Midtown burner
From:
Dan Cooke
Date:
Apr 30 20:53 UTC
Short link
The developers like to say how clean and green their incinerator would be but
you have to pay close attention to what they say.
First, the Kyoto protocol targets only CO2 emissions, not the one million
pounds per year of dioxin, arsenic, lead, formaldehyde, sulfur dioxide that
this project's pollution permit would allow. A nuclear plant built at 28th and
Hiawatha would probably comply with Kyoto standards too -- that doesn't mean we
should build one there. You have to consider the other impacts of the burner
when deciding whether it would be a good idea.
Second, I believe this plant will amount to a net increase in worldwide
greenhouse gas emissions for a number of reasons:
(a) the there will be a dramatic increase in the fossil fuels burned by
vehicles using the facility after it is built (which will be large semi trucks
that have to travel long distances to haul in the waste/biomass and haul out
the ash,
(b) any burner itself emits CO2s; when the developers say it complies with
Kyoto what they are really saying is that it will emit fewer CO2s than a coal
plant. But the construction of this burner will NOT take any existing coal
plants offline -- it will only add more energy to the grid thereby increasing
overall consumption of energy (which is what we should be trying to avoid if
you are concerned about human greenhouse gas emissions),
(c) all incinerators discourage conservation and recycling efforts for their
lifespan because the waste that they rely on for fuel can no longer be
conserved or recycled. If you burn a piece of paper (or some other biomass)
instead of recycling it you take that paper out of the recycling or
conservation chain. This creates unnecessary waste and detracts from
conservation efforts, which should be the #1 goal if you are concerned about
the impact of humans on the global environment. See
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=13890 for a more thorough explanation
about this.
When you consider the known health impacts of the release of one million pounds
of regulated toxins into an already polluted area this project makes very
little sense. Other developers and City initiatives have gone a long way
towards trying to revitalize that area with expenditures on things like housing
construction and the Midtown Greenway and the new Midtown Greenway bridge.
Putting a new 140-foot smokestack into service for the next 40 years will
discourage further development and further harm the area's economy and health.
If you take a close look at the pollution permit application for this project
you will realize that it is potentially devastating. Why, for instance, does it
allow for the emission of significant amounts of dioxin, a super-chemical that
does not exist in nature and is only formed by the burning of plastics? Why
does it allow for future pollution variance applications? And why does the MPCA
not consider the cumulative impact of this as a pollution source when deciding
whether or not to grant the permit? The State of Delaware, in recognition of
the problems with incineration has a law that prohibits the construction of ANY
incinerators (biomass or otherwise) within 3 miles of any residence, school,
church or hospital. The Twin Cities already has one of the highest rates of
per-capita incineration (as measured by megawatts) in the U.S. Building another
incinerator here is just a very bad idea.
- Dan
http://burnerinfo.blogspot.com