Poolbeg Incinerator Run by New Jersey's Culture?

Is Covanta influenced by New Jersey's Culture? Will the proposed Poolbeg Incinerator be run using New Jersey's best?

The arrests come in a state that is no stranger to political corruption. The former mayors of Newark, Paterson and Camden, to name but a few, have or are serving time in prison. Wayne Bryant, a former state senator, is due to be sentenced for fraud and bribery on Friday. Until recently, “double-dipping”, holding two elected positions, was the norm.

• Handing out public-sector contracts to political donors, “pay to play”, is common practice.
• Cronyism is practically accepted.
• Mob ties are not unusual [blog-edit: especially in waste management and construction].

- The Economist, Jul 24th 2009, NEWARK, NEW JERSEY

New Jersey is not Sweden. Covanta is HQ'ed in New Jersey. Which quite possibly has no influence whatsoever on the corporate culture, apart from sharp suits and haircuts. Covanta is not a gonzo outfit. As far as is known Covanta is a mighty fine corporate citizen. Except perhaps for Dioxins violations reported for all of its New Jersey waste incinerators and about 6,000 violations at Ogden and conflicts with employees and other legal concerns in Florida and a recent 'bankruptcy' issue and the odd explosion forcing people to run indoors.

Like Wall Street bankers also based in New Jersey, Covanta's CEO Tony Orlando is heavily bonus driven with recent official compensation of about $3 million.

US websites list the legal political donations made by Covanta staff to local politicians. In 2008 the Irish lawyer for the Poobeg Incinerator Promoters, 'Willem Schipkijk', had a legal fundraiser in his Dalkey house for at least one American Presidential candidate (Obama) in Dublin. Curious?

DCC's choice of operator for the proposed Poolbeg Incinerator is a Covanta entity legalised in the secret banking haven of Luxembourg. Curious?

In Ireland of course the secret contract DCC made with Covanta was not influenced by any form of "pay to play" nor cronyism nor the total dismissal of scientific facts and the public's interest in favour of secret political diktats. The secret contract may involve a "put or pay" contract which will burden the bankrupted taxpayers who are not killed prematurely by incinerator nanoparticles (PM0.1).

Bertie 'Won It On De Horses' Ahern can confirm this, even if it's actually true. So will the public servants now retiring on the world's highest pensions. These are honest men.

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http://www.economist.com/world/unitedstates/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14112480

Poolbeg Borrowings & Green Party "Untruths"

• Covanta seems to confirm the Green Party was telling totally innocent untruths before the June elections about funding for the waste-to-toxins incinerator.

The Green Untruth of may 2009 was immediately corrected by the Wall Street Journal.

Now in July 2009:

• Covanta confirms it has borrowed a sum of money - the $389 million is equal to the estimated amount needed for the Poolbeg waste-to-toxins factory. A secret contract with the sharp business men at DCC no doubt makes it easy to borrow money in a depression- by transferring the big risks to Irish taxpayers.
  
• Covanta's net debt is said to be $1.7 billion.
• Liabilities for premature deaths are not mentioned.

Carefully worded Covanta press release clipping [22.07.2009]:

Our balance sheet was significantly strengthened by the $460 million convertible note financing completed during the quarter.

We added approximately $389 million to our unrestricted cash, after giving effect to underwriting discounts, offering expenses, proceeds from the issuance of warrants and the purchase of the convertible note hedge. The entire $300 million of our revolving credit facility continues to be available.

In the quarter, we paid down $72 million of debt, bringing our net debt to $1.7 billion (total debt less cash and restricted funds set aside explicitly for project debt principal repayment).

http://www.only2press.com/archives/10869

Poolbeg Incinerator "Rogue Employer"

The USA's National Labor Relations Board this week issued a comprehensive complaint charging Covanta Energy Corp. and all of its U.S. subsidiaries with violating federal labor law.

http://blog.aflcio.org/2009/07/01/covanta-complaint-shows-need-for-employee-free-choice-act/


AFL-CIO Local 369 President Gary Sullivan:

The board’s action confirms our first-hand experience that Covanta is a rogue employer with no respect for the rights of its employees.

Dublin City Council has a secret deal with Covanta to run the proposed Poolbeg Waste-to-Toxins incinerator. Possibly to dodge US courts the deal is with an offshore Covanta outfit - a special purpose entity firewalled in secretive Luxembourg (guess why).


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The USA's National Labor Relations Board is an independent federal agency created by Congress in 1935 to administer the National Labor Relations Act, the primary law governing relations between unions and employers in the private sector.

The Purple & The Pinstripe.

The Purple & The Pinstripe.

BANANA REPUBLIC
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aF_HSCmnFTA

The purple and the pinstripe
Mutely shake their heads

A silence shrieking volumes
A violence worse than they condemn

Stab you in the back yeah
Laughing in your face

Glad to see the place again
It's a pity nothing's changed
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Incinerators Nanoparticles are safe. Trust Us.

Tiny particles from incinerators will reduce your life by up to two years.

Nobody understands the science. That's why we have Fianna Fail.

You can trust your clever politicians to protect you by directing their political appointees, dressed up as scientists, at EPA, Bord Pleanala, and elsewhere.
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http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/0610/1224248531633.html

Expert challenges risk study for incinerator

LOUISE ROSEINGRAVE

Wed, Jun 10, 2009

TOXICOLOGICAL EFFECTS of nano-particles such as those produced from an incinerator stack can be responsible for exacerbating human health problems including asthma, bronchitis and heart disease, according to a scientific expert who gave evidence on behalf of objectors at a public hearing yesterday.

Prof C Vyvyan Howard described Indaver Ireland’s risk assessment of possible health problems associated with a proposed toxic waste incinerator at Ringaskiddy in Cork as “simplistic” and “fundamentally flawed”.

His claims were disputed by Indaver Ireland. Prof Howard, who is in charge of of bioimaging at the University of Ulster, has written and spoken in a variety of forums to draw attention to the threat posed by pollutants to developing foetuses and infants.

Speaking on behalf of anti-incinerator campaign group Cork Harbour Alliance for a Safe Environment at a hearing on the proposed incinerator yesterday, Prof Howard, described as a medically qualified toxico-pathologist, claimed there were airborne particles for which there was no known safe level, and that Indaver Ireland’s risk assessment did not cover the emittance of such particles. “The risk assessment in relation to particles that has been undertaken by Indaver is rather simplistic and appears to ignore the very significant contribution made to particulate burdens made by sulphur dioxide and especially nitrous oxide emissions.”

Prof Howard said while effects of individual toxins were known, the effects of multiple toxins in the air was unknown, and research into such effects was difficult.

Indaver Ireland’s risk assessment is based on the effects of individual toxins as per Environmental Protection Agency air quality standards.

“This approach is fundamentally flawed for those emissions like particles, for which no safe level can be demonstrated,” Prof Howard said.

Air pollution levels well within legal limits were killing people, he claimed, “especially older people and those with chronic heart and lung ailments”. Children and foetuses were particularly at risk from airborne pollutant particles, as their immune system and lungs were not fully developed, he said.

“There can be no doubt that children and even the foetus are particularly vulnerable to particle air pollutants, while this has been largely overlooked in setting current standards and controls,” he said.

He cited a review by scientists Joachim Heinrich and Remy Slama showing fine particle pollutants had been associated with infant mortality, impaired lung function and, less consistently, with sudden infant death syndrome.

In his report, Prof Howard claimed Indaver had “completely omitted any consideration of secondary particles and their impacts from their assessments”, which he said can account for a major fraction of the particles emitted by incinerators, despite filtration.

It was claimed that a high proportion of ultra-fine particles emitted through the incineration process evaded filtration systems.

“The subsequent direct uptake of these respirable particles and the ready transfer from the lungs into the bloodstream may be part of the reason that traditional toxicology is at a loss to explain the level of impacts for such apparently low exposures,” he said.

An Indaver Ireland spokesman said Prof Howard’s opinion was “at odds” with views of the World Health Organisation, EU and EPA. “Dioxins are all around us every day. Traffic, home heating and agriculture are among the main dioxin contributors. WHO and EU set safe level limits for dioxin emissions, and expert analysis has shown that the proposed development will have a minuscule effect,” the spokesman said.

The hearing is expected to continue until the end of next week.

© 2009 The Irish Times

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Incinerator firm hopes to raise $400 million bond

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. [Should read 3.25% p.a. ??]

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 anybody 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.

http://www.sbpost.ie/post/pages/p/story.aspx-qqqt=IRELAND-qqqm=news-qqqid=42318-qqqx=1.asp

Incinerator firm hopes to raise $400 million bond

Incinerator firm hopes to raise $400 million bond
Sunday, June 07, 2009 By John Burke and Ian Kehoe
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.