New York Biomass Incinerator Awaits $100 Million Handout
August 17, 2013, Source: Mid Hudson News Network
[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"103","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","height":"120","style":"width: 101px; height: 120px; float: left; margin-left: 7px; margin-right: 7px;","width":"101"}}]]The Taylor Biomass waste-to-energy project has had the support of U.S. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, D-Cold Spring, since his candidacy for Congress last year.
The Orange County facility is awaiting a $100 million loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy and the freshman lawmaker said Thursday that the Obama Administration is now taking note of the project.
The project is expected to create about 300 jobs. Montgomery is about 20 miles south of New Paltz.
“I am pleased that the president and the Department of Energy have been responsive to my request that they get focused on this because we can’t wait; we need the jobs right now,” Maloney said. “The guy out there who has millions of dollars of his own money invested in this, who is a member of the other party – it has nothing to do with this – who has skin in the game, who has a good idea that could bring hundreds of good jobs to this region, that’s the kind of stuff I want to do in Congress,” he said.
Taylor Biomass President James Taylor has been planning the biomass facility for years and has lined up a number of clients for when it becomes operational.
Maloney made news when he broached the stalled project with President Barack Obama in a recent closed-door meeting and the president reportedly snapped at Maloney.
According to a CNN report, Maloney asked the president about the Taylor Biomass application and received what one unidentified source describes as a “rude and dismissive” response from Obama, who allegedly said the issue should have been taken up with White House staff members.
Area environmental groups have resisted the federal loan to the biomass facility, saying there are inconsistencies between the project and the goals of the federal clean energy programs. Laura Haight, senior environmental associate for New York Public Interest Research Group, earlier this month said, “we’re not surprised that the president didn’t want to discuss the project’s loan guarantee application. Political pressure makes it harder for (the Department of Energy) to do its job and evaluate the project’s impacts objectively.”
Maloney, however, said this week during a tour of the district that there are “a lot of good things that are going on here” and that the federal government “needs to be a partner in helping local business and families weather some tough economic times.”