Friday, December 31, 2010

Dayton "Dirt" Green Blog - January 1, 2011

As the cliché goes “All that glitters is not gold”, so too goes the “green” industry.

According to an article written by Jack Shaner of the Ohio Environmental Council that appeared in a recent publication of Ecowatch Journal, Akron’s First Energy Corporation proposed to clean up one of its dirtiest generating plants, the R.E. Burger plant by burning biomass that would also enable the company to meet its requirement under Ohio law to produce at least 12.5% of its energy with clean renewables which does include a sustainably sourced biomass in addition to solar and wind energy.

On the surface, the proposal is quite laudable until the details are revealed.

Mr. Shaner reports that in June 2009, the Ohio legislature gave First Energy a sweetheart deal that not only approved the plan but allowed First Energy to count its Renewable Energy Credits (REC’s) at up to four and a half times that of solar or wind power projects.

The “extra” credits would enable First Energy to meet its mandate under Ohio law for renewable energy and possibly sell some credits to other investor-owned utilities.

Objections raised by the Ohio Environmental Council, Sierra Club and the Buckeye Forest Council at the hearings at the Ohio Public Utilities Commission (PUCO) included that the biomass source for the Burger plant proposal was not sustainable because it would require 3 million tons of wood annually or the equivalent of 66,000 acres of trees.

Another objection was with the Burger amendment as passed by the legislature would squash development of solar and wind energy projects because of the extra credit provision for REC’s having to do with the Burger plant.

The PUCO approved the plan even though it was obligated under Ohio law to certify that energy sources must be reusable and sustainable.

On November 15th, the OEC appealed the Ohio Supreme Court on the grounds that the PUCO decision to approve First Energy’s Burger plant was flawed as the commission did not consider the sustainability issue of the biomass source and the fact that the exaggerated REC’s would disrupt the market for REC’s and thus interfere with interstate commerce.

Two days after the appeal, First Energy dropped the Burger proposal citing it was not economically feasible with falling energy prices.

Mr. Shaner of the Ohio Environmental Council will go ahead with its appeal in order to force the PUCO to explain why it did not consider the sustainability issue of the Burger proposal.

Another concern is if there is enough “public” in the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio or is the agency merely a rubber stamp for investor owned utilities.

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