WHA' HAPPEN'?
It is always good to read stories in the media concerning he development on new ways in which we may live more securely, more conveniently and more economically.
I came across a clipping in my old files from the Washington POST for Sunday, July 21, 1991 which makes the point that concerns me.
A small power plant serving the Sterling, CN area, was lauded for having discovered a way to cash in on some “Black Gold” to generate electric energy for the area. The unusual step was the fact that during the year they would burn - ten million used vehicle tires per year.
Environmentalist figures at that time were quoted as saying we had a 3 billion used tires stock piled around the country and that stock was growing by 280 million tires per year.
Tires have more energy content than coal. The same firm, certain that this change would prosper, had already invested one hundred million to construct a new power plant in Santa Rosa, CA which was, even then, was burning tires at a rate of 27,000 per day. That plant had been inspected at least once each week to meet pollution standards of the area and had never been closed down for air quality reasons.
Each tire is said to have an average of 2.5 gallons of oil in its structure which give it a thermal output of 13,552, said to be well above a comparable amount of coal. In 1989 annual report of the company owning these energy production plants anticipated using 70 million tires annually by 1995, which was about twenty-five percent of the stock then being accumulated..
Whatever became of these plants? Are they still in operation or have they fallen by the wayside for some reason? The tires are still with us in growing abundance. Some are being ground to use as road building materials, but that sort of use does not compare with the volume needed by the power plants built to use them to everyones advantage.
Wha' happen? Was the news story flawed? Has environmentalist fervor caused the demise of a seemingly worthy venture? It would seem wise for control authorities to take a closer look at what became of this plan to provide needed electrical energy while eliminating the scourge of used tires on our national landscape.
A.L.M. May 18, 2003 [c593wds]
