Maine Judge Upholds Permit for WTE Plant

Justice Michaela Murphy, in a 30-page decision issued Wednesday, affirmed the Maine Department of Environmental Protection’s decision to issue permits to Maryland-based Fiberight for air emissions, solid waste processing, stormwater management and compliance with the Natural Resources Protection Act for a $69 million waste processing and recycling facility on the Cold Brook Road.

“We won on every single technical merit,” Fiberight CEO Craig Stuart-Paul said Wednesday afternoon by phone. “We’re delighted. We continue to prove to everyone that we have a good product despite PERC’s bad behavior.”

Penobscot Energy Recovery Co. in Orrington — along with its majority owner, USA Energy of Minnesota, and Exeter Agri-Energy — filed the appeal in August 2016 in Kennebec County Superior Court, a month after the DEP permits were issued, claiming there were “serious deficiencies in the record” that included Fiberight’s failures to demonstrate the technical and financial abilities to build the plant.