UPDATE: Ze-gen Blames Attleboro's Slow Process and Price of Natural Gas

Ze-gen, a waste-to-energy business in Boston, has suspended its clean energy project in Attleboro, the company announced today. 

Newly appointed chief operating officer and former senior vice president of technology David Robertson said the reason it decided to no longer consider Attleboro is "largely speaking because the price of natural gas has evolved since they built the pilot plan in New Bedford." 

"We’ve seen the price of natural gas trend down and that is certainly a key factor," Roberston said. "If the Attleboro Clean Energy Project was already up and running, we could withstand the economic drop in natural gas prices, but the combination of economic pressures and the recent delays to the project schedule has led us to conclude there are better locations for our first commercial facility outside of the Northeast corridor.”

Attleboro's regulatory process also played a factor in the company's decision. 

"As a young technology company, our most precious resource is the time and creative attention of our small professional team," Robertson said. "The regulation process (in Attleboro) has gone slowly, slower than we expected."

Robertson is referring to the several public hearings it has endured through the Attleboro Conservation Commission, the first government body to which Ze-gen presented its plans. 

Hundreds of residents have packed the public hearings to voice their opinions against the company building a waste-to-energy plant in Attleboro. Residents questioned the company's process, the materials that would be transported in and out of Attleboro and the environmental and health impacts of the plant. 

In fact, the group Attleboro Residents with Important Safety Concerns (@RISC) had created a website to support the cause to stop Ze-gen and were in the process of ordering signage that would show that they were against Ze-gen building in Attleboro and to encourage the community to fight the company's plans. 

"I think this is a testament to the power of grassroots action," said @RISC's leader, Charlie Adler. "Sometimes you hear this is a 'done deal' and I don't think people should ever feel that way because when people pull together to pull the levers of democracy it can have a positive effect."

Adler said he doesn't think political influence forced Ze-gen's executives to suspend their efforts, but rather the number of people who were asking the right questions.  

"I think one factor was the exponential increase in the number of people that turned our for the hearings," Adler said. "They couldn't answer all the questions from the first hearing.

"I think it was rapid increase and concern of the public plus the fact that there were so many different arguments that can be made (against the company's plans)," Adler added.  "The overriding probem with the proposal was that it was not fully tested and ready to be implemented at that scale."

Some residents are celebrating Ze-gen's decision. 

"I have been very concerned about the various toxics already in our community for years," resident Jackie Romaniecki said. "I live within easy walking distance of the Superfund Schpack site and am downwind of the proposed gasification site.

"While the concept of gasification remains appealing, I have felt there were just too many unanswered questions and concerns to allow them to come to our city," she added. "The fact that they have decided not to come is so wonderful, and regardless of what is said, I have to believe Charlie Adler and @RISC deserve the credit!"

"I really think that not enough consideration initially by Ze-gen was given of the totality of the Texas Instruments location and the proximity to the population," said Thomas Spinelli, an Attleboro resident. "Also, they never demonstrated in any of their released information that they were able to run a good prototype operation with production characteristics."

Suspending its plans in Attleboro does not mean the company has given up. In fact, Ze-gen's Gideon Gradman, vice president of corporate development, said the company was looking at other markets, but would not disclose the other markets it was considering, citing competitive reasons.

"We have a number of other projects we were looking at, and we need to make a decision to move on," Robertson said. "We are disappointed. We would have loved to do something in Attleboro and still think it is a great location."