Reader comments

Re: LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Out of curiosity, you didn't address what good the garbage burner could do the city. Would it
reduce the landfill space used by the current Waste Management site over their by FedEx/The
Troutdale Airport? I didn't attend the meeting and would like to be further informed.

"Ted"

(email verified)

Sat, Feb 13, 2010 at 12:19 AM

Re: LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Mike,

A mere lapse of attention could not have caused your report, so I believe from this report that
you were not actually at Tuesday’s Troutdale City Council meeting for more than a minute.

First, none of any meeting proceedings covered the ZESC proposal at all. All City Councilors are
aware that the ZESC opportunity has passed for the City of Troutdale. The record of Tuesday’s
meeting will reflect that no energy proposals but Mayor Kight’s wind proposal and briefly Dr.
Morihara’s biomass technology were discussed in the meeting, and only as references.

If you had been able to stay, you may have understood that what we were actually discussing
was a very important point of energy finance that affects all renewable energy developers
(there are several in the region) which is federal tax and financing parity. If you read the article
on the front page of the Outlook today by Mr. Shannon Wells, you will find a reasonable precise
of the federal taxation and financing situation provided by Senator Wyden’s office. Conclusion:
renewable energy does not enjoy the same favorable tax treatment that fossil sources do. This
means that renewable debt instruments are less attractive to investors and will never be as
attractive until that federal tax treatment disparity is corrected. This analysis was supported by
the local energy professionals.

Pasted from Senator Wyden’s website:

"Renewable Energy Parity and Investment Remedy Act: In line with Senator Wyden’s other
initiatives to promote greater innovation in renewable fuels by establishing technology neutral
incentives, this provision would establish parity for all renewable electric-generation
technologies. Under current law, a number of renewable energy technologies such as biomass
energy plants, wave and tidal energy, land-fill gas recovery and others receive a tax credit that is
only half of the value of the Federal production tax credit amount otherwise available for
renewable energy projects. This bill would allow all qualifying renewable energy technologies to
receive the full credit amount, leveling the playing field for these technologies to compete in the
marketplace and creating greater incentives to develop and utilize the full range of renewable
energy technologies."

Obtaining tax and financing parity for renewable energy developers would cause to become
accessible the same mechanisms that currently finance fossil developments, which of course do
not require any city assets or credit.

Councilor Hartmann’s battle could mean that all cities in Oregon may be able to utilize
conventional (non-public-bond and thus non-bond-cap-busting) financing for their own
generators and thus retain rate-payments that are currently moving one direction- out of the
cities.

Kindly see this link for the Tristone Energy survey which displays proper energy financing as
agreed between the energy lenders:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/26831029

Conventional energy finance often called “dNPV,” “growth” or “GDP” financing, which terms are
generally non-recourse “commodity financing”. dNPV treatment is a mechanism to finance
energy facilities sans public credit, but ZESC does enjoy an additional attraction - a stand-by debt
investment offer to underwrite the facility as needed (International Forex Finance Group) if
dNPV is not obtained. I would never have suggested utilization of city assets or credit to the
officials of Troutdale which is a fact that any Troutdale official can confirm AND supply records
that state those precise, explicit terms. Mike, your statements concerning the ZESC proposal
accessing Troutdale’s bond authority are simply not in any way supported by the record that all
the Councilors have. On Tuesday, I particularly supported Mayor Kight’s Wind application, a fact
I clearly stated. I support any and all proactive clean energy efforts from the Mayor or the
Councilors which avoid public assets or credit. Anything that makes energy without a
smokestack should be considered.

Incidentally, I was the only presenter who was able to come to the meeting who read a
statement rather than spoke extemporaneously. I did not want to forget any portion of the
message or stray from point:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/26830763

Two contributors had their testimonies “walked in” and read by others: 1) a retired East County
resident with a schedule conflict and 2) a highly respected Ph.D who teaches at the
Sustainability, Health and Safety college of Mt Hood Community College as is affiliated with a
multi-national engineering firm. I contacted her for a copy of her statement today:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/26837320

Others spoke without written statements: 1) a local environmental scientist who was a
republican 2) a resident of Troutdale who had been a republican City Councilor in another state
who spoke only to the opportunity and rarity of Councils being presented with such
opportunities to remark in a positive way on federal issues which have a local impact, and 3) a
party who had operated a co-gen facility. One may have used notes, I could not tell from my
seat. Every professional confirmed Councilor Hartmann's analysis and if you had stayed until the
end of the meeting for the Council Communications section, you may have learned that Mount
Hood Community College also specifically supports Councilor Hartmann’s efforts. All these
sources, I am sure, would speak to you if you wished and Councilor Hartmann may know how to
get in touch with them as they made contact with him after the meeting.

Mike, your Editorial contradicts eye witnesses including the reporter from the Gresham Outlook
and all the records. This suggests that you were not in fact in attendance at the moments these
testimonies were provided nor did you actually consult with any Troutdale authorities on the
energy proposals. As the subject of the meeting was actually BTU parity which translates to
equal tax treatment, I did speak to the audience which included the scouts on the nature of why
we have a principle of equal tax treatment in America, dating back to our War of Independence.
This was a point that I judged to be understandable and interesting to youth, so I can only guess
that a parent misinterpreted this very brief civics lesson in a way that made them uncomfortable
and reported those feelings to you. Perhaps you then inquired about what is in fact obsolete
history and did not study the answers. What are you going to do when the record comes out or
when anyone asks to see copies of the ZESC proposal records at Troutdale? These things are
FOIA, Mike. In the future, I hope that those with concerns will consider voicing them privately in
order to first ascertain if the concerns have a basis in fact and devote sufficient attention to
analyzing a record prior to a posting a sensational public distortion such as this one. Like anyone
else, my good name matters to me just as I am sure your good name matters to you. You cannot
restore to me what you have taken and the misinformation you spread served no one. I say as
gently as I can that I hope you will consider different tactics in the future.

Last, I suppose I object to your uniformed representation of ZESC technology as a simple

“garbage burner.” If I were a member of the public, I believe I would suppose you meant a
facility that accepted municipal solid waste and combusted it in order to convert heat to power
using a low efficiency steam turbine while putting crap out a smokestack, not a design such as
ZESC that micronizes the MSW and uses non-thermal plasma technologies to spin a friction-free
drive shaft with no smokestack, producing better-than-conventional bricks, building materials
and best of all, processing, manufacturing and shipping JOBS. I will admit I find your
representation of our technology crass and inaccurate and so would ask you to refrain from
doing so. Judging from the cursory level of all your information, you may not have meant to
have produced so much harm but nevertheless I observe that I have never known how to put so
many genies back in the bottle as you spilled today.

I would like to make one last comment about the original ZESC proposal to share revenues with
the people: Consider that public/private ventures such as this, if combined with the USDA to
place 20 or 40 ZESC facilities in China, could result in 100% of the those revenues connected to
the USDA’s contributions (pro-rata), contributing to reversing our trade deficit. Returning US
dollars to our country through electrical sales is a capability that only a renewable zero
emissions design can offer in China. This is a proposal that tea-partiers to tree-huggers may
embrace. The notion of returning energy (“production”) revenues to the public is an accepted
practice in Alaska.
You may contact me through Councilor Hartmann if you have any questions. I would be pleased
to resolve any further concerns.

Respectfully,

Marni Zollinger

"Marni Zollinger"

(email verified)

Sun, Feb 14, 2010 at 01:03 AM

Re: LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Garbage burning is good for who? Burning? What? Pollution?

"east county more dumping ground for garbage??"

(email verified)

Thu, Feb 18, 2010 at 08:44 AM

Re: LETTER TO THE EDITOR

"east county more dumping ground for garbage"

Actually, no. For a ZESC, no by-products enter the ground whatsoever. Rather, they are
converted into clean building materials. Additionally, the process requires no smokestack nor
and "batch escape" of gaseous effluent. We would not suggest to any community that they
should put pollution in the sky or ground. Any Troutdale City Councilor can confirm those simple
facets of the design. The proposal has the additional advantage of cleaning out the landfills
where currently Municipal Solid Waste oxidizes in an uncontrolled "combustion" - into the air,
ground and eventually ground-water.

Thank you for your question,

Marni Zollinger

ZESC Developer

"Marni Zollinger"

(email verified)

Thu, Feb 18, 2010 at 03:15 PM