Ryfa to Powers: Show Evidence of Financing for Trash-to-Ethanol Plant
by Marc Chase (Northwest Indiana Times) A Lake County solid waste management official wants to give Earl Powers 90 days to prove he can finance the trash-to-ethanol plant that he pledged more than 1,000 days ago to build.
Griffith Town Councilman Rick Ryfa, a member of the Lake County Solid Waste Management District board, said he and other board members are growing impatient with and skeptical of Powers’ ability to finance the proposed Schneider plant. The plant would rely on commercially unproven technology to transform carbon-based trash into the fuel alternative ethanol.
Ryfa said the board is becoming weary of the estimated groundbreaking and financing announcement dates that have come and gone several times over in the three years since Powers signed a contract with the county to build the plant.
And given the state of the economy, he said some board members are beginning to doubt if Powers’ company, Powers Energy of America, will be able to come up with hundreds of millions of dollars needed to cover the estimated price tag for the ethanol plant and a separate but connected solar power plant proposed for the Schneider site. READ MORE (includes a timeline of events since 2006) and MORE (editorial)
