Politicians' Positions on the Waste-to-Energy Incinerator

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Frederick County Commissioner Kai Hagen

Opposed to waste-to-energy incinerator and incineration in general

"If re-elected, I, Kai Hagen, am absolutely committed to voting to end Frederick County's participation in the 1,500 tons per day regional Waste-to-Energy (incinerator) project as soon as possible after the new Board of County Commissioners is installed on December 1, 2010."

Going forward with incineration will be the "biggest mistake." The county has "overvalued risk and undervalued flexibility."

Hagen is running for second term as Frederick County commissioner:

Hagen is by far the most outspoken public official in favor of alternatives to waste incineration. A stalwart champion of environmental policy, Hagen is viewed by many as the genesis for their involvement in this issue. Many credit his actions with keeping it in the public spectrum. Hear from him in this video.

On April 28, 2009, Hagen asked the board to split Jenkins' motion into two parts so that he could support the items he wanted to and oppose the others. The motion would not have had enough votes to pass. Therefore, he went on the record to say he does not support possible future incineration at an existing nearby facility or the privatization of the county's solid waste operations and that he needed to support the motion as a whole in order for the board to move forward with researching ArrowBio. He also wanted to cancel, not just suspend, the procurement with Wheelabrator.

On March 31, 2009, Hagen asked the board to remove the McKinney site from consideration. Because they would not, Hagen left the meeting early to support Senator Mooney's bill at the Annapolis hearing.

“[ArrowEcology is] the sort of technology that is emerging is by itself an utterly compelling argument against building a hugely expensive, grossly oversized regional mass-burn incinerator.” Commissioner Hagen also finds ArrowEcology's process a better, cleaner, cheaper solution for disposing of trash. He has stated that the county could be doing more to reduce and divert waste. Read the full articles here and here.

On November 18, 2008, Commissioner Hagen gave a presentation (PDF) to the BOCC outlining many of the reasons the county should oppose building an incinerator. See also http://frederick.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=790.

See articles and e-mails pertaining to Hagen.