(Video centers on Nichols’ claims about the Bloom site).
Bloom Energy critic John Nichols has lost an appeal with the Delaware Supreme Court in a ruling released this week. The ruling is expected to sharply limit appeals over the state’s Coastal Zone Act, court observers said.
Click on the link below for the full ruling:
Nichols had claimed, among other things, that Bloom Energy fuel cells would cause harm to the area, citing the Coastal Zone Act. The area in question is a Delmarva Power site known as Red Lion Energy Center. He also argued the Coastal Zone industrial Board did not have a sufficient number of votes to deny his claim.
The act, limits new industrial development in coastal areas of the state, but is vague in a number of areas, such as installations of equipment, warehouses, rail yards and other facilities. Suggestions have been made to change the act to deal with the current economic environment.
The court ruled that Nichols did not have standing in the case as a party who would be harmed by the use of the Bloom fuel cells that burn natural gas and generate power through a chemical reaction. According to the ruling, Nichols lives about 14 miles away from the Delmarva site.
Nichols claimed in interviews that the fuel cells came with environmental hazards from chemicals emitted from the cells that would harm wildlife. A Superior Court decision had rejected his appeal from the the Coastal Zone Industrial Board decision.
The fuel cells, each about the size of parking space, are often located near buildings and other facilities.
The appeal was part of litigation aimed at Bloom, which reached a deal with the state to build a production plant in Delaware that is now nearing completion. A provision of the deal involved operating a number of Bloom fuel cells at Delmarva sites. The cells put power in the grid and Delmarva customers pay an extra $1.30 or so a month for the higher-priced power.
Another case that was also dismissed in court claimed the state acted illegally in favoring Bloom over other fuel cell makers.
Supporting Nichols and other Bloom litigation was the Caesar Rodney Institute, a public policy group based in Dover.
The ruling dims chances of any appeal by the Sierra Club and Audubon Society over construction of a rail unloading facility near the Delaware City Refinery. Owner PBF Energy built the site to handle rail shipments of crude oil from North Dakota and Canada.
