Letter: Waste incineration needs a boost
Westbury, Jan. 8, 2009 : The Covanta facility at 600 Merchants Concourse can be seen from across the Meadowbrook Parkway . (The site appears to actually be in Westbury, not in Hempstead as on assignment ) Newsday Photo / Karen Wiles Stabile Credit: Newsday/Karen Wiles Stabile
Newsday missed the real issue in its recent editorial critical of the Public Service Commission's consideration of granting renewable energy credits to waste-to-energy plants here on Long Island ["Don't hinder green energy," Sept. 22].
The choice isn't between allocating energy credits to green energy projects like solar arrays and wind turbines, or waste-to-energy plants like Covanta's. Rather, the choice is between encouraging the building of waste-to-energy plants or condoning land filling, where waste is cheaply dumped in open fields.
Europe got the choice right and, in addition to banning landfills because they spew climate-changing methane into the environment, it has incentivized the construction of waste-to-energy plants as an environmentally friendly way to dispose of unrecycled garbage.
Such plants produce needed electric and steam power and emit small amounts of greenhouse gases, but they are expensive to build. Being eligible for renewable energy credits would allow them to compete with landfill operations and help us stop wasting energy and limit climate change.
George Hoffman, Setauket
Editor's note: The writer is the chief of staff to the Islip Town supervisor.
