FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Citizens Challenge Air Permit for Port St. Joe Biomass Burning Plant

CONTACT: Meg Sheehan, The Biomass Accountability Project, Inc., 800-729-1363

A group of citizens and one conservation group announced that it has asked Florida DEP for a full administrative hearing on the air pollution permit issued January 27, 2010 allowing Biomass Gas & Electric Company to proceed with construction of an incinerator that will burn trees and other materials to generate electricity. In a petition filed with the DEP, the group asserts that the permit allows emissions of toxic chemicals such as dioxin, carbon monoxide, particulates and ozone forming chemicals that cause asthma, heart disease and cancer. The petition states that the company has not “provided reasonable assurance” that air pollution will protect human health and the environment and therefore violates Florida’s air pollution laws. The plant has received pre-approval from the U.S. Department of Energy for a loan guarantee for “clean energy” projects.”

“This plant is not clean – it is a dirty incinerator disguised as a “green” project,” said Bob Fulford, spokesperson for the group. Not only will it spew out some of the most toxic chemicals known to science, but it is a mile from a neighborhood that is sitting on top of a toxic waste dump created by the St. Joe paper mill in the 1950s. This is environmental injustice in the extreme: the people living in this community have enough exposure to toxic chemicals already, we don’t need more.”

The group is calling on Senator Bill Nelson and Governor Crist to intervene and ensure a complete and thorough review of the project’s toxic air emissions. “At a time when our nation is struggling to figure out how to pay health care costs, using our tax dollars to build an incinerator that will cause more deaths, respiratory disease, premature deaths and other preventable diseases is unacceptable public policy,” said Dr. Ron Saff on behalf of a group of medical professionals who are bringing national attention to this issue. “The American Lung Association and medical societies around the nation are raising the alarm about biomass incinerators disguised as clean energy – we believe we can do better than building incinerators when it comes to jobs and energy” said Dr. Saff.