The Michigan Department of Energy, Great Lakes, and Environment (EGLE) plans to place a lump of coal in the Fremont Regional Digester’s stocking this Christmas.
EGLE now classifies a byproduct of anaerobic digestion — a process the Fremont Regional Digester (FRD) uses to convert food waste into renewable methane gas — as a pollutant, despite the byproduct’s presence in similar digesters around the state, across the nation, and in other countries. As a result, the FRD will need to shut down production at the end of December 2023.
EGLE’s change in interpreting its own rules reflects the “environmentally sensitive” attitude of its bureaucrats and not the real world that we live and work in. Their desire is to remove one more source of “pollution” out of Michigan. But this counteracts good stewardship of natural resources: the biogas produced by the FRD is renewable energy, and it comes from food waste that would otherwise sit in landfills and fill the sky with methane (and nearby nostrils with bad smells).
The byproducts of FRD’s digestion processes also are filled with rich nutrients when deposited back into the soil. The big question in this picture is why is it that none of FRD’s work has been seen as harmful until now. There seems to be an agenda at work here.
The FRD retains a large presence within Newaygo County and beyond: the company takes in 150,000 tons of food waste annually, powers 3500 homes in West Michigan with renewable energy and supplies nutrient-rich digestate to more than 3,000 acres of local farmland. The shutdown of this facility would cost 17 locals their jobs and remove college scholarships to local students that the FRD supports annually.
EGLE bureaucrats, driven by the “Green New Deal” agenda, cannot simply change the rules midstream on the FRD’s valuable contributions to our local and state economy. It is time for EGLE to sit down and work out a real plan with the FRD and to not arbitrarily hijack the lives of Fremont workers and local businesses.
What is going on in this situation cries out for the need for less government and fewer regulations in our state. This is why I am working to change hearts and minds in Lansing. I pray that the facility will stay open and will continue to join hands with many other legislators who have the goals of smaller government and decreased regulatory power in our state.