Owens Corning backs out of Gresham
Air
quality - The company doesn't totally rule out the plant,
where it planned to use an ozone-depleting gas
CATHERINE
TREVISON
Owens Corning has dropped --
at least for now -- its plans for a controversial
But the company hasn't ruled
out the possibility of someday finishing construction on the
"Nothing additional has
been decided beyond the fact that we've not decided to proceed with the
facility as it is today," Owens Corning spokesman Jason Saragian said.
In a short letter to the
Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, the company withdrew its
application for an air-quality permit because it was "not interested in
constructing the facility as described in the . . . application."
The company's letter
"leaves it very open. It doesn't close the door for a future permit,"
said Nina DeConcini, DEQ communications and outreach manager.
The company started building
the shell of the plant more than two years ago while trying to get the DEQ
permit. But it faced intense opposition at packed public hearings, a federal
lawsuit by three environmental groups, and a recent proposal by the
Environmental Protection Agency to ban some uses of HCFC 142-b immediately,
rather than waiting until 2010.
"It's not a big
surprise. Their proposal . . . has been an ongoing train wreck," said
David Paul of the
But Saragian said neither the lawsuit, the proposed EPA rule nor opposition by what
he called a "vocal minority" influenced the company. Instead,
managers dropped the current plan in an "ongoing assessment of all of our
businesses," he said. Saragian said he could not discuss details of that
assessment for fear of tipping off competitors.
Rigid foam insulation makers
are seeking a substitute for gases such as HCFC 142-b, which is used to blow
bubbles into polystyrene. The EPA condoned the use of the ozone-depleting
substances in the mid-1990s because they are less harmful to the ozone layer
than the chemicals they replaced. But regulators said they were a temporary
bridge to be used only until manufacturers could find a substitute.
Owens Corning, which makes
the insulation at three existing plants, said last year that existing
alternatives resulted in a fragile foam that doesn't
insulate as well.
Using the gas is still
legal, and the DEQ said it likely would give Owens Corning a permit for the
EPA's definition of new
users wasn't clear, and the DEQ stopped work on Owens Corning's application to
see whether the EPA proposal would become law and whether it would apply to
Owens Corning in
The long fight, combined
with the proposed EPA rule, likely made it "totally infeasible" for
Owens Corning to use HCFC 142-b at the Gresham plant, said Melissa Powers of
the Pacific Environmental Advocacy Center, which represents the three environmental
groups.
The groups are now
negotiating to settle the case, said Mark Riskedahl, executive director of the
However, "we don't want
to be premature. We don't have the champagne going or anything," he said.
"We want to get them to a point where they are legally obligated to follow
a certain path rather than implying they are going to."
Saragian said Owens Corning
remains committed to