NIT – As it turns out, Joe Yavorski never got his trash-to-energy plant built in Colorado, just as it never got built here in Mason City.
You remember Joe Yavorski. The CEO of Creative Energy Systems (CES), which came within an eyelash of getting enough approval from the North Iowa Landfill Board to get his first trash-to-energy plant built, back in 2012. However, after losing that very close battle in North Iowa, he moved on and attempted to build a similar plant in Fort Morgan, Colorado.
NIT continued to follow the progress of CES and Yavorski in their endeavor to build the state-of-the-art plant. You will recall, he had a deal with Alliant Energy to transport the energy the plant created (using a technology called pyrolysis), was set to acquire land on the south side of town near the Golden Grain Energy plant, was obtaining permits, and just needed a positive vote from the North Iowa Landfill to move forward. A narrow defeat by that board was enough for Yavorski to move on.
In Colorado, Yavorski came just as close as he did in Mason City, but alas, the plant never got built.
According to a source in Fort Morgan, Colorado, who confided in NIT with details on how that deal went down, it was a very close call.
“All our local governments were on board,” the source explained. “It was just one guy at the power company that killed it.”
Just like in North Iowa, one faulty link in the chain scuttled the deal for CES. Here, it was the landfill board. Out west, a hiccup with cooperation between CES and an energy company.
“That whole situation was contingent on (CES) being able to contract with a power company for transmission of the energy. That appears to have fallen through, taking the proposed plant with it.”
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EDITOR’S NOTES:
1) NIT reported in January 2013 that the Fort Morgan deal was still in the works. That story also explained how a deal in Green Bay, Wisconsin went sour.
2) An odd twist during Yavorski’s escapade in North Iowa was a report written by the Globe Gazette touting what they called a partnership between CES and Lockheed Martin on a $2 billion project in Antarctica. Their story came out just weeks before the North Iowa Landfill was to conduct its fateful vote on the plant. Some say this Globe Gazette story was an attempt to influence the landfill vote in favor of CES – and its backers in city hall.
Thanks to this January 2nd, 2012 story in the Globe Gazette trumpeting this partnership (weeks prior to the ill-fated vote at the landfill) countless other media publications ran with the story and announced that Yavorski’s CES would be working in Antarctica with Lockheed on this major project. The Globe Gazette seemed to base their January 2nd story only on an interview with Yavorski. It now appears the Globe Gazette pulled the January 2nd story from their website. On January 4th, 2012, the Globe wrote what was essentially a retraction, coming clean and writing that Yavorski was actually still negotiating with Lockheed to be a part of the Antarctica project and nothing was final.
NIT noticed both stories the Globe Gazette published and the different tales each told, prompting us to reach out to Lockheed Martin for the truth. NIT was able to speak with Lindsay Wilson – a Senior Communications Representative at Lockheed Martin for over 5 years – and ask her to confirm any involvement between CES and Lockheed Martin in the Antarctica project. Wilson looked into the matter and returned a call to the NIT newsroom. She confirmed that in the end, CES had absolutely no involvement with Lockheed’s Antarctica project.
This fiasco was the one that really turned me against the Bookmeyer crew. They ignored the people who were knowledgeable about the subject and were opposed to it. Bookmeyer even had his city planner taken off the committee exploring this because she found too many ecological reasons the plant might have problems. Eventually, she resigned her position probably because of Bookmeyer’s vitriolic retaliation for going against him.
Great article. Sweet follow up with the aviation giant. Doesn’t Ames Iowa burn their trash to convert to steam? The type of pyrolysis CES was after involves burning plastic and used tires which are high sulfur content to convert to biodiesal. It would have burned livestock waste as well. Faces numerous environmental roadblocks. Sorting and recycling are better investments…which was part of my campaign proposal to hire city junk sorters.
It sounds like they guy was running a con job and the administration was fool enough to fall for it. Old adage is, if it sounds to good to be true it probably is.