Florida County Commission Rejects Contract with Freedom Energy Hernando, Plan for WTE Plant

After several years of discussion, many hours of staff time trying to negotiate a contract and questions about viability, the Hernando County Commission this week voted unanimously to turn down a contract with Freedom Energy Hernando LLC and abandoned the idea of having the county spearhead a waste-to-energy program.

With several commissioners previously having expressed support for Freedom and the concept, some residents made a last-ditch effort at Tuesday's commission meeting to stop the proposed 20-year contract, under which Freedom Energy would have built a plant on 13 acres of county land at the landfill, then processed the majority of the county's solid waste into pellets that could have been used as fuel.