Hurricane forces new dates for bioethanol hearing

An administrative hearing challenging the validity of an air quality permit issued to Rayonier Advanced Materials (RYAM) for a bioethanol plant in Fernandina Beach has been scrubbed due to Hurricane Helene.

The hearing originally set for Oct. 1-3 has now been rescheduled for Nov. 18-20 at the Fernandina courthouse.

No Ethanol Fernandina stated on its Facebook page that the hearings were postponed because many of the attendees were from Tallahassee which is in the path of the hurricane due to hit Thursday.

Last March, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) issued RYAM a draft air quality permit to operate a bioethanol plant at its facility on Gum Street that would produce 7.5 million gallons of bioethanol a year.

But in April, Tom Budd of No Ethanol Fernandina filed a petition requesting an administrative hearing be conducted stating, "This project did not meet these applicable statutes and regulations required for preconstruction review."

Specifically, the petition questions the accuracy of air emissions data submitted by RYAM in its air quality permit application to FDEP.