Demand a Closer Accounting of Micron’s 100% Renewable Energy Promise (Guest Opinion by Peter Wirth)

Peter Wirth of Fayetteville is vice president of climate change awareness and action.

If you listen to the officials—the county executive, the economic developers, Micron representatives—Micron will be built using 100% renewable energy. The environmental cost of this project in terms of energy consumption is negligible.

The question is not whether Micron should be built. The question is: Are officials being transparent about the project’s environmental costs, which are significant, and not glossing over them with statements like “100% renewable energy” or “sustainable”?

Development comes with an environmental price. Living next to Onondaga Lake, where tons of mercury have been dumped for decades, we understand the environmental costs.

If you’ve ever watched The Wizard of Oz, you know the illusion of power created by the Wizard, who was eventually unmasked by Dorothy.

Micron’s illusion is “100% renewable energy.” The reality is different. So what are the costs and what do we know so far?

Gas side

First, 100% renewable energy only applies to the electrical side of the equation.

There is a 16-inch high-pressure gas pipeline with a capacity of millions of cubic feet of natural gas being built by National Grid to the plant. The “natural” gas is mostly methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, much more potent than carbon dioxide. This gas pipeline is almost never mentioned in relation to Micron’s energy use.

We should find out why natural gas is needed in such large quantities.

Electric heat pumps, which provide both heating and cooling, work well in this climate and are starting to outsell gas-fired units. There is no reason gas should be used for supplemental heating in factories.

The same goes for the cafe serving 9,000 employees. Traditional electric and/or induction commercial ranges are designed by a world-class chef in Pennsylvania. Micron may lead the way in building the first all-electric commercial cafe in Central New York.

The same goes for water heaters. There are very efficient electric water heaters with a heat pump.

If the gas is used in a commercial process, such as burning PFAS (a toxic chemical used in chip manufacturing), could renewable, green hydrogen be a substitute?

Electrical side

On the electrical side, Micron has committed to 100% renewable energy. This should be encouraged.

That commitment is one that has been repeated over and over again by the same Republican county officials who recently voted for Onondaga County to abandon a state law that was intended to spur the development of wind and solar farms — the same renewable energy that Micron will need in abundance. The same energy that the state will need if we are to meet climate goals set out in the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act.

Micron will need as much electricity as the states of New Hampshire and Vermont combined!

Where will this wind, solar and hydropower come from? Will Micron scale back if it can’t get this renewable energy?

Initially, we were convinced that rooftop solar panels would be installed on 5 million square feet. We were recently told that this was not possible, even though Micron’s Singapore plant has 36,000 solar panels installed on its roofs and sheds. Micron should do everything possible to develop solar energy on site.

How will Micron impact New York State’s climate goals set forth in the CLCPA legislation? If these goals are not met, the impacts of climate change will become more severe.

Hardly a week goes by without a story in The Post-Standard about record-breaking temperatures and rising heat-related deaths. We recently had the earliest Category 5 hurricane, Beryl, which destroyed 98 percent of the buildings on the island of Carriacou in Grenada. Only someone who doesn’t understand science doubts the link between greenhouse gases and climate change.

‘The Wizard of Oz’

Will county and local economic officials be the “Wizards” for Micron, or will they pressure Micron to be transparent and answer questions from reporters and citizens about its environmental impact?

When your reporter Glenn Coin asked Micron officials additional questions about a story he was working on about the environmental impact of the construction process, Micron officials declined to answer them.

We, the taxpayers, are giving tens of billions of hard-earned money to a private company. We have a right to expect our elected officials to ensure that Central New York taxpayers get answers about how Micron will impact residents’ quality of life and how the goals of the state’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act will be achieved.