<div dir="ltr">Remember, a few years ago the University of Montana wanted to spend nearly $20 million dollars to construct a wood-burning biomass plant right in the middle of the University of Montana campus in very close proximity to the freshman dorms. <div><br></div><div>Good thing that never happened, but the Montana timber industry and many elected officials are still pushing for taxpayer-subsidized wood-burning biomass facilities throughout Montana. </div><div><br></div><div>Read on to see why these biomass plants are not always all they are cracked up to be. </div><div><br><div><br></div><div><h1 class="" style="border:0px;font-family:Bitter,serif;font-style:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;clear:both;word-wrap:break-word"><font size="4" style="border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-weight:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(61,123,96);text-decoration:none"><a href="http://forestpolicypub.com/2015/10/20/gypsum-co-biomass-plant-update-fires-fraudulent-transfers-civil-conspiracy-oh-my/" title="Permanent Link to Gypsum, CO Biomass Plant Update: Fires, ‘fraudulent transfers’ & ‘civil conspiracy’…Oh my!" rel="bookmark" style="border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-weight:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(61,123,96);text-decoration:none">Gypsum, CO Biomass Plant Update: Fires, ‘fraudulent transfers’ & ‘civil conspiracy’…Oh my!</a></font></h1><div class="" style="border:0px;font-family:Gudea,sans-serif;font-size:16px;margin:1.5em 0px 0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(64,64,64)"><p style="border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-style:inherit;margin:0px 0px 1.5em;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline">LINK: <a href="http://forestpolicypub.com/2015/10/20/gypsum-co-biomass-plant-update-fires-fraudulent-transfers-civil-conspiracy-oh-my/">http://forestpolicypub.com/2015/10/20/gypsum-co-biomass-plant-update-fires-fraudulent-transfers-civil-conspiracy-oh-my/</a></p><p style="border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-style:inherit;margin:0px 0px 1.5em;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline">Over the past few years this blog <a href="http://forestpolicypub.com/?s=Gypsum%2C+Colorado&submit=Search" style="border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-style:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(61,123,96);text-decoration:none">has covered a few articles</a> related to the Gypsum biomass plant in Colorado.</p><p style="border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-style:inherit;margin:0px 0px 1.5em;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline">In fact, back in August 2013 this blog shared <a href="http://forestpolicypub.com/2013/08/16/senator-udall-on-biomass-plant-in-gypsum/" style="border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-style:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(61,123,96);text-decoration:none">an article</a> in which “U.S. Sen. Mark Udall said the Gypsum biomass power plant is a “win-win-win” project when he and state Sen. Gail Schwartz toured the plant’s construction site on Friday afternoon.”</p><p style="border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-style:inherit;margin:0px 0px 1.5em;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline">So what’s happened since that August 2013 proclamation of a “win-win-win?”</p><p style="border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-style:inherit;margin:0px 0px 1.5em;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline">Well, according to <a href="http://www.energyjustice.net/content/biomass-energy-growing-pains" style="border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-style:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(61,123,96);text-decoration:none">an article</a> written by Josh Schlossberg with the Biomass Monitor:</p><blockquote style="border-width:0px 0px 0px 2px;border-left-style:solid;border-color:rgb(183,199,189);font-family:inherit;font-style:inherit;margin:0px 0px 1.5em;outline:0px;padding:1.6em 1.6em 0.1rem;vertical-align:baseline;quotes:'';background-color:rgb(240,246,234);border-top-right-radius:5px;border-bottom-right-radius:5px"><p style="border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-style:inherit;margin:0px 0px 1.5em;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline">Eagle Valley Clean Energy, an 11.5-megawatt biomass power facility in Gypsum, Colorado started operating in December 2013, only to have its conveyor belt catch <a class="" href="http://www.postindependent.com/news/15600919-113/gypsum-biomass-power-plant-still-off-line-after-december-fire" style="border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-style:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(61,123,96);text-decoration:none">fire</a> in December 2014. Spokespersons said the facility would be back online shortly, yet as of October, it’s still offline. There have been no further media reports investigating why the facility still isn’t operating, and multiple calls and emails to the facility from <em style="border:0px;font-family:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline">The Biomass Monitor </em>were not returned.</p><p style="border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-style:inherit;margin:0px 0px 1.5em;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline">Another thorn in Eagle Valley’s claw is a <a class="" href="https://dockets.justia.com/docket/colorado/codce/1:2015cv01252/156554" style="border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-style:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(61,123,96);text-decoration:none">lawsuit</a> filed against the company in U.S. District Court in June 2015 by Wellons, Inc., an Oregon-based corporation that designed and built the biomass facility.</p><p style="border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-style:inherit;margin:0px 0px 1.5em;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline">Wellons is suing Eagle Valley Clean Energy for $11,799,864 for breach of contract, accusing the company of “fraudulent transfers” and “civil conspiracy,” involving the transferring of $18.5 million of federal subsidies to “insider” parties in an alleged effort to hide the money. The money was issued to the facility from the federal government under Section of 1603 of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), also known as the Stimulus, involving payments to reimburse companies building renewable energy facilities.</p><p style="border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-style:inherit;margin:0px 0px 1.5em;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline">Wellons claims that, on top of the nearly twelve million dollars Eagle Valley must pay them, they are owed past due interest of $1,185,433.56, with debt accruing at $3254.90 per day.</p><p style="border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-style:inherit;margin:0px 0px 1.5em;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline">Another bump in the road for Eagle Valley involves the Chapter 11 <a class="" href="http://www.bloomberg.com/Research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=290825398" style="border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-style:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(61,123,96);text-decoration:none">bankcruptcy</a> of the logging contractor that provides them the trees to fuel the facility, West Range Reclamation. West Range has provided nearly all of the wood to the facility since it opened, mostly from beetle-killed lodgepole pine from the White River National Forest.</p></blockquote><p style="border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-style:inherit;margin:0px 0px 1.5em;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline">Ouch, eh? So essentially every single thing celebrated before the Gypsum Biomass Plant was built turned out – in reality (and in only a short 2 year timeframe) – to be a tremendous disaster. Hopefully the media in Colorado will do a follow up investigation, because as Schlossberg pointed out above, “There have been no further media reports investigating why the facility still isn’t operating, and multiple calls and emails to the facility from <em style="border:0px;font-family:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline">The Biomass Monitor </em>were not returned.”</p><p style="border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-style:inherit;margin:0px 0px 1.5em;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline">Make sure to check out the rest of <a href="http://www.energyjustice.net/content/biomass-energy-growing-pains" style="border:0px;font-family:inherit;font-style:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(61,123,96);text-decoration:none">Schlossberg’s article</a> to read about more recent growing pains with other wood-burning biomass plants in Florida, Wisconsin, Texas and Hawaii.</p></div></div></div></div>