Facing Opposition

March 19, 2010

BY Rona Johnson

Lately I've been following the progress of Adage LLC to develop a 55-megawatt biomass power project in Gretna, Fla. Adage is a joint venture between Areva Inc. and Duke Energy and its mission is to convert clean woody biomass into electricity. As I am writing this on March 18, the Gretna project has been nixed allegedly due to complaints by residents.

The process was all rather confusing. First, Gadsden County had suspended consideration of the project for six months to give residents a chance to educate themselves. In response, Adage said it would suspend its project and its air permit application from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. As far as we know, Adage didn't anticipate having a problem getting an air permit for the plant (Adage also has a 50-megawatt biopower project in Hamilton County, Fla.). Then, Gretna city officials issued a statement saying they considered the matter closed because the plant could not legally operate without an air permit, making the project no longer viable.

This is after the city released this statement: "The City has been very disappointed by a small number of individuals, both from outside our community and within, who have made attempts to distort its efforts to create sustainable economic opportunities for the residents of Gretna and Gadsden County; persons who have never in the past demonstrated any particular interest in the welfare of our residents. The City's commitment and determination to increase our nation's ability to produce energy within its borders remains strong, despite the misconceptions that have been fostered by the unfortunate few."

It sounds to me that in the end, the city bent under pressure from this small number of individuals. Because of our confusion, Biomass Magazine Associate Editor Lisa Gibson contacted the city to find out if that was the case, but Gretna City Manager Antonio Jefferson told her that the choice to terminate project consideration was not influenced by citizen opposition.

That prompts me to wonder, if that's not the case what is behind their decision. We may never know because Adage is respecting the city's decision and is looking elsewhere to locate its facility.

That's a shame because, according to Adage, the project would have created 1,100 direct and indirect jobs during the next 30 months, and boosted the local economy to the tune of $81 million a year. The company also estimated that the project would create 124 permanent jobs.

Furthermore, as I was writing this blog, I received a phone call from someone in Virginia, who will remain nameless because I didn't tell him that I was going to include him in my blog. He was wondering what he could do to get biomass power companies and investors to build plants in his state. The man said that in Virginia they have a good relationship with the government agencies that manage the state's forest resources and with environmentalists, but the state doesn't have a renewable portfolio standard (RPS). He said that when he's approached developers, they say they can't build biomass power projects there because the state doesn't have an RPS.

Ironic isn't it? In one instance, you have a state where forest management agencies and even environmentalists embrace biomass power but no companies want to build there because they don't see a commitment to renewable energy because there is no RPS. Then you have Florida with a 20 percent by 2020 RPS and companies that want to build there but residents don't want the plants.

I guess we can only hope that Adage has better luck working with residents in other areas of Florida and that either Virginia or the nation are able to pass an RPS. Or, maybe we just need to better educate people about the environmental benefits of biomass-based power.

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