Burger plant biomass retrofit proposal
Ohio Edison, a FirstEnergy utility, has proposed converting two units totaling 312 MW at its R.E. Burger coal plant in Belmont County to burn biomass.
Background: The Burger plant is one of six FirstEnergy coal plants in Ohio. Several years ago, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the state governments of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut filed a lawsuit against FirstEnergy, claiming that Burger and several other plants were violating the Clean Air Act. FirstEnergy responded by agreeing to either shut down or clean up these plants.
Earlier this year, FirstEnergy announced it would shut down the Burger plant. Facing political and other pressures, however, the company decided instead to investigate converting the plant to burn biomass as a creative way to achieve the reductions in harmful emissions that the U.S. EPA was demanding. In August, 2009, FirstEnergy reached an agreement with U.S. EPA that allowed the company to keep Burger running on biomass.
See Sierra Club's comments on the proposed modified Consent Decree allowing FirstEnergy to convert Burger to burn biomass (.doc file, 120 KB)
In general, Sierra Club commends FirstEnergy for its willingness to consider other sources of electricity besides coal. However, we are very concerned that the sheer scale of the proposed project means it will be almost impossible for FirstEnergy to obtain so much biomass in a sustainable way. In addition, our comments point out several ways in which the proposed Consent Decree fails to protect human health and the environment.
Sierra Club's comments were co-signed by our partners, the Buckeye Forest Council and Environment Ohio.
For a more general (and positive) view of the proposal, check out the following media articles: