BREDL Letter to Editor regarding Fibrowatt
From our readers
06.26.09 - 08:03 am
Editor:
The Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League would accept
an invitation to debate Fibrowatt in public on poultry
manure incineration and clean energy.
Recent newspaper stories and editorials raised questions
concerning how the public is informed about a critical
issue facing Sampson County the incineration of
waste to produce electricity. One such project is
Fibrowatts proposal to burn poultry manure in three
North Carolina counties. Sampson is one of those
counties.
As one part of our public campaign to present information
on toxic air emissions from incineration, the Blue Ridge
Environmental Defense League and the Center for Health,
Environment and Justice held three public forums in North
Carolina. The first two were May 11 and 12 and the third
was June 2 in Clinton.
When four Fibrowatt representatives were given the floor
at the first forum in Elkin, they asked repeated
questions and took up most of the public discussion
period. The next night in Troy the same four
representatives were asked to give local citizens the
opportunity to speak first. Once again Fibrowatt
representatives interrupted the presentations.
At the June 2 forum in Clinton, which was attended by
over fifty people, only one Fibrowatt employee came and
he left shortly after asking a question. Again, the
intent of these forums was not to engage in a public
debate with Fibrowatt. The purpose was to present
information about incineration and toxic air pollution.
Unfortunately, little public debate took place in 2007
when the General Assembly adopted renewable energy
legislation. The provision requiring poultry litter to
generate electricity was included without adequate
discussion in the media. Fibrowatts lobbyists,
however, actively worked to pass this bill.
Other biomass materials, everything from railroad ties to
hog waste, present the much larger question of how North
Carolina will expand renewable energy while protecting
air quality and community health. Regardless of where you
live, you should be aware that renewable energy is not
necessarily clean energy. Burning poultry manure is an
example, but certainly not the only example.
From our organizations perspective, the state is
ill prepared to regulate the variety of companies lining
up to get a piece of North Carolinas renewable
energy pie. The question of how to encourage
non-polluting sources, like wind and solar, remains
unanswered while polluting waste burners calculate how to
get under the states air pollution bar. As the
people who attended the forums learned, pollution comes
out of Fibrowatt smokestacks. Those emissions matter and
they matter most to the communities where the
incinerators are built.
But the environment and public health are not the only
issues. Economics will have a major impact on North
Carolinas renewable energy future. For now the
regulatory playing field is tilted toward those who would
pollute in the name of green energy. We face
a future of increasing costs and dirtier air.
The Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League does not have
a public relations firm to spin the news. Nor do we have
lobbyists and lawyers to write legislation and negotiate
permits. We depend on people in the targeted communities,
people who ask for our advice and expertise, to question
decisions made by others that directly affect them.
Information presented at the forums empowered the people
there to get involved and challenge those decisions. We
have worked this way for twenty-five years.
Public debates about burning poultry manure to make
electricity will give everyone involved the opportunity
to clear the air on what is in the best interest of both
Sampson County and its neighbors. Our League welcomes
such debates. They are long overdue.
David Mickey
Blue RidgeEnvironmental Defense League
© clintonnc.com 2009
The Sampson Independent
http://www.clintonnc.com/
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