Since he first began his tree-trimming and wood chip business more than three decades ago, Montgomery”™s James Taylor has always found a way to turn one”™s man trash into another”™s treasure.
Ten years ago, Taylor offered a tour of his Neelytown Road recycling site, where he outlined plans to create a way to turn unrecyclable waste into electricity by vaporizing it with heat, thus giving off a gas that could be turned into electricity.
U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey, who has worked with Taylor since he was chairman of the state”™s energy committee 20 years ago as a freshman assemblyman, was the first on hand to congratulate Taylor for getting final approval from the U.S. Department of Energy for the $100 million loan guarantee. He was joined by U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, state Sen. William Larkin and a bevy of state and local officials and businesses who are eager to see Taylor”™s commercial gasification plant come on line.
In addition to the federal the loan guarantee, $34 million in federal grants and a $10 million credit subsidy will bring Taylor”™s biomass plant to fruition within 24 months of shovels hitting the ground and guarantee to private investors in the project that their funds are protected should the project fail. Schumer has no doubt investors will not have to worry about that happening, so sure is he of the man and the plan.
Showboating is definitely not Taylor”™s style, but what he does hope to bring to the Hudson Valley ”“ and to the United States and eventually to the world ”“ is a technology he has spent years perfecting to reduce waste, save land from turning into landfill and create a product in high demand: electricity. “It”™s really a dream come true for me,” said Taylor.
The initial construction on Taylor”™s 95-acre site will create 400 construction jobs and consist of ten buildings for the biomass facility. Taylor assured union representatives in the room he intends to keep the project local. It will create 82 permanent jobs, “And it will bring the world to Orange County to learn how to do this,” added County Executive Edward Diana.
Taylor said Mount St. Mary College and SUNY Orange students will work together with Kingston-based The Solar Energy Consortium as the project is built and goes on line to learn how the process is done and how to recreate it in other parts of the country and world.
“What can you say?” said Michael Oates, president of the Hudson Valley Economic Development Corp. “It”™s great and it”™s happening right here in the Hudson Valley and in our state.” Schumer estimated more than $1 million in school, county and state taxes will be generated along with the electricity.
