We at the CAC are incredibly proud to have friends in Switzerland; writers by the name of Daniel Stern and Ursula Häne, both of who have agreed to let us share their findings in an article published in a weekly newspaper called WOZ in Switzerland last week – home of LafargeHolcim, also known as Holcim. Because the article was written in German, an online service called Deepl was used to translate it into English and reviewed for accuracy. Our many thanks to both writers for helping us in our efforts for clean air here in upstate New York.
Holzim factory in Siggenthal, Switzerland. Photo: Ursula Haene.
This article was made possible by the research fund of the ProWOZ association. This fund supports research and reporting that exceeds the financial possibilities of WOZ. It is fed by donations from WOZ readers.
Three Plants in Switzerland
Holcim employs 70,000 people worldwide and operates around 270 cement plants and 1,300 concrete plants around the globe. Until recently, the group was called Lafarge-Holcim but the name was simplified at the beginning of May. Sales fell by 13.4 percent last year due to the pandemic, but still, amounted to over 23 billion Swiss francs with a net profit of 1.9 billion. In Switzerland, Holcim operates 36 concrete plants and one cement plant each in Siggenthal AG, Untervaz GR, and Eclépens VD. Last October, climate activists occupied a piece of land near the latter where the company wants to expand its quarry. Police cleared the occupation at the end of March.
In early May, the state Department of Environmental Conservation modified the air permit of the LafargeHolcim cement plant in Coeymans (southern Albany County) to prevent it from burning tires. (There are currently only two cement plants operating in New York State, the one in Coeymans and Lehigh Hanson in Glens Falls. Both have demonstrated their interest in burning waste products a strong interest in burning waste products as they are much cheaper than fossil fuels.)
Reportedly, the Lafarge cement plant planned to burn one million tires annually. A local businessman has been collecting tires for that purpose and was actively enlarging the Port of Coeymans on the Hudson River in order to facilitate tire collection.
DEC justified its very welcome decision on the grounds that LafargeHolcim lacks the equipment and infrastructure to burn tires safely. Burning tires is extremely polluting and the cement plant is located across the street from the local public middle school and high school.
Concerned Coeymans residents have waged a valiant struggle to prevent the cement kiln from burning tires. The commitment and vigilance of these residents has been absolutely critical in preventing Lafarge from burning tires.
But tire burning was not the only threat posed by LafargeHolcim. Four and a half years ago around Christmas, environmentalists discovered that Lafarge was in discussion with the state of Connecticut about importing that state’s garbage to burn in its cement kiln. Environmental activists sounded the alarm and Lafarge issued a public denial that it planned to burn waste. However evidence later emerged that the company had lied and was looking into it.
In 2019, the Coeymans Town Board responded to the local outcry against the cement plant’s plan to burn tires, by passing a local clean air law prohibiting the burning of waste. However, later that year, a Lafarge-supported slate of candidates was elected to the town board and supervisor position.
Realizing that the town’s clean air law was not secure, the concerned citizens of Coeymans led a couple campaigns to get the Albany County legislature to pass a county-wide clean air law designed to prevent industrial facilities from burning waste. The County enacted such a law the second time around. However, when the new majority on the Coeymans town board took office in 2020, they took advantage of a loophouse that exempted towns that had their own local clean air laws from the Albany County law. Even though the new administration in Coeymans weakened the local law in order to allow the cement plant to burn waste, such as tires, the County clean air law no longer covered the Coeymans facility.
Let Congressman Tonko know that he must act faster for us and for the planet. Join us Tuesdays at noon starting June 1st in front of the Congressman's office, 19 Dove St., Albany. Please spread the word. See the flyer below and the Facebook Event link. ————————————————————————————————————–
The Congressman who holds the most sway on climate change is our representative, Paul Tonko. He is the Chair of the House Environment and Climate Change Committee. We are his constituents; he needs our votes.
The most pressing problem for the planet, our children, and the well-being of billions of people is climate change. We cannot and should not waste this opportunity of influence. This past Earth Day, 50 of us gathered outside Congressman Tonko’s office to demand climate action starting with NO NEW FOSSIL FUEL INFRASTRUCTURE! Tonko’s goal of net neutral GHG emissions by 2050 is way too late to prevent runaway climate change.
No single rally will move Mr. Tonko but a series of them may work. We need to push, push and push some more to make our voices heard.
Therefore PAUSE (People of Albany United for Safe Energy) and Food and Water Watchare organizing a summer series of Tuesday lunch rallies in front of the Congressman’s office at 19 Dove St., in Albany. Attached is the flyer with details. (Be sure to click on the clock.)
Our blast-off rally is on Tuesday, June 1st at noon.
It would be helpful if you could let us know of your interest in attending any of the Tuesday rallies but especially the one on June 1st: RSVP to Sandy Steubing, PAUSE facilitator, at ssteub@gmail.com.
In the meantime, please call, email, or tweet the Congressman with the following message: “The Clean Futures Act is too little, too late. We need to implement bills and benchmarks this decade to keep under the 2.7°F desired limit of the Paris Climate Agreement.”
Marching and protesting are effective ways to make the local news but if you truly want change, you VOTE! And, when I say ‘vote’ I mean, going to the New York State Senate website and casting a vote that all New York State Senators will see. This is how you do it:
3. An email will be sent to you that your account setup was a success. To activate your account you have to click on the URL that was sent to the email address you provided (or paste into your browser) to validate your address and set up a password. Once that’s done, you’ll be ready to participate in the legislative process!
4. Click on “Bills” (under Inbox and Issues) and then click on the gold-colored words “Search all Senate legislation”
5.
6.
Assembly Bill A2591 SPONSORED BY CARROLL CURRENT BILL STATUS – IN ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE Senate Bill S542 – SPONSORED BY Kaminisky ON FLOORIn the sidebar, click on “aye” or “nay”
Lastly, you can leave comments too! If you’re not sure how to put into words your frustration with these two bills, take a cue from the CAC. Feel free to copy and paste all or part of anything we wrote here:
Public Comment re: Low Embodied Carbon Concrete Leadership Act
Senate Bill S542 and Assembly Bill A2591
As written, this bill will do more harm to the environment than good. It does not exclude the burning of waste by cement plants as a “low carbon fuel” which when burned produces toxins and chemicals known to harm people and the soil. As is, the bill also encourages the use of toxic and polluting materials such as fly ash and blast furnace slag to be incorporated into concrete as supplementary cementitious materials. Only non-toxic recycled ground glass pozzolan should be encouraged.
Furthermore, much of the current carbon capture and sequestration technology perpetuates the burning of fossil fuels and does not live up to its promise of reducing carbon from smokestacks and the atmosphere. Studies that take into account “upstream” greenhouse gas emissions from extraction and transportation found that many carbon capture technologies reduce only a small fraction of carbon emissions, usually increase air pollution, and require significant taxpayer-funded subsidies.
This concrete procurement discount is sponsored by the taxpayers and those who breathe the air and farm the soil in NY State. It needs to protect us! I, therefore, urge you to consider the following amendments to the bill:
1. Remove any mention of “low carbon fuel” since this term is being used by the cement industry to include all types of waste. Please amend §2 Section 165, proposed subdivision 9, (vii) (B) to read: (B) select fuel use at the level of the concrete and/or cement plant which for the purpose of this law is strictly limited to plants that are electrified or burn gas and/or coal. This fuel selection excludes the burning of any waste material whatsoever such as tire-derived fuel and ash.
2. Reword (vii)(C) as follows: (C) local production and use of locally sourced material resulting in reduced emissions from transportation;
3. Reword (vii)(D) as follows: (D) the reduction of clinker content in the cement component of concrete, or the substitution of clinker content with lower carbon alternative non-toxic materials, i.e. supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs), such as recycled ground-glass pozzolan, but excluding toxic or harmful by-products such as ground granulated blast furnace slag and fly ash;
4. Delete definition (ix) for Carbon capture, utilization and/or storage, and reword (xii) as follows: “Low embodied carbon concrete breakthrough” shall mean any qualified technology, method, or product, including but not limited to one that incorporates qualified carbon capture utilization and storage, that once fully commercialized and implemented has the potential to significantly reduce the GWP of concrete. However, for the purpose of this law such breakthrough shall exclude the combustion of any waste material whatsoever.
Did you know that Lafarge / Holcim and their various affiliates have paid $279 million in penalties since 2020? And that doesn’t even count the hundreds of millions of fines that Holcim has paid in Europe for price-fixing.
Apparently, they have calculated that it’s more economical for them to pay penalties, as opposed to cleaning up their act.
