Sunday, June 7, 2009
Incinerator firm hopes to raise $400 million bond
Sunday, June 07, 2009
The US firm leading the consortium to build an incinerator at Poolbeg in Dublin is attempting to raise $400 million from bond investors to part-finance the project.
Covanta, a US-quoted energy firm, is heading Dublin Waste to Energy Ltd, which has been awarded the contract to build and operate the incinerator. The consortium recently assured Dublin City Council that all funding was in place for the project.
However, Covanta has struggled to secure finance for phase one of the project, and is now seeking to raise $400 million through ‘‘cash-convertible senior notes’’. It is proposing to pay investors a return of 6.5 per cent a year on their capital.
In documents filed last week with the Securities and Exchange Commission in the US, Covanta said the net proceeds of the bond issue would be used for working capital, including ‘‘funding a portion of the construction cost for a 1,700 metric energy-from waste facility in Dublin’’.
It is understood that Covanta had tried to raise bank debt, but no institution was willing to act as the primary banker to the Poolbeg project, due to the lack of liquidity on the international credit markets.
However, a number of lenders have informed the consortium that they may consider part-financing latter aspects of the project. The planned incinerator is a central element of the country’s waste management strategy. If completed as planned, it will burn 600,000 tonnes of waste a year, creating electricity for 50, 000 homes and hot water heating for a further 60,000 households. However, there has been opposition both to the Poolbeg project, and to incineration in general in Ireland, with a number of projects beset by delays.
Last week, John Gormley, the Green Party Minister for the Environment, is sued a circular which stated that he would introduce a levy to be borne by companies incinerating waste and any body selling waste for incineration.
Gormley has also instructed the director general of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA),Dr Mary Kelly, and all council managers nationwide, that they must in future ‘‘refrain from exercising their powers in such a way as to direct waste to landfill or incineration’’.
Gormley told the EPA and the council heads that he was initiating a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), instructing them that government policy had taken decisive steps to encourage recycling and discourage incineration.
Monday, June 1, 2009
Covanta - List of Subsidiaries
http://yahoo.brand.edgar-online.com/displayfilinginfo.aspx?FilingID=6624272-301748-466307&type=sect&dcn=0000950137-09-004066
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Green-FF Incinerator Cuts Pension Costs.
You can now bargain with the banks for a lower cost pension plan, thanks to Green-FF.Just vote Green-FF for the Poolbeg Waste-to-Toxins Incinerator so you can worry less about your pension - the incinerator will shorten your pension and your kids' lives by up to two years. Mr Dick Roach more or less confirmed that by dismissing a 2007 Dail question from a Dublin TD. Even experts agree.
NAMA To Rescue Uneconomic Incinerator?

Perhap's Ireland's National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) can pitch in some of our €90,000,000,000 to help out Covanta, along with the €450 Million NAMA will burn to rescue the IGB speculators down the road in Poolbeg.
Green-FF states the incinerator is now uneconomic - as promised by John The Traitor Gormley. So no doubt Green-FF will next claim NAMA must save the 'uneconomic' waste-to-toxins incinerator. Fair is fair.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Green-FF Desperate Untruths on Incinerator?
Green-FF looks right, looks desperate. There are Local and European elections coming up in June 2009. Did the Green Party publish a truth behind a lie behind the untruth behind a mistake behind the spin?
On Sunday, May 17, 2009, the Green-FF's leafleted houses with the spin that the Poolbeg incinerator would "collapse" because Covanta could not get finance.
However on Monday, MAY 18, 2009, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported Covanta was selling at least $300 million in 5-year cash-convertible notes to private entities for incinerator construction in Dublin.
The WSJ states:
"Covanta said proceeds from the offering, which will be private, could be used for items including plant construction in Dublin along with potential investments or acquisitions."
A statement issued to The Sunday Business Post on behalf of Covanta Europe president Scott Whitney said the company was
And Green-FF also omitted this Dublin City Council statement from The Sunday Tribune:
-----------------------------
REF:
http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20090518-703848.html
Kerry E. Grace, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-5089; kerry.grace@dowjones.com
http://www.sbpost.ie/post/pages/p/story.aspx-qqqt=IRELAND-qqqm=news-qqqid=41818-qqqx=1.asp
Sunday, May 17, 2009
EU Wonders Were Poolbeg Incinerator Hearings a Sham?
The Green-FF government does not care the Poolbeg Incinerator hearings were a political sham - they themselves and their €200,000 pensions come first. To divert the public during the elections perhaps it'd be a great idea to issue a report on 60 years of child abuse wherein the judiciary allegedly frustrated police investigations and the Pope threatened President Bertie (Parish of Boston-not-Berlin, says hello).Guess why Ireland is ranked worse than China and Ghana for legal corruption by the World Bank. Is Poolbeg a good location to research legal corruption?
The Poolbeg Incinerator Hearings at Board Pleanala and at EPA-Ireland were apparently decided by unseen politicians above the heads of the professionals in those organisations. The boards appear to be loaded with either incinerator-industry-insiders or political-crony appointees. A fewyears ago John Gormley condemned EPA's director but now he's in charge he has done nothing about her.
Good science and the public good appear to have been ignored by the bosses of the regulators. Political cronyism at the banks, the alleged financial regulators and the building-industry have near-bankrupted the economy. Political cronyism operating on or in the other alleged regulators, EPA and Bord Pleanala, combined with an offshore-based waste-to-toxins incineration industry may shorten lives by up to two years across Dublin.
In the following diplomatic language the EU Commission seems to say the Poolbeg Incinerator Hearings were a sham:
splitting decision-making between planning authorities
and the
Environmental Protection Agency,
there are risks that outcomes required by the
EU directive will not always be achieved.’
With elections coming up Green-FF is spinning that the offshore operators have no money. Covanta-Poolbeg is based in Luxembourg. There are lots of offshored-banks in Luxembourg, almost nothing else. And Covanta has lots of money.
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EU takes legal action over planned Poolbeg incinerator (19/3/09)
http://eurolinknews.com/2009/03/19/eu-takes-legal-action-over-planned-poolbeg-incinerator-19309/.
March 19, 2009 eurolinknews.com
The proposed waste incinerator at Poolbeg is the subject of fresh controversy this week after it emerged that the EU has lodged legal proceedings against the Irish government over its handling of incinerator projects. EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas has confirmed that Ireland was referred to the European Court of Justice in the last few weeks after it failed to respond to a final warning over alleged breaches of EU law. A statement issued by the Commission highlights concerns that all the environmental implications of the Poolbeg plant may not have been considered before it was approved in 2007. It reads, ‘Because of weaknesses in Irish legislation splitting decision-making between planning authorities and the Environmental Protection Agency, there are risks that outcomes required by the EU directive will not always be achieved.’
It’s the latest in a saga of legal controversy dogging the planned €266 thermal treatment facility, which has nonetheless managed to secure a licence to burn 600,000 tonnes of household waste a year. But this international case could be particularly embarrassing for Environment Minister John Gormley, who has previously been vocal in his opposition to Poolbeg. The Minister has come under fire from Dublin MEP Proinsias De Rossa for failing to respond to the EU’s written warning earlier. ‘This is yet another unnecessary, costly legal battle; it’s a sad state of affairs that Europe should have to take legal action against a Green Party Minister to ensure that all the implications of incineration are considered,’ he said.


















