Aaron Hartsfield already knew his signature had been forged on
the document submitted to the Texas Commission on Environmental
Quality. There was no way he had withdrawn his opposition to a
biomass energy plant near his neighborhood in Lufkin.
Nevertheless, he exploded in anger when the document arrived in
the mail. So he marched over to a community meeting held by the
plant’s owner, Aspen Power. “I was hot. I went over to the
community meeting and asked them who signed my name to something
I didn’t want,” he says. No one ’fessed up. But afterward, the
alleged forgery and the stubborn determination of Hartsfield and
other neighborhood activists succeeded in forcing Aspen Power to
spend an additional $10 million dollars on air pollution
controls at its plant. And it might lead to tougher emission
standards for similar plants in Texas. The battle between Aspen
Power and low-income residents in Lufkin exemplifies the
problems with renewable energy. Despite some activists touting
these projects as solutions to gl