WGVU’s Patrick Center reached out to the Department of Public Works.
A proposed Michigan Senate Clean Energy bill designates the Kent County Waste-to-Energy facility a clean energy producer of electricity.
But leaders from the Grand Rapids Climate Coalition, Urban Core Collective, Community Collaboration on Climate Change, Ecology Center and West Michigan Environmental Action Council say the incinerator doesn’t produce energy it considers clean or renewable.
The environmentalists are also concerned about the incinerator’s emissions.
WGVU reached out to the Kent County Department of Public Works. Director Dar Baas said,
“For more than 30 years, Kent County’s Waste to Energy facility has been a key part of an integrated materials management system that allows our community to dispose responsibly and reliably of waste while producing local energy and reducing our reliance on landfills. Waste to Energy is a source for local energy and upholds the highest environmental standards, meeting and exceeding the strictest federal standards set forth by the U.S. EPA and other regulatory bodies by employing sophisticated clean air technologies to achieve superior environmental performance. We operate, on average, 90 percent below permit limits. Not including Waste to Energy in the clean energy bills will result in less revenue and therefore higher costs for local communities to dispose of waste.”
Environmental groups are asking the clean energy bill’s language be modified.