Fate of a Tulsa Burn Plant Hinges on Legal Opinion

Date: March 25, 2007

Source: News Room

Tulsa could lose its burn plant of twenty years. At issue is the legal question of whether the Tulsa Authority for the Recovery of Energy can directly negotiate a new sole-source contract with the Walter B. Hall Resource Recovery Facility when cheaper landfill disposal options exist. A legal opinion is pending from the Oklahoma attorney general. Granting an extension in the contract is being debated until the opinion is given. However, even if the negotiations are allowed the issue may be moot because of the flow-control issue stated in Carbone. Waste management companies in the area have agreed not to pursue their rights under Carbone until the incinerator's contract expires and the city had finishes paying off the bonds for the plant, which coincide. Competition would lower fees, but could also potentially drive the burn plant out of business as lucrative commercial waste would be siphoned off to cheaper landfills.

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