JENNERATIONX
After the Biomass public hearing, Tom Karas (Michigan Energy Alternatives,) wrote an editorial that appeared in the Advance to counter an argument between himself and Bob Noffze, president of the citizen-formed Wolverine Clean Energy Venture Support Group. Apparently, after the biomass hearing, Bob and Tom had a brief exchange during which Bob made it clear he did not wish to invite Tom to speak at the next meeting of WCEVSG because Mr. Karas had stated in an Alpena News article that the coal plant in in Rogers City would be “a monument to ignorance.” Bob took offense to the statement. The editorial pointed out that when Karas said the word ignorant, he just meant that the people of Rogers City are unaware of the “current position that the coal industry is in.” He may be right about that, but it isn’t because the people of this state don’t want energy, it is precisely because of people like Tom Karas.
20/20 hindsight provides this perspective. On November 2, 2008 this story ran on Fox News.
Obama to Bankrupt Coal Industry and Raise Energy Prices
The interview of then candidate Obama, according to Michelle Malkin’s website, was given in January, 2008. Obama tells the San Francisco Chronicle that he is for clean coal technology, but the cap and trade system he plans to put in place will “necessarily skyrocket” energy prices and “bankrupt” the coal industry.
What I gather from knowing this information is, that if the environmentalists involved in killing the proposed Rogers City plant fail in their endeavors, they have a safety net. The fact that now-President Obama wishes to use a cap and trade system that will force clean coal into bankruptcy.
If that happens, the environmentalists will declare a win and we all lose, because older coal plants will still operate, and our rates will dramatically increase.
Mr. Karas talked about “the current position that the coal industry is in.” I would remind Mr. Karas that Rogers City is a mining town, and whether we take limestone out of the earth to utilize across the globe or somebody in Wyoming takes coal out of the earth to utilize across the globe, we are all families whose lives depend on mining.
By July, 2008 the DEQ held a meeting in Lansing to describe the permit process and the public comment period. The Advance does an extremely good job of reporting on this meeting and all the criteria needed and the process. I thought this excerpt was interesting, now a year and 9 months after submitting the air permit request.
“The average time for a permit right now is running at about 70 days,” Dolehanty said. “But these applications for power plants have been in house as long as a year and one-half.” Wolverine submitted its air permit application September 26 of last year. Consumers Energy submitted its application October 15, Mid-Michigan turned in its application September 12 while Holland Board of Public Works submitted its application January 17, 2007.
Byron DeLong was at it again in August, raising questions with the permit already issued of what fuel will be burned by the plant. He suggested during the Planning Commission meeting that since the company had not specifically stated that they were to burn petroleum coke, Wolverine would have to amend it’s permit. Other planning commission members objected, saying they were to understand that petroleum coke was already permitted. Petroleum coke sounds scary, but it is used in making steel. Wolverine representatives pointed out that during the CFB presentation in 2006, all was very clear. DeLong insisted that the language in the original permit must be changed, therefore they would need to amend the permit. No action was taken then about the permit, but during the same meeting, Bob Noffze wished to ask about some concerns he had about DeLong serving on the planning commission while at the same time being a member of a group that was using the legal system to try to stop coal plants in Michigan. I mention this lawsuit in Part 3 of this series. The lawsuit was thrown out, but was in the appeals process in August, 2008. Bob Noffze called for the removal of Byron (Bud) DeLong from his post as planning commission member due to a conflict of interest.
To be continued…..
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