Mayfield council seeks to block ethanol plant

By TOM KANE

MAYFIELD, PA - It’s no secret that the newly elected council in Mayfield Township doesn’t like the planned ethanol plant in their township.

But what is no longer a secret is that the new council has been working quietly to reverse the zoning approvals the previous council gave to the Northeast Ethanol and Renewable Resources Company, which is owned by Dunmore developer Louis DeNaples.

That has Rich Sheller, CEO of Northeast Ethanol, so upset that he has petitioned the Lackawanna County Court to keep the zoning changes in the company’s favor.

Many residents of Mayfield were so opposed to the plant that, using a write-in option, they unseated four council members who favored it in last November’s elections. The lone member, who was not unseated, had opposed the plant from the start.

Anthony Spataro, new council president, has informed Sheller that he should be working with the council in the future and not with the mayor, Al Chelik, who is in support of the plant. The council has attempted to rescind extra powers that were given to the mayor by previous councils.

Mayfield, which is located near Scranton, is a recent instance of a national and international trend of growing opposition to ethanol plants. Recently, Regan Suzuki of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations warned that the rush to embrace biofuels raised from crops is causing a spike in the price of corn and other crops, and could worsen water shortages and force poor communities off their land.

While acknowledging that biofuels are better for the environment than fossil fuels, Suzuki said production should be weighed against the pitfalls, such as the stripping of rain forests.

In recent months, according to various press articles, scientists, private agencies and the British government have said that biofuels could do more harm than good. Rather than protecting the environment, researchers are warning that energy crops destroy natural forests that store carbon and are a key tool in the fight to reduce global warming.

But ethanol still has many backers. In Wayne County, the local farm bureau is heading up an effort among local businesses to build an ethanol plant near Indian Orchard.

“An alternative fuel plant would generate new employment opportunities, bolster our railroad system and give farmers a new market to produce for,” said Dave Williams, spokesman for the Pike/Wayne Farm Bureau. Opportunities for agriculture means keeping farms farming, maintaining open space and preserving farms for future generations, he said.