{"id":2238,"date":"2011-04-03T19:44:25","date_gmt":"2011-04-03T23:44:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/04\/biomass-plant-misses-deadlines-vdt.html"},"modified":"2011-04-03T19:44:25","modified_gmt":"2011-04-03T23:44:25","slug":"biomass-plant-misses-deadlines-vdt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/04\/biomass-plant-misses-deadlines-vdt.html","title":{"rendered":"Biomass plant misses deadlines –VDT"},"content":{"rendered":"David Rodock writes on the front page of the Sunday VDT today\n(the highest profile news source for the region) that\n\nBiomass plant misses deadlines:\nWill the plant move forward?<\/a>\n
\n\n<\/a>\nThe Wiregrass Power LLC biomass facility was supposed to have met a number\nof project goals established by the Economic Development Agreement (EDA)\nbetween the company and the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority\nby April 1, 2011. According to Allen Ricketts, Industrial Authority\nproject manager, those goals still have yet to be met.\n

\nThe specific goals in the agreement were that a “finalized engineering\nprocurement construction contract” would be ready by March 31. By\nApril 1, the company was supposed to have finalized both a power\npurchase\/transmission agreement along with a wastewater\/biosolids\nagreement.\n<\/blockquote>\nThey’ve been slipping deadlines for quite some time.\nAccording to page 4 of that EDA (which you can see for yourself\n\non the LAKE web site<\/a>):\n\n\n

\n2.5.2 On or before September 1, 2010, Wiregrass will pay to the\nAuthority the sum of $30,000.00 for the right to extend the commencement\nof construction\nand installation of the Project from September 1, 2010 to June 1, 2011.\n<\/blockquote>\nThe VDT story quotes VLCIA’s Col. Ricketts as saying:\n
\n“We granted them an extension and have set June 1, 2011 as beginning\ndate for construction of the biomass facility.”\n<\/blockquote>\nSo Wiregrass Power, LLC is already seven months past their original start\ndate right now, and is still slipping deadlines.\n

\nIn particular, they still don’t have anybody to buy their electricity,\nand they won’t even say who they’re talking to:\n

\n“These agreements are made with utilities under a non-disclosure clause,\ndue to the competitive nature of utilities and pricing for energy\nsources,” said Ricketts.\n<\/blockquote>\nThat’s the same obfuscation we’ve been hearing\n\nsince April 2010.<\/a>\nI’m pretty sure Colquitt Electric isn’t going to buy, because\ntheir General Manager says it would cost three times as much as\nthe power CEMC is buying now.\nGeorgia Power said a year ago it wasn’t going to buy.\nThat leaves no local power companies.\nAll the other EMCs in Georgia have the same information CEMC does\nabout biomass power costs.\nWho in Georgia will buy power from this dud?\n

\nWiregrass Power LLC has said they won’t sell the power to Florida,\nand I actually believe them now that\n\nAdage is pulling out of its north Florida biomass plants<\/a>\nbecause it couldn’t sell the electricity from them.\nAdage also cancelled a biomass plant in Washington state,\nand has never built any of its dozen or so proposed biomass plants.\n

\nI predict Wiregrass Power LLC will never build any of its one proposed\nbiomass plants, either.\n

\nBut that’s no reason to stop putting pressure on them or on VLCIA.\nFirst, we know VLCIA is noticing that pressure, because Col. Ricketts\nrepeatedly denied it was having any effect:\n

\n“With regard to citizen concerns about air quality emissions or other\nconcerns that they have raised, it would not have an impact on these\nagreements, because the design of the facility is governed by the Air\nQuality Permit,” said Ricketts.\n<\/blockquote>\nAnd again:\n
\n“The EPA air permit is pretty set-in-stone. No one has told me that\n(citizen concern) has caused them a problem with going forward. Right\nnow, the company has not asked for an extension and my expectation is\nthat they will begin construction on June 1.”\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<\/a>\nWe should believe Chairman Sonny Murphy of Sterling Planet is going\nto waste money building a plant that has no market for its product?\nWe know he’s\n\nseen some of the opposition right in front of him<\/a>,\nand he saw them all be in favor of his other project,\nthe Wiregrass Solar plant.\nAdd to that the Adage cancellations<\/a>\nand Sterling Planet, like Duke Energy, may have had enough of wasting\ntime and money on a failed industry.\n

\nSecond, there are larger issues in play here.\nMore in the next post.\n

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