Eco Report – September 22, 2023

Hello and welcome to Eco Report. For WFHB, I’m Julianna Dailey. And I’m Cynthia Roberts. In this edition of Eco Report, we will hear from Marcia Veldman, State Coordinator for the South Central Indiana chapter of Citizens Climate Lobby on the scope of their activities across the state working to affect national policy and channel resources to local efforts to address and adapt to Climate Change. That’s coming up later in the program. But, first we would like to talk to you about the WFHB Fall Fund Drive. And now for your environmental reports: Indiana Business News reports a 10-megawatt renewable energy project in Hendricks County (west of Indy – Avon) has wrapped up construction and will supply enough clean energy to power over 2,000 homes. It’s Colorado-based SolRiver Capital’s first project in the state — one it says will provide low-cost, sustainable energy to the county’s residents. “Our partnership with Solential Energy has been instrumental in bringing this project to fruition,” Riley Sullivan, Vice President of Acquisitions at SolRiver Capital, said in a news release. Their turnkey development and construction services have been invaluable in delivering a high-quality project that will benefit the local community and support the growth of renewable energy in Indiana. —Norm Holy WFHB has aired several stories about a coal-to-diesel plant proposed to be built in Dale, Indiana. The concern was that the process would become a major source of air pollution. Indiana has a well-deserved reputation for being “business friendly,” meaning that high-pollution industries are welcome. But the long-planned coal-to-diesel facility in Spencer County is now canceled. The Indiana Department of Environmental Management informed Delaware-based Riverview Energy that its permit to construct the $2 billion facility has expired. The project was first announced in 2018, and Riverview first received the permit from IDEM in June 2019. The company was granted an extension of the permit, which set a deadline to begin construction by June 2022. There has been strong opposition by citizens of Spencer County from the very beginning. —Norm Holy And now we turn to Environmental Correspondent Zyro Roze for his interview with Marcia Veldman of Citizens Climate Lobby and the Green Drinks Bloomington lecture series. The entire interview will appear online after the show on the station’s website as an Eco Report EXTRA at WFHB.org.