> better than > ???

Why environmentalists insist dumping ton after ton of potentially toxic materials into a big hole in the ground is somehow better for the environment than using plasma gasification to produce heat and electricity is beyond me. You would think, since it reduces CO2 output due to less reliance on coal-burning plants, the environmentalists would welcome such a plan. The City of Ottawa, in partnership with the Plasco Energy Group (http://www.plascoenergygroup.com) are about two weeks away from starting up their new Plasma Gasification plant to convert MSW (Municipal Solid Waste) into Plasma gas to drive turbines to generate electricity. Their unique process has NO EMISSIONS.

For every tonne of solid waste they generate 150 kg of slag which can be used for paving, 1400 KwH of electricity, and 5 kg of saleable sulfur. Nothing else.

It is this, versus a 10 story deep hole in the ground with God knows how many tons of toxic waste just eating through the liner every day seeping into groundwater, and polluting the air with bad odours and methane. What seems less polluting to you?

So, me and my wife were outside our place of business pickin’ some weeds (that time of year again), when Stu Whatshisname drove up in his CBC van. He jumped out, said ‘Hi’ and answered a cell phonecall (what are we, chopped liver?). After he hung up, he explained to us that he was doing a feature on the new Garbage Gasification plant near our business. He had just interviewed Rod Bryden and was now cruisin’ the neighbourhood for some local peasants’ perspectives on the whole operation. Since I had done some research on my own, and I follow Lowell Green’s 24 hour rant on the Carp Mountain, I threw in some comments regarding Plasmafication, Gasification and the whole garbage burning thing. He asked me if he could interview me on camera and I said ‘sure’. After an awkward ‘interview’ wherein I could have said much, much more than I actually did (it was more like: how short can you make your answers?), he asked me if he could film me pulling weeds. ‘Sure’, I said again (man of many words), and pulled some weeds. Great action shots. After this pathetic display, he packed up his camera and made his way to his van. ‘Hopefully, this will be on the news tonight’, he said.

Six o’clock comes around, we’re all ready to laugh our heads off at my tongue-tied, uncomfortable presentation, and what do we see? An awkward interview with Rod Bryden (I was almost better!) and then a quick ‘back to the studio’. No little old me on this national channel, which is watched by literally tens of people. My almost 5 minutes of fame ended up on the cutting room floor.

Given my performance, I think it was for the better.