John Trotti

When the US ran into its first big-time energy crunch and people in cities all across the nation sat in line for hours each week in the hope of reaching the gas pump before the station owner dragged the dreaded "Out of gas, try again tomorrow" sign into the driveway, governments and people responded in a variety of ways–some innovative, others not so.

The Issue Was Energy

Remember the "odd-even" scheme based on the final digit of the license plate number? I wonder how many license plates were stolen during those maddening days, or how many neighborhood entrepreneurs emerged from the woodworks to "rent" a plate? Luckily the odd-even patch was short-lived, but society changed course with many motorists deserting their gas-guzzlers for smaller, more efficient vehicles.

As an immediate response to the perceived crisis, a number of waste-to-energy incinerators were built and brought on-line. Not surprisingly, the concern of these units was more on the energy portion of the equation than the environment, but as the perception cooled, it became apparent–as was the case with their fossil fuel cousins–there were serious emissions concerns to be addressed. At the time, this defect was deemed acceptable because the issue was energy rather than waste management … but things changed.

The Issue Became the Environment …

In the 1980s, as memories of the "energy crunch" faded, so too did the perceived need for WTE combustors, which now found themselves in the direct path of the public's growing concern for the environment that even before the collapse of the Soviet Union had begun to overtake defense as the nation's focal point. Faced with exorbitant air emission-control retrofit costs to comply with increasingly tough pollution regulations, some WTE plants closed. Many of those that continued operation did so through the largesse of subsidies and the guarantee of sufficient waste to fuel them.

… And the Economy

The decade of the '90s began on a dismal economic note. It was a time of belt-tightening in which the public sector found its programs and practices being evaluated according to private-sector business principles and standards. Not surprisingly, high-cost, low-return programs–particularly those standing in the path of increasing environmental regulation–found themselves with their backs to the wall. Then in 1994 came the famous Carbone v. Clarkston decision that for waste facilities throughout the country–especially the already embattled WTE plants–invalidated the waste flow controls on which many of them depended for their very existence.

The remarkable economic recovery in the last half of the decade was accompanied by an unprecedented increase in worldwide petroleum production that allowed the public to pretend for a while that its energy woes were a thing of the past. Pressures to deregulate the energy industry did nothing to curb the public's belief in and thirst for even greater abundance of energy and the fuel to produce it. Despite skyrocketing demands for energy, siting new production facilities became all but impossible–not just in the face of regulations, but environmentally motivated public opposition as well. Even with dire predictions of energy shortages at the beginning of the new century, public resistance to new WTE facilities–or any waste facilities for that matter–continued to grow in its stridency. That attitude, however, failed to take into account the combined effects of rolling blackouts and the impacts and implications of September 11.

Today's Issues Are Energy, Security, and the Environment

While none of us can envision the full extent to which our lives will change as a result of the September terrorist attacks, suffice it to say that they pointed out some glaring weaknesses not only in our security efforts but also in the integrity of our vital infrastructure. Whereas blame for the energy shortages of 2001 might seem to have rested on relatively short-term problems, it is now apparent that the entire basis of our energy system–fuel, production, and distribution–is flawed and badly in need of an overhaul.

Though the relationship is at best peripheral, New York City's sudden reconfrontation of its waste management problems might signal a change in the public's perception of the role of WTE as a valuable asset of an integrated waste management program as well as a key player in the nation's long-term energy delivery system.

In a telephone survey of some 500 New York City residents conducted by ABC network's Eyewitness News on March 25, 2002, 56% signaled their preference for having the city's garbage incinerated over reopening Fresh Kills Landfill. Only 26% favored the alternative. The survey came on the heels of Mayor Michael Bloomberg's proposal to cut NYC's recycling program for a period of 18 months because of budget shortfalls.

WTE faces a long uphill battle with the public–and especially environmental groups that have consigned the alternative to the bottom of the waste management hierarchy–but it seems certain that a new round of debate on the subject is about to begin. Rather than wait for others with less knowledge of the opportunities and challenges to grab the spotlight, it's up to waste management professionals to take a leadership role in educating elected officials and shaping public opinion.

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