The Sierra Club’s Theatrics
Reacting to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, Wolverine asked for an additional hearing to change the way that emissions are measured. The EPA changed the way emissions are measured in the Clean Air Act of 2008, and that standard does not have to be met until 2011 in Michigan. In another good faith effort by Wolverine, the town now had another public hearing to attend, held on September 17th, 2009, which created another opportunity for the Sierra Club to put on a show.
The Advance reported, “Last Thursday’s hearing at Rogers City High School drew around 125 audience members, more than a dozen DEQ engineers, staffers and support personnel, and 15 people who stepped up to the microphone to comment. Vince Helwig, chief of the Air Quality Division of the DEQ, designated as the “decision maker” for the DEQ, sat at a table facing the audience and the microphone where people offered testimony to him. He didn’t comment on any person’s testimony, but offered instructions before the hearing began.
He reminded the audience that the purpose of the hearing was to listen to comments on Wolverine’s plan to use the measurement 2.5 micrometers to measure particulate matter in plant emissions rather than the larger 10 micrometers measurement. ‘If you decide to make other comments we cannot consider them in the permit hearing process. We are not taking comment on the recent Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) report. That was a report given to us and we cannot answer questions because it was written by the MPSC, so we are still in the process of evaluating that.’ Helwig said. MARION HART, THE administrative section supervisor for the air quality division of the DEQ, moderated the 50-minute hearing, calling people one at a time to the microphone placed in front of Helwig’s table.”
Of the 14 commentators at the hearing, 10 spoke for the plant’s initiative, and 4 spoke against. The Sierra Club decidedly embarrassed themselves with a dramatic show. A friend of Lee Sprague (Michigan Sierra Club) who called himself Rich Coalbaron started walking through the gym acting as though he was stuffing money into people’s pockets.
The Advance reported, “AMONG THOSE who spoke against, at least three were from the state level of environmental organizations. An audience member, believed to be associated with the Sierra Club, identified himself as “Rich Coalbaron” and appeared in the high school lobby with Lee Sprague, an officer in the Michigan Chapter of the Sierra Club. Both were dressed in black suits with a very tall black stovepipe hat. They offered literature to people coming into the gymnasium and had a table set up in the commons area.
Although Sprague changed out of his costume before offering his comments to the DEQ, “Coalbaron” stayed in character while he spoke at the microphone. “I want to thank you for giving me your hard-earned money for the next 50 years,” he said. “Rogers City is a great place to pollute. It needs to be less pure here in Rogers City and we need to make sure that this place becomes a little more dirty.”
Then Sprague went on to comment on fugitive dust again, something that Tom Karas of Michigan Energy Alternatives had commented on in Part 9.
It’s always good to have the last word, and Elizabeth Zimmer had a good one.
“When I came in here tonight, I felt I was being harassed by the fellows in the tall hats (Sprague and “Coalbaron”). First they made me feel like they were for the Wolverine power plant and then they proceeded to tell me that we could keep sending them our money for years to come,” she said. Other “scare tactics” have been used on her as well, she said.
“I just wish they would go home. We don’t go to California or other places and chain ourselves to trees. I just feel they should go home,” Zimmer said as the final person to testify that night.
The town is still waiting for word on an air quality permit.
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