Wednesday, May 08, 2024 12:18:24 PM
Wednesday's Energy Absurdity: About that Giant Wind Blade Graveyard in Sweetwater...
David Blackmon
May 08, 2024
Old windfarm blades causing problems in Nolan County
Many readers here will remember the stories that broke last September about the enormous wind blade graveyard occupying acres of land on the periphery of Sweetwater, Texas. Russell Gold wrote an excellent expose’ in Texas Monthly about the junkyard, one of many that have popped up across West Texas and the Texas Panhandle in recent years as the wind developers avoid investing any real money in properly disposing of their massive amount of waste.
The story was picked up by other outlets across the country. Robert Bryce travelled to Sweetwater and recorded some social media videos featuring the junkyard. Gold himself quoted the head of the Global Fiberglass Solutions, which has the contract from the wind developer to collect and “recycle” the blades, as promising, “If you come back nine months from now, you will not see the material.”
So, Gold waited nine months, and recently travelled back to Sweetwater to view what he had been promised would be an empty wind blade graveyard.
Guess what? The graveyard isn’t empty, not at all. All the same blades that were in place there nine months ago remain, with still more piled atop them. In his follow-up story at Texas Monthly, Gold reports no activity taking place at the junkyard, which has all the appearances of having been abandoned.
Indeed, Gold writes in the excerpt below that GFS may well be out of money now, having apparently squandered the $16.9 million in funds paid to it by developer General Electric:
GFS may be out of the funds it would need to begin grinding up the blades. Last September, General Electric filed a lawsuit claiming it had paid GFS $16.9 million to recycle about five thousand blades, which the company instead stockpiled in Sweetwater and Iowa. GFS took the money and the blades and then “all but shut down,” according to the complaint. GFS has asked for an extension because it can’t hire a lawyer. “GFS has not been able to raise sufficient funds to convince counsel that they will get paid for their work,” company cofounder Ron Albrecht said in a court filing in January. General Electric expects to file for a default judgment later in May.
…
There can’t be any new products fashioned from the material in Sweetwater until someone takes ownership of the problem that GFS has apparently abandoned. The State of Texas could take charge, but its wheels of justice are turning much more slowly than Iowa’s. In late 2022, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality fined GFS $10,255 and gave it a year to obtain a permit to store industrial solid waste. That year lapsed in November, and the company never finished paying the fine.
[End]
There’s a lot more to this story, and I highly recommend you reading it in full.
The bottom line here, of course, is this: These big industrial wind developments are a menace, and Texas has not bothered to implement strong laws and regulations needed to mandate the proper retirement and disposal of the massive amount of industrial junk they create.
Is this growing problem a product of irresponsible, grifting developers? Of course, it is. But it is also a problem of irresponsible policymakers who are happy to take money from wind developers to fund their campaigns and look the other way as they fail, session after session, to enact proper laws and regulations to force the cleaning up of these scars on the landscape.
Until the Texas government forces the issue, Mr. Gold will be able to keep writing follow-ups to this story. That’s reality.
That is all.
https://blackmon.substack.com/p/wednesdays-energy-absurdity-about?publication_id=712558&post_id=144431139&isFreemail=false&r=rd9j8&triedRedirect=true
David Blackmon
May 08, 2024
Old windfarm blades causing problems in Nolan County
Many readers here will remember the stories that broke last September about the enormous wind blade graveyard occupying acres of land on the periphery of Sweetwater, Texas. Russell Gold wrote an excellent expose’ in Texas Monthly about the junkyard, one of many that have popped up across West Texas and the Texas Panhandle in recent years as the wind developers avoid investing any real money in properly disposing of their massive amount of waste.
The story was picked up by other outlets across the country. Robert Bryce travelled to Sweetwater and recorded some social media videos featuring the junkyard. Gold himself quoted the head of the Global Fiberglass Solutions, which has the contract from the wind developer to collect and “recycle” the blades, as promising, “If you come back nine months from now, you will not see the material.”
So, Gold waited nine months, and recently travelled back to Sweetwater to view what he had been promised would be an empty wind blade graveyard.
Guess what? The graveyard isn’t empty, not at all. All the same blades that were in place there nine months ago remain, with still more piled atop them. In his follow-up story at Texas Monthly, Gold reports no activity taking place at the junkyard, which has all the appearances of having been abandoned.
Indeed, Gold writes in the excerpt below that GFS may well be out of money now, having apparently squandered the $16.9 million in funds paid to it by developer General Electric:
GFS may be out of the funds it would need to begin grinding up the blades. Last September, General Electric filed a lawsuit claiming it had paid GFS $16.9 million to recycle about five thousand blades, which the company instead stockpiled in Sweetwater and Iowa. GFS took the money and the blades and then “all but shut down,” according to the complaint. GFS has asked for an extension because it can’t hire a lawyer. “GFS has not been able to raise sufficient funds to convince counsel that they will get paid for their work,” company cofounder Ron Albrecht said in a court filing in January. General Electric expects to file for a default judgment later in May.
…
There can’t be any new products fashioned from the material in Sweetwater until someone takes ownership of the problem that GFS has apparently abandoned. The State of Texas could take charge, but its wheels of justice are turning much more slowly than Iowa’s. In late 2022, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality fined GFS $10,255 and gave it a year to obtain a permit to store industrial solid waste. That year lapsed in November, and the company never finished paying the fine.
[End]
There’s a lot more to this story, and I highly recommend you reading it in full.
The bottom line here, of course, is this: These big industrial wind developments are a menace, and Texas has not bothered to implement strong laws and regulations needed to mandate the proper retirement and disposal of the massive amount of industrial junk they create.
Is this growing problem a product of irresponsible, grifting developers? Of course, it is. But it is also a problem of irresponsible policymakers who are happy to take money from wind developers to fund their campaigns and look the other way as they fail, session after session, to enact proper laws and regulations to force the cleaning up of these scars on the landscape.
Until the Texas government forces the issue, Mr. Gold will be able to keep writing follow-ups to this story. That’s reality.
That is all.
https://blackmon.substack.com/p/wednesdays-energy-absurdity-about?publication_id=712558&post_id=144431139&isFreemail=false&r=rd9j8&triedRedirect=true
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