CONTACT: Meg Sheehan, Biomass Accountability Project, 1-800-729-1363 meg@ecolaw.biz
Paul Schwantes, Save Our Air Resources, Wisconsin, 715-297-5413
Lacy MacAuley, (202) 445-4692, lacy@massey-media.com
Proposed biomass incineration power plant would raise cost of electricity, cost taxpayer money, and create health risks for residents and schoolchildren
Rothchild, WI – Wisconsin residents have filed a legal challenge to the air pollution permit for the Rothschild biomass incinerator proposed by WE Energies for the Domtar Mill site in Rothschild. Residents say that the biomass electricity to be generated at the site will drive up consumers’ utility bills, will cost about $90 million in federal taxpayer money, and will severely worsen air quality for those around the site, including 2,600 schoolchildren.
“I’m worried about the toxins and what it will do to the children. The proposed plant is right across the street from an elementary school with 300 children,” said Robert Hughes, who lives a few hundred yards from the proposed site. Hugh has a young daughter and says that he is unsure of his ability to move elsewhere if the plant is built. “I don’t want to live near it but, financially, you do what you’ve got to do. We live where we can afford.”
The proposed biomass plant would be emitting chemicals in the proximity of 2,600 students from three elementary schools, which are situated within two miles of the proposed site.
The legal appeal says that the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR) violated the federal Clean Air Act and state laws by issuing a permit without adequate pollution controls. It says that emissions of dioxin, mercury, carbon dioxide, lead, carbon monoxide and other pollutants are not properly controlled by the permit. The pollution emitted by the WE Energies biomass project contributes to asthma, cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and more.
ìAt a time when our country is in the worst financial crisis in memory, how can anyone even dream of spending all this taxpayer money on this project? The idea of investing $90 million that we don’t have to build a polluting, toxic, money-wasting biomass incinerator is just nonsense. We need that money elsewhere,î said Paul Schwantes, co-chair of Save Our Air Resources (SOAR), a group based in Rothschild.
“Americans know that clean energy doesn’t come out of a smokestack,î said Meg Sheehan, attorney with the Biomass Accountability Project, a group working with citizens nationwide to stop biomass power plants and one of the authors on the analysis. ìThe proposed Rothschild plant has five billion in annual revenues, yet they are skimping on pollution controls. Located in a residential community, the Domtar biomass burner will spew out highly toxic chemicals that will cause Wisconsin citizens to suffer increased asthma, heart disease, cancer and more. Governor Walker should save taxpayer money and protect the public health by stopping this project.î
The appeal also alleges that the biomass project is a solid waste incinerator because it will burn materials classified as solid waste under Wisconsin law, such as paper mill sludge contaminated with dioxin, and waste from furniture factories and construction and demolition activities. It claims that the biomass facility should be subject to a full environmental impact report and the siting process for incinerators.
WE Energies has claimed it needs the electricity from the incinerator to meet its renewable portfolio standard requirements, but SOAR and others say that electricity from burning wood and sludge should not be eligible for the state and federal subsidies intended for clean energy. Opponents of biomass incinerators say money to create clean energy jobs should be directed to renewable energy that does not have smokestack pollution that has negative health and environmental impacts.
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