HAPPY APRIL FOOL'S DAY!
April 1, 2014
DUNBORO - George Washington Renewable Energy is proposing the nation's first money-to-energy facility, right here in Dunboro. Critics call it a money-burning incinerator.
Nearly all of the nation's used money is sent to landfills, but George Washington Renewable Energy sees an opportunity and hopes to generate enough electricity burning old dollars to power 50,000 homes.
Linda Thompson, recent mayor of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, takes offense at calling this the first. In 2011, Harrisburg was the nation's largest city to go bankrupt, thanks to a trash incinerator that drove the city deep into debt. Her city lost out in a bidding war for this new project. "Harrisburg deserves to host this innovative incinerator. We have more experience burning money than any city in the nation," Thompson said.
In 2003, when Thompson was on City Council, the city's incinerator had already lost money nearly every year for a decade, but she voted to support the mayor's plan to go further into debt to rebuild it, saying that God told her to support Mayor Reed's incinerator plan. "I've consulted God on how to get Harrisburg back out of bankruptcy," Thompson said, "and what better way than to fuel a new incinerator with bills saying 'In God We Trust?'"
Dr. Paul Connett, a retired chemistry professor from St. Lawrence University, and world-famous advocate against incinerators, say that God is on his side. "God Recycles... the Devil Burns," says Connett. "Used money should be recycled."
Ann Leonard, of Story of Stuff Project, points out that paper bills are "designed for the dump" because other materials are mixed in, making it hard to recycle. "Money is a perfect example of a product that must be redesigned for recycling," she says.
Dunboro residents aren't pleased with the idea. They've formed Dunboro United against Money-Burning (DUMB), to fight what they call a stupid idea. Trash incinerators are the most expensive way to dispose of waste or to make energy, says Mike Ewall of Energy Justice Network, who helped Dunboro residents form DUMB. DUMB's website argues that it's insane to literally feed money to an incinerator: "It's bad enough that we pay incinerators to burn valuable materials in trash, but fueling them with dollars is just nuts."
"Money doesn't grow on trees, you know. We must protect our forests," says Samantha Chirillo, coordinator of Energy Justice Network's Anti-Biomass Incineration Campaign.
Rachel Smolker, of Biofuelwatch, points out that dollars are actually made mostly from cotton, and is concerned about rumors that Monsanto plans to genetically-engineer cotton plants to produce dollar bills as leaves.
Bob Cleaves, of the Biomass Power Association, takes issue with this. "Expired money is renewable energy," says Cleaves. "We're working to add money-burning to biomass definitions in renewable energy mandates in several states right now. It was an oversight not to have included it when these laws were first passed."
Maryland Governor O'Malley supports this stance, and plans to have Maryland be the first state to define money-burning as renewable. "We already have the nation's best renewable energy incentives for burning trash, poultry waste, tires, sewage sludge and more. Money was just the logical next step," he says.
George Washington Renewable Energy also cites support from Federal Reserve Chair, Janet Yellen. In a recent press release in support of the project, Yellen stated that "money is renewable... we'll make more."
Mark Robinowitz, host of the "Peak Choice" website, thinks Yellen is wrong. "Money has peaked!" he says. "Our economy cannot grow forever on a finite planet. We need a steady state economy." He thinks that we're running out of money, and thus, fuel for the George Washington Renewable Energy facility.
Dunboro officials are still pressing on. "Our city, and the state and federal government, still seem overrun by old money," says Dunboro's mayor. "We don't see an end in sight and want to put this resource to good use."