... Adding the "incineration or burning of tires" to a measure intended to boost wind and solar energy would clear the way for Geneva Energy to reap lucrative green energy credits for its troubled incinerator in Ford Heights, one of the poorest suburbs in the U.S.
The legislative change also would make the tire burner a player in the growing market for renewable energy in Illinois, where power companies must get at least 10 percent of their electricity from green sources by 2015 and 25 percent by 2025.
Originally sponsored by Rep. David Miller a Dolton Democrat running for state comptroller, the measure would give tire burning, which generates large amounts of toxic air pollution, the same status as pollution-free wind and solar power. It apparently is designed to benefit the state's sole tire incinerator, in Miller's district.
A House committee approved Miller's bill last week, days after an investigator from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's civil rights division interviewed state officials about the tire burner. The agency is probing whether Illinois violated environmental justice laws by allowing the incinerator to operate in Ford Heights, a small village about 25 miles south of downtown Chicago, where more than 95 percent of the population is black and half live in poverty.
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