PLA set for U.P. Renewafuel job

MARQUETTE – Renewa-fuel LLC, will build a next-generation biomass fuel production facility at the former K.I. Sawyer Air Base  in Marquette using a project labor agreement.

The plant will annually produce 150,000 tons of high-energy, low-emission biofuel cubes from a sustainable composite of collected wood and agricultural feedstocks, including wood byproducts, corn stalks, grasses and energy crops.

Michigan Building and Construction Trades Council Business Representative Mike Thibault said the failure to get a PLA on the $10 million project “could really have been a mess, but things turned out nicely.” Devere Construction will manage construction on the project, which will employ about 40 Hardhats at peak construction.

The work involves modifying and refurbishing two hangars for their new use. Thibault said construction at the plant began April 12, and the facility is expected to go online at the end of August.

Renewafuel says its biofuel cubes generate about the same amount of energy as coal from the Western United States. However, the cubes emit 90 percent less sulfur dioxide, 35 percent less particulate matter and 30 percent less acid gases than coal.

The cubes are made from feedstocks that are considered biogenic carbon, and will not add to atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide. Because of their size and density, the cubes can be used in most solid fuel systems with little or no modifications required.

At full production, Renewafuel will produce approximately 60,000 tons of biomass fuel cubes for the steam plant of Marquette Board of Light and Power, as well as replace a portion of coal used at Cleveland Cliffs’ two nearby Michigan iron ore mines as process fuel for kilns used to harden iron ore pellets.

CEO tops $100M in compensation

(PAI) – Who is Aubrey E. Robinson and why should he be notorious among corporate CEOs?

Robinson heads Chesapeake Energy, an Oklahoma City-based $7.7 billion natural gas-and-oil drilling and production company. He topped the pay scales of all U.S. corporate CEOs, according to the AFL-CIO’s 14th annual Executive Pay Watch study.  In 2009 he received $100,069,201 in total compensation, or 3,122 times the compensation of an average U.S. worker.

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