Sierra Club's Town Hall Forum

Ok, modem's working fine, life is good...

This past Saturday the Sierra Club of Ohio held a town hall meeting over at JVS concerning Baard's proposed Ohio River Clean Fuel, LLC. It was touted as a "non-partisan informational event" with "several panelists". Come on, non-partisan, being sponsored by the Sierra Club?

The several panelists turned out to be three. There was a lawyer from the environmental activist Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), and local residents Matt Stewart & Roxanne Burns. Stewart was chosen because he was a local reporter in the area and a blogger. Burns is also a local resident and a biologist. Both Stewart & Burns emphasized that they were there as representatives of the local community and not there speaking for KSU-EL. The Sierra Club's Nachy Kanfer was there as the event organizer. Baard folks declined on their invitation to join in.

It was a good time to hold such an event, late Saturday afternoon when not much is happening. It got them lengthy front page write-ups in both of Sunday editions in our local newspapers. Mike McElwain from the ER estimated there were around 36 people in attendance. Kanfer even got a whole column in Tuesday's MJ.

After reading the reports in both of our local papers it was pretty much as I suspected it would be. The word platitude stuck in my mind. I'm probably attributing an incorrect definition for that word. There were implied warnings of being doomed and being backward in our thinking if we support this proposed plant. From what I read we're condemned to regressing back to the Industrial Age if this plant is allowed to be built.

Attorney Shannon Fisk from NRDC was quoted as saying the proposed plant would be a "major new source of global warming pollution". On the whole he seemed to be casting aspersions on Baard's commitments from polluting to economic benefits and to their business acumen. Fisk commented on the poor air quality ratings that Jefferson County already has and scornfully asked if Baard thinks their polluting ways will stop at the county line. Does this man know that part of the plant will be in Jefferson County? Even with his refusal to take Baard for their word he failed to mention anything about the multi-million dollar renovations with new scrubbers at the Stratton electric plant. He failed to mention Baard's commitment to using the best and latest available technology in making this a clean fuel plant. That's a commitment that has to be adhered to and, in my opinion, will be. After last night I really believe the difference in our air quality will be negligible once this plant gets going. Yea, there's going to be a lot of tax payer money involved but in spite of what Fisk tells us Baard's financial commitment is huge on their part. They say you gotta spend money to make money. Our spending now will be returned in ways too numerous to mention. Once this plant gets going the benefits will not be all going to Baard.

Being a panelist I was surprised that Matt Stewart was not all over this on ORL. I guess he really means it when he said he "ambivalent about the project". He was quoted as saying that he sees "a plant like Baard being a step backward" in our post-industrial economy. Huh? We lost a lot of industry in this area over the years but this country is still largely industrial producing our goods and services. We've been slowly moving to a world economy but lessening our dependence on foreign sources is still very important. Nothing that I can think of hammers that point home more than oil. I see nothing backwards with that line of thinking. We're working on alternative sources of energy in this country but I seriously doubt I will live long enough to see our energy sources change that drastically. We just can't quit using one type of energy source while we're waiting for those alternatives to be developed and made feasible. The interim from one point to the other is still many, many years apart.

Matt mentioned growing up in East Liverpool he recalls not being able to see across the river to WV because of the pollution and I have to wonder about that. My memory goes back to the early fifties and I don't remember anything like that around here. Pittsburgh surely with their old soot days but not here. Maybe he was thinking about fog. That still happens in today's times especially now as we approach the fall season. If it's thick enough you can't see across the river. Was he confusing fog with smog in those early years?

Roxanne Burns offered us a cynical view point with her quoted as saying "it's all right to ruin the river because there is money to be made". She mentions deadly chemicals will be dumped into the Ohio but doesn't mention anything about quantities that the EPA finds permissible. She tells us that technology doesn't exist for the complete caption of carbon dioxide. True. The key word is complete. She failed to mention that CO2 is not a regulated pollutant. You exhale CO2 when you breath out. She didn't tell us that technology does exist to capture a large percentage of CO2 in what Baard proposes. Capturing CO2 and sequestering it is not a pipe dream that is being foisted upon us by Baard. The technology is there. It's real.

I introduced myself to Nachy Kanfer of the Sierra Club last night. As I mentioned he had a follow up column in Tuesday's MJ filled with vague ambiguities. I already commented on the nano grams of mercury he mentioned. He's still trying to convince us that the Air Force can't use the CTL fuels because of the section in the Energy Security & Independence Act not allowing them to use any fuel with a higher carbon emission than petroleum. He didn't tell us that it's already been proven that CTL fuel is equal to or less than petroleum fuels in carbon emissions thus not preventing the boys in blue to use without violating that section. He still naively proposes that the cost of coal is surely going to doom Baard's proposed plant before the first shovel of dirt is turned. With that line of thinking does he believe we'll all starve to death because of the cost of groceries? Give me a break.

Nachy seems like a nice young man. He graduated from Princeton with a music degree. After that he went to Palestine to help with their efforts in cleaning up their water supply. He told me he was there for two years with that endeavor. Now he is a full time employee of the Sierra Club. Shocking to me he's only been a member of that organization for four months. When he started working for them he said they gave him a membership. Previously I got the impression that he had been a long time member. He asked me how I knew who he was and I told him it was from his picture in the paper. I asked if I could take his picture and he was unsure. He mentioned something about not wanting to take anything away from local members of the club. I took his picture anyway but I'll keep my word to him and not put it on the blog. It's a good picture Nachy. If you want a copy for your folks let me know. I'll e-mail it to you. Nachy is a clean cut guy and is dedicated to his beliefs. Even though we may disagree I respect a fellow like him. He's a good man for his job.

Next up will be my thoughts on the EPA hearing last night. It was an extremely interesting evening for me before I had to leave. Talked to and saw a lot of folks. See ya tomorrow...

ole nib