GONZALES, Calif.- Power or pollution? That's the big question when people talk about the future of garbage on the central coast.
It's called plasma gasification. An incinerator breaks down trash and turns it into usable energy.
The waste is heated and converted into gas. Once the conversion process is over.
The clean gas is sent to low-emission engines that make it into energy. California's talking about building a gasification plant in Gonzales.
But opponents say plasma gasification incineration costs too much and worry about pollution.
Opponents say the governor isn't listening to his own advisory board, and supporting a plasma gasification plan.
The Center for Investigative Action went to work to find out if that's true.
"We saw like a wink and a nod, yeah we'll get this through."
That's why Margaret Serna-Bonetti and others went to meet with Governor Jerry Brown's senior aids earlier this week.
They're part of the outspoken opposition to the plasma gasification project for the Gonzales landfill.
They say a letter from Jerry Brown's office supports something environmentally unsafe.
"Outrage that the Governor would intervene in a process like this that is state mandated," said Bonetti.
Last month the new director of the CA Department of Resources, Recycling, and Recovery sent a letter to Plasco, the company the Salinas Valley Solid Waste Authority hired to complete the "garbage into energy" facility.
The department told Plasco this proposed facility doesn't meet the gasification requirements of renewable energy standards.
But in 2010, Governor Schwarzennegger's adminstration told Plasco the project did meet the definition of a gasification facility.
With conflicting opinions, the Governor decided to weigh in.
"We feel that's unfair to change the rules mid-way through, since the last administrator gave them the go ahead, but this is certainly not a carte blanche support for the project, it still has to go through all CEQUA evaluations," said Elizabeth Ashford with the Governor's office.
Opponents of the project said the Governor shouldn't take sides especially since there is a complaint against the Solid Waste Authority for pushing this project forward, sitting on the attorney general's desk.
Brown's office said it's not taking sides, "All were saying in this letter is acknowledge that you were given the go ahead in the past and so were going to be supportive of legislation to continue on a pilot basis but it's important to meet all the standards and be highly scrutinized," said Ashford.
The Salinas Valley Solid Waste Authority is conducting studies for the first draft of the environmental impact report and Plasco is conducting tests at its facility in Canada.
