Reposted from Waste & Recycling News – https://www.wasterecyclingnews.com/article/20120821/OPINION/120829991/letter-to-the-editor-wte-projects-are-not-all-transparent
The lessons presented by John Foden in “Lessons in public acceptance of projects” (Waste & Recycling News, Aug. 6), are not in play in Frederick County, Md.
There, Northeast Maryland Authority and state and county officials have spent the last few years obfuscating financial information, and not “embracing the public process and being open and honest with residents.”
The only source of reliable information comes from independent citizens and small business people who had to undertake their own research and analysis.
Your readers may want to take a look at the following articles from citizens in Frederick County to see the extent of the research and the critical questions that have been asked and not yet answered by government proponents of the 1,500 ton-per-day waste-to-energy plant.
When neighboring – and initial partner in the project – Carroll County looked at the numbers, officials expressed a desire to not participate in what is clearly a large, unnecessary and high-risk capital commitment.
See articles in the Frederick (Md.) News Post from July 15, “Living in another financial reality,” and Aug. 12, “House of Cards.”
The Frederick No Incineration Alliance web page is https://no-incinerator.org.
Neil Seldman | President, Institute for Local Self-Reliance
Washington, D.C.
