GreenYes Archives

[GreenYes Archives] - [Thread Index] - [Date Index]
[Date Prev] - [Date Next] - [Thread Prev] - [Thread Next]


[GreenYes] Important Hearing on Incinerators -- Monday Jan 9 -- Sacramento, CA


Apologies for Cross-Postings

From: "Monica Wilson" <mwilson@no.address>
Subject: [No-new-incinerators] Important Hearing on Incinerators -- Monday Jan 9 -- Sacramento
Date: Tue, 3 Jan 2006 17:02:37 -0800

Dear all,

A bill that could help the incinerator-in-disguise industry is going to be
discussed in a state Assembly committee hearing next Monday and it is
important to get as many voices there as possible. Below is an article from
today about this bill. However, the bill is expected to change for the
better, we should know more in the next few days.

Hearing details:
Monday, Jan. 9, 1:30
Sacramento (Capital room 447)

If you can attend this important hearing, please let me know! We will be
meeting in Sacramento in the morning to go to the offices of the Assembly
members in this committee, so please join us.

Please contact me if you have any questions,
Monica

--
Monica Wilson
GAIA: Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives/ Global Anti-Incinerator
Alliance, http://www.no-burn.org
1442A Walnut St #20, Berkeley, CA 94709 USA
+1-510-883-9490 ext. 103, mwilson@no.address

---------------
http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_3365598
LA Daily News, 03/2006

Refuse future hinges on bill: Law would aid trash-to-energy

By Kerry Cavanaugh, Staff Writer

The future of Los Angeles' trash policy could be decided in Sacramento,
where legislators are set this month to consider a bill that could make it
easier to build trash-to-energy plants.

Los Angeles city and county officials are studying so-called conversion
technologies that lessen dependence on landfills by turning trash into gas
or electricity.

City Councilman Greig Smith has proposed building plants in Los Angeles by
2010 to alleviate the need for Sunshine Canyon Landfill - the Granada Hills
dump that currently takes the city's residential trash - but said he needs a
change in state law to allow it.

Under current law, these technologies cannot generate any pollution, which
makes it virtually impossible to build trash-to-gas plants in California.

"Right now, they simply can't get permitted or sited," said David Roberti, a
former state senator and current president of the BioEnergy Producers
Association.

His group is pushing AB 1090, sponsored by Assemblywoman Barbara Matthews,
D-Stockton, which would define conversion technologies in state law and
equate conversion with recycling because both processes turn trash into
usable products.

The proposed law also would encourage the development of conversion
facilities because trash sent to trash-to-energy plants would be counted
toward the state mandate that 50 percent of all trash be diverted from
landfills.

But some environmental groups oppose the bill, saying it would undermine
recycling efforts.

In conversion, food scraps, tree branches and paper are broken down into
fuel that's burned and used one time, said Scott Smithline, policy analyst
for Californians Against Waste.

In recycling, bottles are converted into glass for new bottles, and the
process can be repeated over and over again.

"We are concerned that demand, that hunger for feedstock, is going to pull
materials from other traditional recycling uses," Smithline said. "Let's
make sure you're not diverting material that was going to compost. Let's
make sure you're not diverting paper that was going to the pulper for
recycled paper."

Conversion proponents say their plants would take only the trash left over
after recyclables are removed. In the city of Los Angeles, that material
currently goes to the Sunshine Canyon or Bradley landfills or one of the
dumps in a neighboring city.

There are also concerns among environmental groups, including the Natural
Resources Defense Council, that the bill will encourage unproven
technologies that could produce hazardous air contaminants.

Supporters hope AB 1090 will clear the Assembly's Natural Resources
Committee this month. If signed by the governor this year, the bill could
make it easier for conversion technologies to be built in California in
2007. The plants would still have to meet local government land-use
restrictions and Southern California's strict air quality regulations.

Kerry Cavanaugh, (818) 713-3746

kerry.cavanaugh@no.address


_______________________________________________
No-new-incinerators mailing list
No-new-incinerators@no.address
http://lists.essential.org/mailman/listinfo/no-new-incinerators

Gary Liss
916-652-7850
Fax: 916-652-0485
www.garyliss.com

[GreenYes Archives] - [Date Index] - [Thread Index]
[Date Prev] - [Date Next] - [Thread Prev] - [Thread Next]