Citizen Science Workshop on Pollution to be held in Tonawanda

A daylong citizen science workshop and conference on environmental pollution will be held Saturday in the Sheridan Parkside Community Center, 169 Sheridan Parkside Drive, Town of Tonawanda.

The free workshop begins at 9:30 a.m. with breakfast, continues at 10 a.m. with speaker presentations and concludes at 5 p.m.

Participants will learn how citizens used scientific data to hold Tonawanda Coke accountable for pollution, and how to use monitoring tools to test their own air, soil and water. Residents can bring a small bag of soil to have it tested for the presence of heavy metals. Updates on civil and federal actions taken against Tonawanda Coke will also be given.

A bus tour of toxic sites in Western New York is scheduled from 3:45 until 9 p.m. Friday. Registration is required.

For more information, visit airhugger.org, call 873-6191 or email info@csresources.org. The workshop is organized by Citizen Science Community Resources and Global Community Monitor.

Local Residents Travel to Meeting of Coal Plant Shareholders

NRG’s Coal-Powered Business Model Holds Back

 Local Clean Energy Vision

PHILADELPHIA -  As NRG Energy shareholders prepared to meet on May 7, 2015 for the power company’s annual meeting, residents representing four of the communities where NRG operates its coal-fired power plants called on the company to be a local partner in the shift away from coal to clean, renewable energy. Many of the residents are NRG shareholders and will be attending the company’s meeting in Philadelphia.

While NRG aims to reduce carbon emissions 90 percent by the year 2050, that goal puts communities that have dealt with coal pollution for decades on the hook for more pollution and years of uncertainty. NRG has a strong track record for clean energy investments in select communities, but residents are hoping to show shareholders that the majority of NRG’s business is anchored in the company’s coal fleet.

The Waukegan coal plant in Illinois, which NRG acquired in 2014, has operated on the shores of Lake Michigan for almost 60 years. Community members have called for a clear timeline on phasing out coal at the power plant for many years, but NRG has yet to commit, leaving open questions for local community leaders hoping to revitalize the city.

 "I believe that through a partnership with Waukegan, NRG has the opportunity to invest in the clean energy future we all want, and that NRG can help us change the landscape of Waukegan," Waukegan City Council Member David Villalobos, who lives near NRG’s Waukegan Coal Plant. "I'm here in Philadelphia this week to address NRG's Board of Directors to tell them that a transparent transition from coal to clean energy can help Waukegan plan and grow."

Residents from Tonawanda, NY have a similar call for a 'just transition' away from fossil fuels at NRG’s Huntley coal-fired plant near Buffalo.

“Renewable energy and energy efficiency provide tremendous opportunities for jobs, local economic development and cleaner air,” said Diana Strablow, a retired teacher from Tonawanda, NY near NRG’s Huntley Coal Plant. “I plan to ask NRG for a plan to ensure that the vision is ‘clean, renewable energy for all,’ and not ‘clean, renewable energy for some.’

Many residents will share their experiences with pollution from NRG’s coal fleet. NRG’s Cheswick coal plant near Pittsburgh, PA is one of the single largest sources of air pollution in Allegheny County.

“We are urging NRG to be a good neighbor in our community by installing and operating the best technology available while it continues to burn coal here” said Barb Szalai, a community member from Springdale, PA who lives near NRG’s Cheswick Coal Plant. “If NRG cannot do its part to clean up its pollution, we urge the company to be a partner in our community’s transition away from coal.”

The city of Baltimore, MD experiences exceptionally high levels of pollution. Earlier this year, After more than fifteen months of intensive engagement with industry and the public health community, Maryland's Department of the Environment finalized new protections against air pollution from the state’s coal-fired power plants. Maryland Governor Larry Hogan frustrated Maryland citizens when he dropped these vital safeguards the day he took office, an outcome that NRG lobbied for.

“Every community deserves clean air, and we’re calling on NRG to be a partner in our efforts to clean up our air in Baltimore. NRG knows that the giant centralized utility model is one of the past,” said Talya Tavor, a community member and local organizer from Baltimore, MD who lives near NRG’s Dickerson and Chalk Point Coal Plants.  “We're living in an era where people value energy freedom and customer choice. That freedom and choice should extend to ALL communities; not just some.”

Press Release Contact: Emily Rosenwasser, Emily.Rosenwasser@sierraclub.org 

In the NEWS

Lancaster ecology firm sets stage for rewards from ‘green economy’

Kevin Neumaier sees nothing but opportunity in the budding “green economy,” but the president of Ecology & Environment also says the Lancaster environmental services firm may have to wait a little while to reap its full rewards.

Between rising interest in wind-energy projects, efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and a push to make buildings more energy-efficient and environmentally friendly, Neumaier believes that E&E will have plenty of chances to find work in the coming years.

Neumaier believes that some of that growth will come from efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, easing one of the main causes of global warming. That could lead to increased spending on renewable energy projects, such as wind farms, as an alternative to power plants that run on fossil fuels, such as coal and natural gas.

E&E already is working on dozens of wind projects, which has led to E&E’s wind project revenues to jump from almost nothing in 2004 to nearly $8 million last year. Neumaier believes that offshore wind farms will be a fast-growing part of that business in the coming years, despite questions about the affordability of electricity generated by those projects.

E&E also expects more work from efforts to make buildings greener. The company this week was named by the General Services Administration as one of 18 contractors nationally to work on efforts to make federal buildings more energy-efficient and environmentally friendly. While it’s not clear how much work that will bring E&E, company officials said that it could average about $5 million to $7 million a year over the next few years.

Read the report by David Robinson in The Buffalo News.


Montante, Chinese sign solar power deal

An industrial park under development in the Town of Tonawanda has been rebranded as New York’s first “solar ready” commercial development, as its owners Monday celebrated the signing of a deal expected to bring Chinese know-how and investment to the site.

Leaders of TM Montante Development, the owners of the newly renamed Riverview Solar Technology Park, and the Shanghai New Energy Industry Association held a ceremonial signing of a memorandum of understanding Monday morning at the offices of the Buffalo Niagara Partnership in downtown Buffalo.

The text of the memo was not made public, but it was described by leaders of both parties as a promise and plan to link the renewable energy industries of China, where 35 percent of the world’s solar energy modules are made, and Western New York, where solar and other renewable energy sources are seen as an environmentally responsible route to economic renewal.

State economic development officials announced recently that the state had awarded a $1 million grant to the Town of Tonawanda for its Riverwalk East Park Connector project to build roads and utility services for the Montante project and for the town-owned North Youngmann Commerce Center nearby.

Read the report by George Pyle in The Buffalo News.


Senate, House panels approve `net metering' bills

A bill aimed at utility customers who install renewable power sources such as wind turbines is seriously flawed and would hurt Indiana's renewable energy movement, clean energy advocates told a state Senate committee Thursday.

The bill would expand the number of customers who can send excess power from wind, solar and other renewable energy systems back into the electric grid - an option currently limited to schools and homeowners.

But before the Senate Utilities and Technology Committee approved the bill 8-3 and sent it to the full Senate, it endorsed changes that drew strong criticism from supporters of efforts to expand Indiana's "net metering" rules.

The amended bill bars customers generating more than 10 kilowatts from carrying over excess power credit on to future bills. "You will kill net metering if you do not allow customers to roll over credit," said Laura Arnold, president of Indiana Distributed Energy Advocates.

Read the AP report in The Buffalo News.

ENERGY in the BUFFALO NEWS

Huntley dream was just too speculative
Clean-coal technology was pricey, unproven
By David Robinson NEWS BUSINESS REPORTER Updated: 07/20/08
At first glance, the advanced coal power plant proposed for the Huntley Station in the Town of Tonawanda seemed like a good solution to some of America’s energy problems. Use America’s abundant — and relatively affordable — supply of coal to generate electricity in a groundbreaking new way that would keep the carbon dioxide that causes global warming from spewing into the atmosphere. But the reality was far different for the Huntley Station project — and at least 11 other similar plants that had been on drawing boards across the country. Read more...

Power project short-circuits
Loss of Huntley clean-coal effort hurts, but the numbers simply didn’t add up
EDITORIAL Updated: 07/19/08
It’s a shame it had to come to cancellation, but the decision to abandon plans to build a technologically advanced clean-coal generating plant in Tonawanda looks like the right move. When the science is uncertain and the cost is prohibitive, few other choices remain, especially when the state — which would have to subsidize the project — is already facing a massive deficit. Read more...

Gore calls end of fossil fuel reliance key to resolving economic crisis
By Dina Cappiello - ASSOCIATED PRESS Updated: 07/18/08
WASHINGTON — Former Vice President Al Gore called Thursday for a “man on the moon” effort to switch all of the nation’s electricity production to wind, solar and other carbon-free sources within 10 years, a goal that he said would solve global warming as well as economic and natural security crises caused by dependence on fossil fuels. Read more...
Video and text of Gore's speech are here.

Scrapped coal plant would have cost taxpayers at least $175 million a year
Huntley Station project also would have relied on unproven technology
By David Robinson NEWS BUSINESS REPORTER Updated: 07/17/08
State officials pulled the plug Wednesday on a proposed $1.6 billion advanced coal project that would have brought more than 1,000 construction and operating jobs to the Town of Tonawanda, saying the electrical generating plant would cost taxpayers too much and relied on technology that remains unproven. Read more...

Lackawanna project needs hard look
Coal-to-synthetic gas plant sounds good but waste-carbon process is incomplete
EDITORIAL Updated: 07/11/08
Everybody wants to be in on the ground floor of the next big thing. The question about the proposed Lackawanna Clean Energy project is whether it is the wave of the future or a delusional last gasp for the carbon-based economy. That is the question that will need to be pondered as state officials consider environmental permits for the project and when, and if, project managers seek anything in the way of public funding or tax breaks. Read more...
Proposal for synthetic gas plant at Bethlehem Steel site raises both hopes and doubts. NEWS report by Stephen T. Watson is here.

New Under The Sun
Outrages & Insights Blog By James Heaney 7/10/08
Ah, progress. The mainstream economic development agencies are waking up to the potential of the green economy. Buffalo Niagara Enterprise has launched a campaign to attract solar manufacturers to the region, piggy-backing on plans by Globe Metals to open a plant in Niagara Falls next year to produce high-grade silicon, the key material for the panels. Read more...