State
redefines environmental terms to clean up what some critics call dirty power
sources
When
it comes to new sources of electricity, the terms advanced and renewable
are generally used to describe pollution-free energy, including solar, wind and
water.
But the state has
expanded its green vocabulary to include a proposed Meigs County coal-fired
power plant and a proposed Piketon nuclear power plant on its list of
"advanced" energy sources.
And the latest
version of the state budget includes a proposal to change "renewable"
to include a planned Mahoning County trash-burning power plant.
Other provisions
would add to that list plants that burn liquid waste from paper companies, old
tires, and even methane from coal mines.
Environmentalists
say state officials have reneged on a deal struck last year to create more
clean power.
"These aren't
green sources of energy," quipped Jack Shaner, of the Ohio Environmental
Council. "They're much more brown."
Sen. John Husted,
R-Kettering, disagrees. He said turning waste into energy keeps garbage out of
landfills.
"There are
some virtuous environmental benefits to this," he said.
Redefining
environmental terms to fit state and federal energy policies is nothing new.
In 2002, for
example, American Electric Power saved millions of dollars a year by buying
latex-covered coal to burn at its Gavin power plant.
The latex didn't
reduce pollution, but it qualified as an "alternative fuel" under a federal
law that set aside millions in tax credits.
Look for more of
the same.
Lawmakers and Gov.
Ted Strickland passed two laws last year. One requires that 25 percent of the
electricity Ohio power companies produce comes from advanced and renewable
resources by 2025. The other sets aside $150 million in grants and loans to
help support advanced energy projects.
First, let's look
at what's going on with advanced energy sources.
On June 9, the
Ohio Air Quality Development Authority gave Columbus-based American Municipal
Power a $30 million advanced energy loan to help build its 1,000-megawatt
coal-fired power plant near Letart Falls.
Mark Shanahan, the
authority's director and Strickland's chief energy advisor, said Duke Energy's
proposed 1,600-megawatt nuclear power plant near Piketon also would qualify for
funding under the advanced energy program.
The coal-fired
power plant is expected to emit about 7.5 million tons of carbon dioxide a
year. Carbon dioxide is a key ingredient in global warming.
Nuclear plants
produce spent fuel rods and other wastes that remain radioactive for thousands
of years.
There is no
permanent storage site in the United States. Waste is instead stored in holding
facilities at each plant.
Shanahan said both
qualify as advanced sources because they use new technologies that could
someday help curb global warming pollution. And the Piketon plant qualifies
because it would produce nuclear power more efficiently.
"The governor
was clear from the initial introduction (of the state's energy plan) that clean
coal technology and advanced nuclear had to be in the mix," Shanahan said.
Shaner said
neither type of plant should be called advanced and that the state is simply
changing definitions to fit Ohio's situation.
"That's the
way they wrote the law," he said.
As far as new
definitions of "renewable" energy, the idea of burning paper waste,
trash, tires and methane has its critics.
One is Shanahan.
"We think
that reaches far beyond what was intended to be renewable sources of
energy," he said.
Ohio's 2008 energy
law allows companies that produce electricity from renewable resources to sell
credits to Ohio power companies.
Power companies
use the credits to help meet the state's 2025 quota for renewable and advanced
energy sources.
Shanahan said paper
mills already burn waste called "black liquor." A proposal in the
General Assembly would let the companies make money off the electricity they
produce by selling renewable energy credits.
The sponsor, Sen.
John Carey, R-Wellston, was unavailable for comment.
His office
referred questions to Glatfelter Inc., which owns a Chillicothe paper mill.
Glatfelter officials did not return calls for comment.
Greg Benik,
president of Warwick, R.I.,-based Jefferson Renewable Energy Corp., said trash
should "absolutely" be considered renewable.
His company plans
to build a $250 million trash-burning power plant east of Alliance in Mahoning
County.
The 60-megawatt
plant would burn as much as 2,200 tons of trash and construction debris a day.
Most would be shipped by rail from East Coast states, Benik said.
"The great
majority of the material that we're combusting comes from trees, which are
renewable," Benik said.
The same argument
is used by the ethanol industry, which argues its corn-based fuel is renewable
because it's grown from crops.
Still, critics
argue that ethanol plants also emit thousands of tons of carbon dioxide.
Ohio officials in
2007 offered $450 million in tax breaks, grants and low-interest financing to
help build 12 ethanol plants in the state.
Five were never
built and three were shuttered this year when rising prices for corn and
falling prices for fuel made ethanol production too expensive.
Amy Gomberg of
Environment Ohio said her group and others will push lawmakers to restrict
renewable energy to solar, wind and water power.
"The last
thing we should be doing is backpedaling on old, dirty, unsustainable resources
like burning trash."
The governor and
the legislature are expected to pass the budget by June 30.
shunt@dispatch.com
Greenspeak
Many environmental and industry groups use the terms renewable and advanced
to describe efforts to create new low-polluting fuels and electricity. How Ohio
officials use them in laws designed to encourage and require their use:
Renewable
The term applies to new processes that produce power from limitless,
renewable resources. These include the sun, wind and water.
It's also used in relation to corn-based ethanol and electricity created
from burning wood and plant matter. A proposal in the state budget plan would
add trash, tires, paper mill wastes and methane from coal mines as renewable
sources of energy.
Advanced
Under an Ohio law passed in 2008, advanced refers to coal-fired
power plants that can capture greenhouse gases or that could easily be altered
to do so. It also applies to nuclear power plants built with a modern reactor
design.
