Gary Advocates Ask Judge to Revoke Waste-to-Jet-Fuel Plant’s Permit

December 17, 2022

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by Rebecca Thiele (WVPE/IPB News) Advocates in Gary say the Indiana Department of Environmental Management broke the law when it granted a permit for a plant that would turn waste into jet fuel. They're asking the state Office of Environmental Adjudication to revoke that permit and not issue another one until the company can provide more information.

Fulcrum BioEnergy plans to use trash from landfills in the region to make fuel. But Gary Advocates for Responsible Development (GARD) said the company didn’t say what the trash would be made of specifically — which makes it hard to figure out how much the plant would pollute.

“As you know from your own household garbage, your garbage is different every day. And we also know that people throw things in their garbage cans that shouldn't be there," said GARD member Dorreen Carey.

In written responses to GARD's questions about its emissions and waste material last year, Fulcrum said it took samples of trash from the region and averaged out how much different categories of waste weighed.

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About 30 percent of the waste would be from plastic. Because different types of plastic are made from different chemicals, it's unclear what the proposed plant would emit into the air in Gary at any given time.

The company also said that it would remove recyclables and "unsuitable materials" before processing the waste.

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GARD said the agency also should have done a more thorough analysis to make sure the plant won't harm Gary residents' health.

“We are confident in IDEM’s decision on the merits of our application and will continue to work with the state as the process goes on," said Flyn van Ewijk of Fulcrum BioEnergy in a statement.

The company also pointed to community resources on its website for more information. READ MORE

Resident groups petition for review of biorefinery permit in Gary (Chicago Crusader)

'This is not good enough': Gary environmental group filing petition for review of waste-to-jet-fuel air permit (nwi.com)

A Gary, Indiana Plant Would Make Jet Fuel From Trash and Plastic. Residents Are Pushing Back -- Fulcrum BioEnergy says its “sustainable aviation fuel” will divert waste from Chicago-area landfills and reduce airline carbon emissions. But critics say there’s nothing sustainable about it—and even question its viability. (Inside Climate News)

Centerpoint BioFuels Plant (Fulcrum)

Gary community group questions proposed biofuel plant emission calculations, litigation tactics (Indianapolis Recorder)

Excerpt from Chicago Crusader: The Indiana Office of Environmental Adjudication will now schedule hearings on the petition after which the Environmental Law Judge will issue findings of fact, conclusions of law, and the final order. READ MORE

Excert fom Inside Climate News: For Fulcrum’s production here, the company plans to collect and sort municipal waste that otherwise would head to a landfill, and shred it at up to two locations outside of Gary. In all, the company plans to divert 700,000 tons of municipal solid waste from the region each year; Chicago alone produced more than 4 million tons of solid waste in 2020, according to a 2021 University of Illinois at Chicago study.

The Gary plant’s feedstock—about half paper and 30 percent plastic, along with wood and other trash—will be hauled into the city in about 90 trucks a day, the company has said.

The presence of plastic causes two main problems. Plastic is made from a myriad of chemical mixtures. Gasification systems function the best with a consistent feedstock, McCormick said, so plastic waste poses a technical challenge.

Plastic complicates the company’s sustainability claims, as well.

With plastic waste as a feedstock, McCormick said, “you’re going to have to answer the question, ‘To what extent is it a sustainable aviation fuel compared to biomass?’ It’s not going to have as low of a carbon intensity … simply because the plastic is made out of petrochemicals, (or) fossil carbon.”

At least one airline is specifically targeting plastic waste to make fuel. United Kingdom-based Virgin Group, which includes the airline Virgin Atlantic, announced in February that it was partnering with U.S.-based Agilyx to produce synthetic crude oil from plastic waste that will then be refined into what it claims will be a lower-carbon fuel.

Fulcrum officials acknowledge plastic in its feedstock reduces its fuel’s climate benefits, even as it claims SAF from its Reno plant will represent an 80 percent reduction in greenhouse gases compared to traditional aviation fuel made from fossil fuels. And it expects that percentage to improve at its Gary plant.

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And a 2015 lifecycle analysis for the company’s Reno plant estimated that fuel produced there would result in a product claiming a less-robust climate benefit of 60 percent fewer greenhouse gas emissions compared with traditional fossil fuels.

Fulcrum officials said they updated the 2015 study for the California Air Resources Board, which lists the company’s claims as certified. But Fulcrum did not provide a copy of the updated analysis for Inside Climate News to review. Fulcrum also did not provide any analysis of carbon emissions for the proposed Gary plant.

The company claims benefits to the climate from keeping trash out of landfills, where it rots and releases methane, a potent greenhouse gas. But that’s an inexact science as well. Scientists and the EPA have been arguing over how to accurately calculate landfill gas emissions, Inside Climate News reported last year with NPR and Orlando public radio station WMFE.

Environmentalists are skeptical of the company’s claims, though Pavlenko (Nikita Pavlenko, a program leader with the International Council on Clean Transportation) said its fuel would represent “one of the better options” as long as the plastic content is “kept to a limited contribution.” READ MORE

Excerpt from Indianapolis Recorder: In an ongoing challenge to Fulcrum Centerpoint’s air pollution permit, GARD claims the company is “abusing discovery” by asking members to turn over private information, such as communications with spouses and employers, access to social media accounts and more.

GARD also claims the company provides no data to back up its claim that the fuel it produces will be “net zero carbon,” and the questionable litigation tactics are just a way to scare citizens from questioning Fulcrum’s environmental impacts, said Kim Ferraro, senior attorney at the Conservation Law Center at IU Bloomington Mauer School of Law.

“GARD’s members have every right to join together and question whether the state agency charged with protecting Indiana’s environment followed the law when it issued an air permit allowing Fulcrum to spew more toxic emissions into the already very dirty air that Gary residents have to breathe,” Ferraro said. “Fulcrum apparently doesn’t want that scrutiny and is paying its team of lawyers to shut the citizens down. We’re asking the administrative law judge to intervene and tell Fulcrum to stop harassing our clients so we can get on with the merits of the case — which is whether Fulcrum’s air permit complies with the law and is protective of human health and the environment.”

Currently, more than 78% of Gary’s 68,000 residents are Black. One in three city residents live in poverty.

Gary residents already breathe some of the most polluted air in the country, and the city has been designated by the EPA as an environmental justice community. Gary is surrounded by Superfund sites, steel mills and dump areas along the shores of Lake Michigan.

Residents have higher than average cancer and respiratory disease rates because of the historical level of pollution in the air, soil and water.

GARD President Dorreen Carey questions whether the Fulcrum plant will bring sustainable practices to Gary or pollute the city more.

Fulcrum representatives estimate the 75-acre plant would process waste from the greater Chicago area into 33 million gallons of bio-jet fuel annually, according to the company’s plan.

To heat the material to a degree that it can be gasified, the plan will require the burning of plastic waste, which critics say makes the company’s claim to be green unfounded.

According to GARD’s legal filing, the process has the potential to emit more than 1,400 tons of harmful volatile organic compounds (VOCs) each year. That number is three times more than what BP’s largest U.S. oil refinery reported in 2022.

GARD has also filed a Civil Rights Act complaint with the EPA. The complaint argues that the state’s decision to grant Fulcrum its air permit is part of a longstanding practice of local discrimination on the basis of race, color and national origin.

Biofuel production and use has benefits and drawbacks. It has the potential to reduce some environmental impacts of fossil fuel production and use, pollutant emissions and dependence on foreign suppliers, according to the EPA. Biofuel production and use requires major land and water resource requirements and can cause air and groundwater pollution. Depending on the production process, biofuels can emit more greenhouse gas emissions than some fossil fuels, according to the EPA.

Two reports to Congress concluded: 1. The environmental impacts of increased biofuel production were likely negative but limited in impact; 2. There is a potential for both positive and negative impacts in the future; 3. Energy reduction goals could be achieved with minimal environmental impacts if best practices were used and if technologies advanced to facilitate the use of second-generation biofuel feedstocks, such as waste.

A third report is under review. It will include a new analysis and an update on the impacts to date of biofuel production.

“We hope the administrative judge will tell Fulcrum to stop being a bully and trying to intimidate a citizen group that is rightly concerned with the health and welfare of the people of Gary,” Carey said. READ MORE