The Virgin Islands Legislature voted Monday to deny a lease to Alpine Energy Group for land to construct a waste to energy plant in the Bovoni area on St. Thomas. In a vote of 11 against and 4 in favor, the action sends the Territory back to the drawing board for an acceptable solution to the issue of solid waste.
Those opposing the lease cited community resistance to the potential public health and environmental concerns raised by the use of petcoke. Those in favor cited the need to close the Territory’s landfills to avoid sanction by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that has mandated that landfills on St. Thomas and St. Croix be closed within a specified time to avoid hefty fines.
And Sen. Sammuel Sanes, who voted in favor of the lease, chastised those activists on St. Croix who opposed the deal for not mounting the same level of opposition to the Hovensa refinery.
The lease under consideration was for the land Alpine was going to use to construct the plant that would convert solid waste into Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF). A second lease for the land to be used to construct the power generation plant, the process that would use RDF in conjunction with the hotly contested fuel petroleum coke to generate electricity, was not on the agenda today. Read more »


