Dynamis Inks Deal With Ada Commishes
Dynamis Energy, the outfit that got $2,000,000 of taxpayer cash to design a “trash to electricity” generating plant signed a five year agreement with Ada County Tuesday.
Commish Vern Bisterfeldt voted against the project, citing “serial meetings,” lack of a bid, no performance bond, improper loans (of public funds) and no payback as Commish Sharon Ullman had promised. The “loan” was disguised as an award to Dynamis for technical plans–with no bid–and Dynamis is to buy back the plans.
The GUARDIAN has been wary of the deal from the beginning and our view hasn’t changed. The deal to draw up the plans leaves the county holding the bag as the plans cannot be used off the landfill site and the county will not make a penny off the sale of electricity if any is ever generated through burning 408 tons of trash each day.
The DAILY PAPER has reported the story without the bias the GUARDIAN offers, but we haven’t seen any results and the claims by Dynamis have too many excuses and unanswered questions…they still have a lot of loose ends to tie up including a building permit, DEQ approval, and an agreement with Idaho Power.
Financing the $60,000,000 will also be an interesting scenario in and of itself. A similar project in Nampa was deemed to not be economical by a non partisan consulting engineering firm hired by the city.
We have also been told by several sources that low prices for natural gas make it uneconomical to build the $60 million plant.
We have also been told by several sources that low prices for natural gas make it uneconomical to build the $60 million plant.
THE GUARDIAN got a chance to tour the ALLIED/REPUBLIC Waste facilities in Ada and Canyon County yesterday and see first hand the CNG filling stations at both sites. The topic of burning solid waste for electricity generation was also discussed. Here's the short answer. At $.06/KWH this project will not be economically viable. Feed-stocks were a project killer in Nampa. Our landfills have a remaining life of over 100 years. And finally inflows to the land fills in Ada and Canyon Counties are down by 40% over the past several years adding to the life of the land fills.
Who paid McKinstry, the outfit that did the engineering study to determine this would not work in Nampa. I have heard this is another $100k for a study paid for by Nampa Urban Renewal via Nampa taxpayers. All this makes me wonder if those on the Nampa City Council who voted for this... Pam White. Mr. Thorne and Curtis Homer and Tom Dale would have paid for this if their personal cash was on the line to pay for this study. Steve Kren was the only NO vote on this as I recall.
ReplyDeletecity of Nampa so far has refused to release the report that McKinstry was supposed to make. My thinking is that it is being held up until after the election. Also, Dynamis, et al are still trying to involve other cities in this so probably do not want a negative report out.
ReplyDeleteMr. Homer, Pam White, Martin Thorne Mayor Dale and Mr. Long in my opinion simply did not do any background digging on this and are looking for a way to save face.