Green groups go after Owens Corning plant

Emissions spark campaign to block permit

By Ben Jacklet

The Portland Tribune, Aug 2, 2005, Updated Oct 30, 2009

Three Portland-based environmental groups are asking Mayor Tom Potter and dozens of other elected officials to intervene to block a permit for Owens Corning to build a new factory locally.

They claim the factory would erase the city’s hard-fought gains against global warming within a matter of months.

Owens Corning is seeking to build a rigid-foam insulation plant, at 18456 Northeast Wilkes Road, that would emit about 226 tons of HCFC-142b each year by the company’s calculations. HCFC-142b is a potent greenhouse gas that is thought to deplete the earth’s ozone layer. By law it must be phased out in the United States starting in 2010.

Opponents from the Northwest Environmental Defense Center, the Oregon Center for Environmental Health and the Sierra Club already have sued in federal court, arguing that Owens Corning is violating the Clean Air Act. Now they’re calling on everyone from Potter to Gov. Ted Kulongoski to take their side in the dispute in the name of fighting global warming.

Portland recently got favorable coverage in The New York Times for becoming the first city in the nation to adopt a citywide strategy to fight global warming that incorporates light rail, streetcars, 750 miles of bicycle paths and lanes, green building designs and subsidized carpool parking. The latest numbers show per capita emissions dropping 13 percent in Multnomah County since 1990. The environmental groups are appealing to Potter and others to continue the trend by blocking the Owens Corning plant.

But global warming is a tricky issue for environmental regulators because there aren’t any laws on the books that can be used to force companies to limit greenhouse gas emissions, according to George Davis, the DEQ senior permit writer who is handling the Owens Corning application.

“It’s tough when people think we have authority to do something, and they want to believe that we have authority to do something, but we don’t,” Davis said.

“In the absence of any laws or rules, we can’t enforce any limits.”

Product justifies the means

Owens Corning argues that the plant actually will benefit the environment, because the insulation it will produce will allow people to use less energy to heat and cool their homes. The company has pledged to convert the plant and others in the Midwest to a greener production process by the 2010 deadline, according to spokesman Jim Worden.

Owens Corning’s original application, filed in November 2003, estimated that the plant would emit 283 tons per year of HCFC-142b. A public notice from the DEQ estimated that the amount was roughly equal to 100 new cars, but the agency later retracted the estimate after Linfield College chemistry professor James Diamond found the correct answer to be 111,140 cars.

1 | 2 Next Page >>

Facebook	Digg	Del.icio.us
Newsvine	Stumbleupon	Reddit