July 28, 2009 -- The Board of Works approved the land to be sold to Liberty Green, LLC without the knowledge of the other members of the City Council. This is legal, just not very ethical. According to the minutes (which are public record) they spent only 25 minutes discussing it. They then went on to present it favorably to the Area Planning Commission. Members of the Board of Works are Bill Graham (mayor), Ray Zollman (president of the ciy council), and Chuck Rose (principal of Lexington Elementary and member of the city council). These three took a major liberty with this town and your health by approving this. Feel free to let them know how you feel by calling them at 812-752-3169.
August 12, 2009 -- The Area Planning Commission hears the application to allow Liberty Green to build a biomass incinerator across from Multicolor. Boswell, Kilburn, and Wilkerson vote YES to accept it, but it needed 4 votes to pass, so it did not. They all voted to look at it again on Aug 26. Note that these three men voted YES to this plant every time they could. The voters should know this. I have the minutes to this meeting, and will forward them to you if you request them via email. The attachments were just too big to attach here by a link.
August 26, 2009 - Under the radar of the community, the Area Planning Commission hears arguments to allow Liberty Green, LLC to come to Scottsburg and build a biomass incinerator plant on HWY 31 across the street from Multi-Color Corperation. They decide to put the vote off until the September meeting. Click Here to see the whole application process for this plant, including receipts, letters, voting, and visual plans.
September 2009 - The Area Planning Commission votes (4-3) to allow the plant to be built as requested.
An article in the Courier Journal mentions the plans, causing citizens to creat the Concerned Citizens for Scott County. I will provide a link to the article when I get it.
October 14, 2009 - Liberty Green, LLC requests to change what they can burn in the proposed plant, from only wood chips to combination of of wood, construction debris, and other less desireables. The Area Planning Commission needs 4 votes of 7 to pass the amendment, but only get 3. The issue dies, and Liberty Green, LLC's lawyer states that he will sue.
October 2009 -- The Concerned Citizens of Scott County attend and spoke at a school board meeting. Pat was the one to speak, and she arrived after the public was allowed to speak. We waited until the very end and asked if we could address the board, and they agreed. Pat started and Jeff ended the discussion. This was our first outing as the Concerned Citizens and it showed. It didn't go well. The board was attentive, but we were both nervous and rambled. We distributed literature, and it ended. Lesson learned. Pat discussed the issue with a high-up school system offical the next day and was told that they wanted to stay out of it.
Late October 2009 - Upon realizing that most of Scott County has no idea that any of this is happening, The Concerned Citizens of Scott County take to the air waves, appearing on NPR and WMPI radio, WHAS 11 tv, and in print in the Giveaway, The Scott County Journal, and the Courier Journal. November 18, 2009 - The Area Planning Commission took the Concerned Citizens of Scott County off of the agenda for the night, and when 100 banner-waving citizens showed up at 6:30 expecting to voice their opinions, both the APC and the citizens were upset. Commisioner Hobbs stated "we are not gonna go into that tonight, so you might as well go home." Both sides shouted at each other, and the meeting ended with Mike Carter, the legal representation of the Area Planning Commission, stating that if we didn't like it that we should "get a lawyer." A local doctor stood and said that he would.
November 2009 -- After the Concerned Citizens of Scott County met with the principal of Vienna Finley Elementary to voice their concerns, the central administration of Scott County School Distric 2 gave Liberty Green the same privilege, letting the principal owners visit and talk to the principal of this school in order to be fair.
Early November 2009 - The Concerned Citizens of Scott County handed out over 3000 fliers inviting the public to an information meeting on biomass, the problem with it, and what we can do about it.
November 3, 2009 - Liberty Green sends all of the local businesses a letter stating how wonderful they are, including intruths such as being a 28MW plant, when in their air permit they admit it is a 32 MW plant, and that there will be no particulate emissions, when again in their air permit they state that there will be 185 tons of particulate emissions per year. Click here to see it.
November 9, 2009 - The Concerned Citizens of Scott County and Dr. Sammons meet in Jeffersonville with representatives of US Representative Baron Hill. Closing the loophole to allow biomass plants to recieve renewable energy credits was discussed, but they were non-committal, and stated that they would pass the issue on to Baron Hill.
November 10, 2009 - A 2 hour meeting at First Southern Baptist Church in Scottsburg was attended by 200 citizens of Scottsburg and beyond. The speakers were Jeff Cox, Alice (a nurse at Clark Memorial Hospital), and Dr. Bill Sammons(a nationally known expert on the dangers of biomass incineratinon). Here is a link to the meeting divided into 3 online files.
http://video.yahoo.com/watch/6706173/17418290
http://video.yahoo.com/watch/6706244/17418427
http://video.yahoo.com/watch/6706272/17418469
November 19, 2009 - The Concerned Citizens of Scott County, concerned citizens from Crawford County (they have a proposed biomass plant as well) and Dr. Sammons meet in Indianapolis with representatives of US Senator Evan Bayh and Governor Mitch Daniels. Closing the loophole to allow biomass plants to recieve renewable energy credits was discussed, both were impressed and interested, and stated that they would pass the issue on. They also met with Senator Dick Lugar's representatives, and after a disagreement with Lane Ralph (one of Lugar's people), the Mr. Ralph walked out, basically ending the visit by the concerned citizens. He later wrote apology letters for his conduct. I will scan it in and post it here soon.
December 7th, 2009 - The mayor refused to let a group of approximately 20 concerned citizens speak at the city council meeting, but has agreed to have us on the agenda for the December 21st meeting. This is our chance!
December 7th - The EPA (the Environmental Protection Agency) has decided as of today that Carbon Dioxide is harmful to humans and thus will need to be regulated by them. This is a major development. I will let you know its consequences as they show up.
December 15th--Dr. Sammons gives his talk to a crowd of concerned citizens and college students in Bloomington, IN http://www.bloomingtonalternative.com/articles/2009/12/13/10252
December 15th--Alice S. addressed the County Council and informed them of the dangers of biomass incineration.
December 15th--A contingent of 4 citizens and Dr. Sammons travelled to Indianapolis and worked with several state senators to draft legislation that would help the fight against the biomass incinerator. There was very positive results.
December 21--A large group of concerned citizens attend the city council meeting. Around 20 people spoke to the council about their concerns, and it seemed that the council and the mayor listened, but they did not agree to do anything specific. This is a link to a news story WHAS CH11 did on the city countil meeting. Many citizens showed up to show theirdisapproval of the biomass incinerator.
http://www.whas11.com/news/local/Scottsburg-citizens-voice-their-opinions-of-proposed-biomass-plant-79867317.html
{Keep the pressure on! The mayor promised an information session with a representative from Purdue University to "ease our fears." If you google Purdue and Biomass, you will see that Purdue has lots of money and research invested in biomass, so they are not our friends on this. This comes directly from their website "researchers have estimated that the United States has a sustainable supply of about 1.4 billion tons of biomass each year that could be used." Seems like we have another, and more powerful adversary here. Sigh.}
12/25/09 The mayor promised at the recent City Council meeting an information session with a representative from Purdue University to "ease our fears." If you go online, you will see that Purdue has lots of money and research invested in biomass, so they are not our friends on this. This comes directly from their website "researchers have estimated that the United States has a sustainable supply of about 1.4 billion tons of biomass each year that could be used." We need to get the research and be ready to refute the claims that biomass is wonderful, which the Purdue rep is sure to claim. This is the Purdue Biomass webpage. Go to their contacts page and send them an email stating that if they are just going to tell us that it is harmless, to just stay at Purdue. We know better.
http://extension.purdue.edu/renewable-energy/indiana-biomass-working-group.shtml
UPDATE: When we asked if we could bring our own expert (Indeed, Dr. Sammons was coming to refute the misinformation the Purdue expert was going to say) they cancelled the meeting altogether.
12/19/09 A group met at Vienna Methodist to discuss how to defeat the biomass incinerator and discussed it with a member of the City Council, a member of the Area Planning Commission, and a member of the water board.
.12/25/09 We all enjoy what may be our last Christmas in Scottsburg without a biomass incinerator. Sigh.
1/5/10 & 1/12/10 - A group of concerned citizens met at Vienna Methodist to discuss how to defeat the planned incinerator.
1/11/10--Forrest Lucas joins the fight against biomass incinerators! http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20100110/NEWS02/1100362/1025/rss02
1/13/10 - Concerned Citizens of Scott County travel to Crawford County to support the citizens who are fighting against a biomass incinerator that is being proposed by the same group (Liberty Green) as the Scottsburg plant. Click here to see the Channe 11 news story. http://www.whas11.com/news/local/Hundreds-of-Crawford-County-Residents-Fight-Against-Proposed-Biomass-Plant-81416947.html
1/21/10 Three representatives met with the Vienna Finley PTO to discuss why this is a huge problem for their kids. Literature and a yard sign was distributed.
1/25/10 - Liberty Green hosted an open invitation inofrmation meeting about how wonderful it would be to have an incinerator in Scottsburg. It was lightly attented, and mostly by opponents who wanted to refute their claims. Here is a link to the CH11 story about it. http://www.whas11.com/news/local/Residents-continue-fight-as-proposed-biomass-bill-nears-approval-82657547.html
1/26/10 - The Concerned Citizens of Scott County hold a public information meeting about that dangers of having a biomass incinerator in Scottsburg, and what they could do about it. There were about 200 people or so who turned up, including 2 of the principal investors of Liberty Green! Channel 41 news was there to interview them, and did a few concerned citizens interviews as well. Here is a link to the news story. http://www.fox41.com/global/story.asp?s=11885806 There was a nice article in the Courier Journal at this link. http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=20101270416
2/2/10 Liberty Green files a 13 page motion to get their short smokestack to count as good enough, even though the law states it must be 200'. Click here to see the motion.
2/3/10 - Over 500 citizens showed up to Scottsburg High School to share their concerns with the representatives from IDEM. Approximately 100 people spoke, and it lasted for 6 hours! (5:30-11:30!) Many citizens vented, griped, complained, and universally asked IDEM to deny the permit, something they admit that they almost never do. The TV link is here. http://www.fox41.com/global/story.asp?s=11929982 The link to the Courier Journal article is here. http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20100204/GREEN/2040387/Biomass+plant+foes+pack+Scott+meeting
2/5/10 The FAA rules on the smoke stack and how its height affects the local airport. Click Here
2/8/10: Liberty Green has asked the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission to decline jurisdiction over their property and its operation. They will have a public comment session on March 2nd at 9:30am at the National City Center on Washington Street near Circle Center Mall. Click here to read their request.
2/10/10 The Area Planning Commission met at 7:30, and we tried for 5 days to get on the agenda, but at the last minute was told we could not be on the agenda. When asked at this meeting how they make that decision, Jamie Knowles, the Executive Director of the APC stated that he has the power to allow people to be on the agenda, but that he always asks Mike Carter, the attorney for the board for his opinion on the matter. That is why we weren't on the agenda. Mr. Carter advised against it. Click Here to see his letter to Jamie Knowles. We had between 50-75 people show up, and thanks to Mr. Craig (a member of the board), we got to hear the way this process works. Mr. Whittymore spoke against people ever having a chance to speak to the board without having a case, and even though it was his first meeting, he was quite aggressive about his knowledge on how it should operate. He replaced Mr. Kilburn, who resigned. He doesn't seem friendly to our cause. Thank you for all who showed up at the Area Planning Commission meeting. We were shut out of the official agenda, but our feelings were felt strongly!
2/10 The Concerned Citizens of Scott County team up with the Citizens Action Coalition to fight Liberty Green's latest request that they not be regulated by the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission. The legal fight has already started on this front.
3/2/10 - The lawyer for the Concerned Citizens and the Citizens Action Coalition files a request of information from Liberty Green.
3/9/10 The Concerned Citizens of Scott County held a large public meeting of around 150 people at First Southern Baptist Church was held to update the citizens and keep them energized in the long fight against this power plant. Speakers were Jeff Cox of The Concerned Citizens of Scott County, Councilman Terry Amick, and Kerwin Olsen of the Citizens Action Coalition.
3/9/10 - Liberty Green files responses to the requests for information.
3/25/10 Tokusen announces they will be coming to Scottsburg to create 134 manufacturing jobs, filling the void left by American Steel Cord when they left their facility.
3/26/10 The Concerned Citizens of Scott County mailed out letters to all public officials in Scott County wanting to know their stance on the biomass plant.
4/7/10--We have the responses! Click on the biomass report card to find out what they think.
4/15/10 Liberty Green and the Mayor buy a full-page ad in the Scott County Giveaway stating that the biomass plant is harmless and will improve life in Scott County. Absurd, huh?
4/15/10 Area Planning Commission meeting. Once again Mr. Carter, the legal advisor for the board, refused to allow Pat to talk, stating that they could be sued.
4/15/10 The IURC sets up a public hearing at Scottsburg High School at 6pm on May 26th as to whether to allow the power plant to be built. They want to hear from all Scott County citizens! Click here to see it.
4/15/10 Liberty Green applies for a water permit with IDEM regarding the use of wetlands. Click here to see it.
7/10 At an Area Planning Commission meeting at Scottsburg High School (in front of 150-200 cheering and jeering local citizens), the APC voted 4-2 to not allow Liberty Green to build a biomass plant on the Tex Murphy property. This means Liberty Green has to go back to the original property, or choose a 3rd property. Liberty Green has stated they will appeal this decision in court.
8/7/10 The Scott County Journal, the local newspaper in Scott County, states on the top of the front page that Liberty Green has applied for their Acid Rain Permit. Acit Rain!?! How can they say this is going to create "a better Scottsburg"?
9/2010 The County Commissioners pass a protective ordinance for Scott County that will protect against any future moves by the Liberty Green Power plant or any other such abominations! Way to go!
12/29/10 The Huffington Post wrote an article about the average person's fight to stop biomass plants from coming to their town. Click Here