Stopping Fibrowatt in Georgia

I’m a little tardy reporting some developments regarding the company Fibrowatt, which back in early 2010 was looking at Page County as a potential location for one of their power plants fuelled by chicken litter. Early this summer, I heard that Fibrowatt was looking at Hart County, Georgia, as a potential location; in following up, I saw one of the standard Fibrowatt playbook activities starting to appear: the company had begun marketing to the local Economic Development Authority, industry stakeholders, and others for several months before their Georgia initiative became public knowledge.


However, as soon as the Fibrowatt efforts were publicized, local citizens did their due diligence – discovering, as we did in Page County, that there are many cons associated with one of these plants in exchange for limited pros. In addition to setting out on their own due diligence research, some Hart County citizens formed a stop Fibrowatt campaign, consulting with the two environmental oriented groups BREDL and Energy Justice, as well as citizen groups here in Page and in North Carolina.

Hart County found, just as these other communities encountering the prospect of a Fibrowatt plant in 2010 did before them, that the presence of a Fibrowatt plant means potential damage to the environment and health concerns to the local residents. To accept a Fibrowatt plant means making a deal that includes these risks as the price for…well, there are likely to be some economic benefits, but the value of the potential economic benefits are questionable and hard to quantify.

In Page County’s case, this compromise would have meant substantial negative impacts to our emerging active tourism industry. (Interested readers can consult past due diligence posts here on Hawksbill Cabin by clicking on the Fibrowatt label at the end of this post.)

Earlier this month, August 2010, Fibrowatt announced that it had decided not to pursue the Hart County location – citing their inability to establish terms for selling litter fuelled power to the local electricity distributers. Curiously, this news was announced on the very day a public meeting was scheduled there, which was to be the first official introduction of Fibrowatt to the local citizenry.

The full announcement from Dwayne Dye, economic development director at Hart County, included the following quote (this press release can be found via Google search):

“…The Hart County Industrial Building Authority has consistently stated throughout the preliminary evaluation phase with Fibrowatt, LLC, that certain steps are necessary to facilitate a project of this nature. Business needs dictate that a power purchase agreement (PPA) between Fibrowatt and utility companies must be accomplished before subsequent site location selection, permitting, and commissioning could begin. We have been notified, as of Thursday, August 5, 2010, that no such agreements are able to be reached, and Fibrowatt is terminating its site selection activities in Georgia, including Hart County… .”

On their site, http://www.stopfibrowatt.com/ , the Hart County citizens have put together a substantial amount of research that documents what they found related to Fibrowatt. Before I close with their take on Fibrowatt’s pull-out, here are some words that Terry Walmsley, Fibrowatt’s spokesperson had to say about the Georgia initiative: “While we recognize that a community will have a lot of questions about a project like Fibrowatt’s – we just wish more importance was placed on actual facts and the opinion of a community like Benson that has actually gone through the whole process.”

Mr. Walmsley frequently makes reference to “actual facts” in his commentary – and he did so here on Hawksbill Cabin back in March. Rather than offering convincing data that would firmly establish whether Fibrowatt’s net impact would be positive or negative, he seems to argue that the average citizen just doesn’t know how to interpret the permitting documents or the Benson plant’s environmental violations. He faces an uphill battle selling this technology to any community as long as he avoids the facts that are easy enough to find in a simple web search, including material that Fibrowatt makes available on its own home page.

So closing out, here is the note that visitors are greeted by on the Hart County community’s “Stop Fibrowatt” page:

“The citizens against Fibrowatt in northeast Georgia would like to thank everyone who made it clear that they did not want this poultry waste incinerator in our area. Literally thousands of you mobilized, contacting everyone from government officials to the various media outlets using every communication means possible. Ultimately, you were determined to make your voice heard. If you still have a “Stop Fibrowatt” sign in front of your home or business, we humbly ask that you continue to support the manufacturers in our area: great companies such as Fenner-Dunlop, Ritz Instrument Transformers, T-I Automotive, and C-D Controls, just to name a few. Finally, remember, our work is not done. We implore you to work with you elected officials and community leaders to bring environmental industries to our area. Industries that create jobs and stimulate the local economy. Again, we thank you for your efforts to stop Fibrowatt in northeast Georgia.