Cool Beans! Soy = Jobs, Fuel

By John Bartlett, Erie Times-News, Pa.

Feb. 9–Kathleen McGinty said she saw the future while in Erie on Thursday as she kicked off a statewide push to sell Gov. Ed Rendell’s new energy proposal.

The future was Lake Erie Biofuels, now being built at the former International Paper Co. site on East Lake Road, which will turn soybeans into diesel fuel.

Lake Erie Biofuels is an example of investments that create jobs and make us more energy-independent, said McGinty, secretary of the state Department of Environmental Protection.

Rendell’s energy proposal includes a new electric-bill surcharge — about $5 more per year for a typical homeowner — for investment in clean-energy alternatives and industries, energy conservation, reduction in the state’s use of oil imports and programs to hold down future electric rate hikes.

Lake Erie Biofuels, under the umbrella of Erie Management Group, has received a $625,000 state grant, payable in the form of a nickel for every gallon of biodiesel it sells in Pennsylvania by July, up to 12.5 million gallons. That type of investment can be expanded under the governor’s energy proposal, McGinty said.

And it is the future, she said.

“I see our future as being the nation’s leader in building and growing a sustainable source of clean energy resources,” McGinty said.

Rendell’s energy proposal calls for assessing a 0.0005-cent-per-kilowatt surcharge on electric bills that McGinty said would cost the average residential customer about $5 per year and industrial customers about $900.

The fee would raise about $70 million a year, and that would leverage an $850 million bond issue for conservation and clean energy investment that would be paid off over 25 years, McGinty said.

Overall, consumers and businesses will see cost savings in the long run that will more than offset the new fee, she said.

Rendell said it would cut Pennsylvanian’s utility bills by $10 billion over 10 years.

The plan calls for investing $500 million in clean energy projects, such as solar, biofuels like ethanol and biodiesel, and advanced coal technologies. The proposal calls for Pennsylvania to produce and use 1 billion gallons of renewable fuels within a decade and eventually require that every gallon of gas sold in the state contain 10 percent ethanol.

Other elements call for utilities to offer conservation programs, including off-peak electric use billing when electric rates are cheaper, investment in home and business alternative energy such as solar panels, and a $100 per unit rebate for consumers to upgrade to new energy efficient refrigerators and air conditioners.

Large electric users would be allowed to negotiate long-term contracts, and utilities would be required to develop “lowest-cost” purchase portfolios, McGinty said.

The administration’s energy proposals resonated with Bruce Arkwright Jr. of West Fourth Street.

“I think it is a really good idea,” Arkwright said. “What he is proposing is absolutely what we need in Pennsylvania.”

Arkwright, a local alternative-energy advocate, said the governor’s proposals effectively grow energy independence on several levels, starting with conservation and continuing through development of alternative fuels and the local jobs they can produce.

“That’s the only way we can become more energy independent,” he said.

But local consumer advocate Ken Springirth, well known for his battles over utility rates, doesn’t think a surcharge on electric bills to fund conservation and clean-energy development is such a good deal.

“I’m in opposition to that proposal,” Springirth said. “It makes it more difficult for the consumers who are hard-pressed now, those on fixed incomes and Social Security.”

Springirth said the surcharge is another tax that will also make the state less business friendly.

“I think the governor has the wrong approach on this one,” he said.

But Rendell said residential customers could expect to save an average of $73 a year. Industrial users could see savings of as much as $10,000 a year.

“Some people will take one piece of this and attach three letters to it — T-A-X. … That is to our detriment,” McGinty said.

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