davis is a regular speaker at water, energy, solid waste, health and advertising conferences, including the National Symposium on Market Transformation for the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy in Washington, D.C. She is a winner of the American Advertising Federation's Silver Medal Award for outstanding contributions to advertising and furthering the industry's standards, creative excellence and responsibility in areas of social concern. Davis is a board member of the Children's Environmental Health Institute. Davis is currently attending COP15 in Copenhagen.
PR Contact: Kelli Johnson
Email: kjohnson@enviromedia.com
Telephone: 512-225-5854

Kevin Tuerff, EnviroMedia Social Marketing
Kevin Tuerff is leading the charge for ethical green marketing. He is the co-founder of The Greenwashing Index, a watchdog Web site created in partnership with the University of Oregon that invites consumers to post, rate and scrutinize green advertising. Those efforts have been highlighted in Brandweek and Time magazine. Tuerff is co-founder of the first marketing firm in the country to focus solely on the environment and public health. He is also co-founder of Green Canary Sustainability Consulting and a frequent guest lecturer on marketing and ethics at venues such as The American Academy of Advertising, the University of Oregon and at The University of Texas at Austin. Among Tuerff’s key client and project accomplishments: founding and launching America Recycles Day in 1997, a nationwide public-private partnership celebrated annually; overseeing the Dell, Inc. electronics recycling strategy and stakeholder engagement; and directing advertising campaigns for Green Mountain Energy Company, a supplier of clean electricity from wind and water. Tuerff is passionate about public service for health and environmental causes. He serves as an elected director of his county’s water utility district. In a life-changing experience, Tuerff’s received extraordinary kindness from people in Gander, Newfoundland on September 11, 2001 when his plane landed unexpectedly and stranded him with hundreds of other travelers. That led him to create Pay It Forward 9/11, the nationwide movement that motivates people to spend every September 11th performing random acts of kindness for strangers. Tuerff is currently attending COP15 in Copenhagen.
Research and Publications: Greendetectives.net, Environmental Leader (regular columnist), Harvard Business Publishing, San Jose Mercury News Special Contributor; Speaker, “Sustainability: Turning Responsibility into Opportunity,” Green Marketing, American Apparel & Footwear Association Conference; Speaker, “Environmental Sustainability & Compliance,” Retail Industry Leaders Association Conference (2009)
PR Contact: Kelli Johnson
Email: kjohnson@enviromedia.com
Telephone: 512-225-5854

Michael B. Bartoszek, Laidlaw Energy
Mr. Bartoszek is currently President and CEO of Laidlaw Energy Group, Inc., Homeland Laidlaw Energy, Inc. and their various affiliates, a leading developer of biomass-energy power plants in the Northeastern United States. Mr. Bartoszek founded Laidlaw Energy in 2003 to pursue significant opportunities in the renewable energy sector, following a successful venture operating natural gas fired power assets and more than a decade in the securities industry where he held numerous positions, including acting as an advisor to independent power producers and on other major capital projects. Laidlaw is currently developing major independent renewable energy projects in New York, New Hampshire and Massachusetts which are carbon-neutral, thus creating no greenhouse gas emissions to contribute to global warming.
Email: info@laidlawenergy.com
Telephone: 212-480-9884

Adam Browning, Vote Solar
Mr. Browning, executive director, co-founded the Vote Solar Initiative in 2002. Vote Solar is a national non-profit organization working at the state, federal and local level to implement programs and policies that allow strong solar markets to grow - and pave the way for a transition to a renewable energy economy. Prior to Vote Solar, Adam spent eight years with the Environmental Protection Agency where he ran an award-winning pollution prevention program.
Email: adam@votesolar.org

Telephone: 415-817-5062
ExpertSource cannot guarantee the immediate availability of these experts or their familiarity with this specific issue.

ExpertSource provides academic and industry experts to the media at no charge. Journalists are encouraged to submit queries to ExpertSource when seeking experts on specific subjects. An online registration form is available at http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.businesswire.com%2F&esheet=6116396&lan=en_US&anchor=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.businesswire.com%2F&index=2&md5=029df852a07a22261937076d3c7ec06f.
Contacts
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Permalink: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20091208006214/en

Hate to say I told you so, but I told you so...

This story is scheduled to be released on the news wire at 7am, but it appears the Berlin Daily Sun released its copy on their web site at midnight. So in the interest of full disclosure I'm putting the story up here pending the release of the news release in the morning.

In a nutshell, these results are so awesome they even exceeded our expectations.

Laidlaw’s Berlin Biomass Energy Project Receives Favorable Results

NEW YORK—(Business Wire)—December 4, 2009, Laidlaw Berlin BioPower, LLC announced today that it has received confirmation of existing adequate interconnection capacity on the local transmission system. The confirmation was provided by ISO – New England, the entity charged with oversight of the local power grid, who conducted an independent “Interconnection Feasibility Study”. With this important development, Laidlaw’s 66 megawatt biomass-energy facility took another important step forward.

Results indicate that Laidlaw’s Berlin BioPower facility will be able to connect to the transmission system with minimal upgrades estimated to cost less than $1 million. The interconnection study took into account all existing facilities as well as projects currently under development and already in the ISO-New England queue.

Laidlaw President and CEO Michael Bartoszek was quoted stating “We are extremely pleased with the results of the study as it confirms our long-standing position that there is sufficient capacity on the system for multiple renewable energy projects.”

For further information on Laidlaw please see http://www.laidlawenergy.com/.

This communication contains statements expressing expectations of future events and/or results which may include, without limitation, statements concerning anticipated financial performance, business prospects, technological developments, potential markets, new products, research and development activities and similar matters. Such statements constitute forward-looking statements made pursuant to the Safe Harbor provision of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements based on future expectations rather than historical facts are forward looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties, Laidlaw provides no assurance that such statements will prove to be correct. Laidlaw undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

UPDATE: For those who have been asking about our EFSEC application, this was something that we needed to finish first. The full report should be included with our application.

Just back from Boston

Very productive meeting with political supporters regarding our Mass
biomass/solar combined heat and power project.

Charlie Bass on MSNBC

Here's a member of our board, former congressman Charlie Bass, on MSNBC on Friday 11/13 talking about the economy.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31510813/#33883994

Update

I spent the latter half of last week in New Hampshire. It seemed like we had almost the entire joint venture company present for meetings at various times. It was a good opportunity for us to work on integrating our organizations via the JV.

The main point of the trip was to do a review of the EFSEC permit for our Berlin project. We went page by page through the permit and I am very pleased with the work. There are a few outstanding points where we need data from external sources, so while we are waiting for that data we will work on finishing up the remaining points and hopefully file once we have the data we need. Everyone just take a deep breath. This permit will be filed.

We have also made some great progress in other areas related to the Berlin project. We have completed our biomass fuel availability study and also completed our interconnection feasibility study. We will release the results in the near future, but I can tell you that I am pleased with the results of both studies.

With respect to other projects I believe both of our Massachusetts projects are on track to be consummated prior to the end of the year. So, what that means in practical terms is I believe we will execute a lease to take control of one of the projects and execute a purchase and sales agreement to purchase the other, subject to the seller's satisfaction of certain closing conditions.

In terms of new business, we are exploring a number of opportunities for new projects, including a former pulp mill similar to Berlin, but in the midwest. I think this project may have a lot of promise. We have also recently added to our staff focusing on new business development and new project analysis with the addition of Lou Bravakis' son Alex Bravakis. Alex has been consulting with us for a while and it is good to now have him officially on our team. Alex will be working out of our New York office.

In other news, the Yankees won the World Series in case any of you Red Sox fans missed that.

Laidlaw Energy Announces New Combined Biomass and Solar Power Project

NEW YORK—(Business Wire)—October 19, 2009—Laidlaw Biopower, LLC (“Laidlaw”), an affiliate of Laidlaw Energy Group, Inc. (Ticker “LLEG”), announced today that it has executed a Memorandum of Understanding with an affiliate of a Massachusetts based private equity firm to initially lease and subsequently acquire an operating oil and gas fired power plant in Southeastern Massachusetts. The plant is situated in an industrial park and currently serves the thermal energy needs of a leading developer and manufacturer of photovoltaic products and technology. Laidlaw plans to convert the plant to biomass power to serve the electric and thermal needs of the photovoltaic company, with the balance of the plant’s electricity to be exported to the grid and sold to a local utility pursuant to a long-term contract.

Laidlaw has concurrently executed a letter of intent with the photovoltaic company which specifies the business terms of a contemplated 20 year power purchase agreement that the parties intend to negotiate. Laidlaw intends to make additional details available on the project upon execution of the power purchase and lease agreements.

Laidlaw expects to execute a lease and assume control of the power plant within the next 120 days. The lease will allow Laidlaw to acquire the plant upon receipt of the necessary permits and approvals to operate it as a biomass plant. Upon execution of the contemplated lease, the power plant will continue to be operated for Laidlaw by Veolia Energy (http://www.veoliaenergyna.com/en/) pursuant to an existing O&M Agreement.

An additional and unique element of the project is Laidlaw’s intent to combine solar power with its intended biomass project. Laidlaw intends to install solar panels representing approximately 1.5 megawatts of capacity on the roofs of two of the buildings at the manufacturing facility. The power generated by the solar panels is planned to be used on site, with any excess sold to the grid.

Commenting on the project, Laidlaw President & CEO Michael B. Bartoszek stated “This project is a win-win. Not only does it offer significant environmental benefits by converting a fossil fuel plant to a renewable fuel, it also helps support a leading cleantech company make innovative products to further support the shift to alternative energy.”

The project is expected to developed as part of the joint venture established between Laidlaw and Homeland Renewable Energy (http://www.homelandrenewableenergy.com/), known as Homeland Laidlaw Energy, LLC. (“HLE”), subject to approval of HLE’s Board of Directors.

About Laidlaw Energy Group

Laidlaw Energy is engaged in the development of independent power plants that generate electricity from renewable resources, with a particular emphasis on biomass power. Laidlaw Energy's mission is to build and manage a profitable portfolio of biomass facilities through the development of new facilities and acquisition of existing facilities, and in so doing become the leading supplier of biomass power in the United States. Laidlaw Energy is headquartered in New York, New York. For more information, please visit our website at http://www.laidlawenergy.com/.

This communication contains statements expressing expectations of future events and/or results
which may include, without limitation, statements concerning anticipated financial performance,
business prospects, technological developments, potential markets, new products, research and
development activities and similar matters. Such statements constitute forward-looking
statements made pursuant to the Safe Harbor provision of the Private Securities Litigation
Reform Act of 1995. All statements based on future expectations rather than historical facts are
forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties, and Laidlaw cannot provide assurance that such statements will prove to be correct. Laidlaw undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Rome wasn't built in a day...

The world of micro-cap stocks seems to me to be largely occupied by short-term traders and momentum players. Everyone seems to want everything to happen today...they want the deal to close now, they want the news released today, they want to take their modest gains and move on to the next play. This irks me a bit because I have learned to be a patient person when it comes to business and I think this is a quality that is shared by successful investors. We are lucky to have a number of significant long-term investors who have had their money invested in our company for years and have seen ups and downs in our share price. I recently was emailed the following story, which I think nicely puts in perspective what can happen with a little patience:

You're not going to believe it but this week’s New Yorker notes that Jeff Bezos was one of the early investors in Google. Yes, that Jeff Bezos. Founder of Amazon.com. #33 on last year’s Forbes’ 400 with a net worth of over $8.7 billion.

The story is this - in 1998 when Larry Page’s and Sergey Brin’s Google offices were a Menlo Park, California garage - Bezos invested $250,000 of personal funds into the fledgling search engine in a $1 million follow-on investment round. When Google went public in 2004, that $250,000 investment translated into 3.3 million shares of Google stock. At Google’s IPO that represented a stock share position worth over $280 million! While Bezos does not disclose how many of those shares he still holds, at the current price of Google stock they would represent an investment position of over $1.5 billion.

Why did Bezos invest in Google? In his words, “…There was no business plan…They had a vision. It was a customer-focused point of view.” And more tellingly he adds, “I just fell in love with Larry and Sergey.” In addition to being a tale to which the normal reaction is to just say “wow,” Bezos’ Google investment offers a number of great lessons for aspiring, early stage company investors:

1. He Thought Long Term. Even though Google has been the fastest rocket ship growth company in the history of capitalism, it was still SIX YEARS from Bezo’s investment in the company to liquidity. Private equity overnight successes simply do not exist.

2. He Got In Early. Sure, it would have been great to get into Google at its IPO price of $85/share, especially as the shares are up over 535% since then. But Bezos got in, after adjusting for stock splits, at EIGHT CENTS PER SHARE!Talk about leverage. That translates to a 112,000 percent increase from investment to IPO, and then if he held onto the shares to another 535% on top of that.

3. He Invested in People. At the time of Bezo’s investment, there were a large number of very well-funded and far more successful search engines already on the market. Remember this was 1998 not 1994. Yahoo. Alta Vista. Lycos. Excite. Looksmart. Webcrawler. Infoseek. Inktomi and GoTo to name just a few. But Bezos was attracted to Page and Brin as people, as technologists, as leaders. And obviously their customer-centric focus really tracked the way that Bezos looks at the world and is embodied in the Amazon customer service experience. So while a business opportunity, in its abstract is great, evaluating the people leading a business is a FAR MORE RELEVANT investing best practice.

4. He Took a Shot. For every Jeff Bezos who invested in Google, there are stories of literally dozens of investors that were presented with the opportunity and did not. This of course does not mean that the probability of any early stage private company investor having a Google-like success in their portfolio is anything but very low, but it does mean that it is far greater than the ZERO percent likelihood of success of those who did not invest. As they say, you can’t win if you don’t play.

5. He Got Lucky. As hard as it is for many to accept, luck is a key, and sometimes the key, variable in successful investing

Wood making a comeback as power source?

I find it funny how people are just starting to recognize that you can make energy from biomass considering that along with hydro power it is the most prevalent form of renewable energy in the US and globally. The thing that bugs me about these articles is that they often assume all the plants proposed are going to be built, thus resulting in adverse consequences on our forests.

The financial markets are an effective policing mechanism when it comes to this concern because only plants that can demonstrate adequate fuel supply will be financed and it is highly unlikely a lender or investor would finance a second or third biomass plant in an area that already contains a biomass plant because of the risk of creating a bidding war for fuel. If you look at the examples of the biomass plants recently built that are cited in the article, all are using wood or other types of residue.

The notion that biomass plants are going to result in the clear cutting of our forest lands is nothing more than a tactic that is being used and planted in the media by opponents of such plants in order to try to place roadblocks in the path of the construction of new biomass plants.

Update: There was also a really good article in today's NY Times on the biofuel industry. Obviously we still have a long way to go before we have commercial scale biofuel production. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/15/business/energy-environment/15biofuel.html?ref=todayspaper

Communication is key...

They say that in any good relationship, communication is key. So, in an effort to increase communication with those following our company I have started a Twitter account. I will try to provide more frequent commentary via this medium, though please keep in mind that these are my personal thoughts and not official company communications.

I would genuinely like to know how many people we have following our company online, so I encourage all of you to start following me on Twitter at twitter.com/laidlawenergy so we can have an informal census. I also believe that there are some really good things coming down the road for us soon, so I want to be sure all are in the loop.

Walking the tightrope...

I get lots of questions from investors asking how things are progressing with our company. I always find it tough to balance between my inclination to keep deals quiet until they are done and updating our shareholders on what we are doing. We have talked publicly in the past about the two projects in Massachusetts we are pursuing and I am pleased to say they are going very well. I hope to make a formal announcement on at least one of the projects very soon. One of the things that I really like about this project is that it expands our reach from our core biomass business to encompass solar power as well. Because of the varied renewable energy and manufacturing elements of the project, it could also serve as the "poster child" for current state and Federal economic stimulus efforts. I certainly expect the project to garner a lot of political support. I look forward to being able to share many more details with our investors as events unfold.

Update 10/13/09: One other thing I forgot to mention is that this project will add an operating plant to our portfolio. We will take control of the existing steam plant pending conversion to biomass. It's not going to make us any money in the near term, but I am hoping that through synergies with Homeland we will be able to save some money versus current operating costs and generate some revenue while we are undertaking the conversion. In any event, these assets certainly add to the value of what we are building in my view.

Hope I'm not stealing anyone's thunder...

We just received a draft of the wood study we commissioned for our Berlin, NH project, which is being done for us by Landvest, a very well respected firm in this area. The study unquestionably concludes that more than enough biomass is available on a sustainable basis to support our project. We never doubted this, but it will be good to put this issue to rest.

Various stuff

Well, we finally spent some time today working on editing and updating our web site. We have needed to do this for a while, but it's always toward the botton of the "to do" list. Our current plan is to completely redesign it in the near future, but we want to make some updates in the interim. Anyway, the site just crashed, so for the moment we don't have a web site, but stand by...the new and improved site will be up soon :)

We announced last week our joint venture with Homeland Renewable Energy (see our joint news release here). This is a great deal for both organizations, because it makes one complete company that can take a project from the concept stage to construction to operations entirely in house. Additionally, it provides us with capital to fund our current and future development efforts, so this should allow us to significantly ramp up in terms of projects in development. Last but not least, it allows us to cash out some of the equity we have built through project development without substantially diluting our holdings. In my mind, the next step is to pursue a similar transaction between the joint venture company, Homeland Laidlaw Energy, LLC, and a European partner.

Lastly, we also announced last week that we are in the process of acquiring a biomass plant in Massachusetts. Like most of our transactions, this deal has been in the works for a while, but we are very excited about the opportunity to put this plant into operation very quickly as compared to other development projects.

Update 9/30/09: Web site is back up. Seems our data base crashed. Unfortunately some of the changes we made were lost, so we will work on continuing to update the site and plan on launching the new site soon. We also hope to launch a Homeland Laidlaw site.

One other point that I neglected to make yesterday about the Homeland deal is that this transaction is also good for us in terms of future funding. Homeland has raised significant capital from major institutions including Blackrock and Cargill and we hope to be able to work with these investors in connection with future financings for the JV.

Laidlaw Commits $10,000 for Berlin Youth Hockey

BERLN, NH — The Board of Directors of the Berlin Youth Hockey Association announced that Laidlaw Berlin Biopower, LLC has committed to a $10,000 corporate sponsorship of the organization for the upcoming 2009-2010 hockey season.The donation, one of the largest ever received by Berlin Youth Hockey, will be used primarily to scholarship needy youth who come from financially challenged households. In an economically difficult environment, Laidlaw’s generous participation comes at an important time for the continued success of Berlin Youth Hockey.

“To become part of fabric of the Berlin community has always been first and foremost for our company and we’re totally fascinated by the rich tradition the game of hockey has here in Berlin,” said Lou Bravakis, vice president of development for Laidlaw.

“Even though we are in the development/permitting phase and not currently generating revenues at our Berlin project, supporting young people as they learn life skills through teamwork, fair play and respect for others are important attributes Laidlaw Energy wishes to promote. With over 125 youngsters and 25 adult participants, we feel Berlin Youth Hockey’s mission deserves our support as we integrate into the Berlin Community,” Bravakis said.

Joe Accardi, president of Berlin Youth Hockey, was ecstatic over Laidlaw’s donation. “We have been fortunate in the last four years to receive N.H. Division of Child, Youth, & Families incentive funds to assist at-risk youngsters to continue participating in our pro-gram. With the uncertainty of continued DCYF funding, Berlin Youth Hockey will be able ensure that those who want to participate will be able to,” Accardi said.

“It’s an exciting new chapter in Berlin’s hockey history book. Hockey is as important to Berlin as the surrounding trees. ‘Hockeytown USA’ and ‘The City That Trees Built’ is alive and well thanks to Laidlaw Berlin Biopower”, added Mark Dorval, vice president of Berlin Youth Hockey and president of the Notre Dame Arena.

Source: Berlin Daily Sun 9/10/09
http://www.laconiadailysun.com/BerlinPDF/2009/9/10B.pdf

Greetings from Lowell, Mass

Biomass to replace coal = major CO2 reduction...

US energy company Ohio Edison agrees to repower plant with biomass fuel

12th August 2009

Ohio Edison Company, a subsidiary of FirstEnergy, has agreed to repower one of its coal-fired power plants using primarily renewable biomass fuels, the Justice Department and US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said.

According to the agreement, filed in federal court in Columbus, Ohio and joined by the states of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, Ohio Edison will repower the R E Burger Units 4 and 5 near Shadyside, Ohio with biomass fuel. The consent decree modifies a 2005 consent decree requiring Ohio Edison to reduce emissions of sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide at several o

The Justice Department stated that the modified consent decree will substantially reduce emissions of sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide from Burger's current levels and also reduce CO2 emissions from current levels by more than 1.3m tonnes a year.

Burger will be the largest coal-fired electric utility plant in the country to repower with renewable biomass fuels and the first such plant at which greenhouse gas emissions will be reduced under a Clean Air Act consent decree.

'This is a great result for the health and the environment of the nation,' said John C Cruden, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division. 'We are pleased that Ohio Edison has chosen to significantly reduce greenhouse gases and other pollutants from the Burger plant and hope that Ohio Edison will become the standard-bearer for other companies considering conversion to renewable biomass fuels under the auspices of the EPA and state environmental agencies.'

Under the modified agreement, Ohio Edison will repower Burger beginning in 2012 with mainly biomass fuels, co-firing with not more than 20 per cent low sulphur coal, including natural wood from waste tree trimmings and dedicated sustainable nurseries, agricultural crops, grasses and vegetation waste or products.

The Justice Department said that as a result of this agreement, conversion to biomass fuel combustion is expected to approach 'carbon neutrality,' meaning that CO2 emissions released by burning biomass fuel will be offset by the amount of CO2 absorbed from the atmosphere by the wood and vegetation grown to produce the fuel.

After offset, Burger is expected to emit approximately 400,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions a year, based on 20 per cent coal co-firing, versus more than 1.7 million tonnes from coal-fired combustion prior to repowering with biomass fuel.

Assistant Administrator for EPA's Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance, Cynthia Giles, said, 'Today's settlement improves air quality for the local community and reduces greenhouse gas emissions by requiring the use of a renewable, carbon-neutral fuel to generate electricity'. 'EPA will seek similar commitments from companies to replace coal-fired electric generation with cleaner, renewable energy in future Clean Air Act settlements.'

The consent decree, lodged in the US District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, is subject to a 30-day public comment period and approval by the federal court. A copy of the consent decree is available on the Department of Justice site.

Copyright © 2009 NewNet

Thought for the day...

That is done fast enough that is done well enough - Augustus

Maybe it's just me, but I drove past some wind turbines the other day and I don't find them unattractive at all. I actually think they look nice and I like how they are a visible symbol of our efforts to make cleaner energy.

Just passed a truck full of wood chips on my way to Lexington, Mass...