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 Construction crews work on the nearly quarter complete, $360 million SunCoke plant on Yankee Road in Middletown, Ohio Tuesday, Aug 24. Six-hundred workers will lay more than 3.6 million bricks in the coming weeks. Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland will visit the site Wednesday. (Gary Stelzer/MBR) MIDDLETOWN — “Construction on a $360 million industrial coke-making facility here by SunCoke Energy Inc. is about 20 percent complete, but opponents aren’t giving up their two-year opposition to the controversial project…
Monroe resident Lisa Frye, president of SunCoke Watch Inc., a community group opposed to the project, said she’s not opposed to economic development, ‘but at what cost?’
Opponents argue the plant’s 100 coke ovens, which will burn up to 800,000 tons of coal annually, will cause further deterioration in the area’s air quality already deemed a non-attainment area by the Environmental Protection Agency.
‘If I didn’t think we had a case from a legal standpoint, I wouldn’t waste my time fighting this,’ said Frye.”
— Mike Boyer, Cincinnati Enquirer
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— Chelsey Levingston, Middletown Journal
$360M facility will be built with upgrades, company officials say at Community Advisory Panel meeting
 Delauna Pack, director of corporate safety at SunCoke Energy, during a SunCoke Community Advisory Panel meeting Monday, Aug. 16. (E.L. Hubbard/Middletown Journal) MIDDLETOWN — “The $360 million SunCoke plant is nearly a quarter complete as company officials discussed plans and project modifications at a meeting Monday, Aug. 16.
At the SunCoke Energy Middletown Community Advisory Panel meeting held at the Manchester Inn, members learned construction crews have started on the coke ovens at the new plant, which is located off Yankee Road near the Monroe border…
Lisa Frye, CAP member and president of plant opposition group SunCoke Watch Inc., questioned how the company would be able to stay within its emissions limits here since the SunCoke facility in Franklin Furnace has been continually out of compliance.”
— Jessica Heffner, Middletown Journal
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13 attend first gathering; next will focus on topics such as construction schedule, air quality monitoring
 Mike White, left, senior vice president of operations for SunCoke, answers a question from Middletown Deputy Fire Chief Brent Dominy during the initial meeting of a Community Advisory Panel on Monday, June 7. (David Moodie) MIDDLETOWN — “Two years may have passed since SunCoke Energy announced plans to build a new coke plant in Middletown, but as a new community panel made clear at their first meeting, there are still a lot of questions surrounding the project.
About 13 people attended the first SunCoke Energy Middletown Community Advisory Panel meeting on Monday, June 7, at the Manchester Inn. The group included plant opponents Monroe Mayor Robert Routson, Lisa Frye, Monroe resident and president of SunCoke Watch Inc.; and also Mike White, senior vice president of operations for SunCoke.”
— Jessica Heffner, Middletown Journal
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 Heavy equipment kicks up dust at the SunCoke coke plant Monday, April 12, on Yankee Road in Middletown, near the Monroe border. Despite pending permit appeal, work on the $360 million facility began again after more than a year of inactivity. (Gary Stelzer/Middletown Journal) MIDDLETOWN — “The city of Middletown could only receive $35,000 a year from the new SunCoke Energy plant as the company pursues a new tax incentive.
Finance Director Russ Carolus said he is concerned granting the additional Job Creation Incentive Grant, which would reduce the amount of income tax paid to the city, would further diminish the benefit to the embattled city.
‘We want businesses to come here and we want to be friendly to businesses,’ Carolus said. ‘But at the same time, we have to make money. We can’t give it all away in an effort to get someone to come in here — you have to have something coming back.’”
— Jessica Heffner and Ryan Gauthier, Middletown Journal
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Energy company plans to resume construction Monday, April 12, officials say
 The SunCoke coke plant site, shown Tuesday, April 6, in Middletown, will soon see some activity. The company has announced it will resume construction Monday, April 12. (Gary Stelzer/Middletown Journal) MIDDLETOWN — After more than a year of delays, construction is set to begin again at the $360 million coke plant in Middletown, SunCoke Energy officials said Tuesday, April 6.
The company said its general contractor, McGraw Kokosing, is moving equipment to the site off Yankee Road near the Monroe border and will resume construction April 12…
Chris Walker, the attorney representing Monroe in its legal actions against SunCoke, said the decision to move forward with the plant was news to him.
‘If SunCoke wants to begin construction they do so at their own risk because we think the permit … is invalid,’ he said.”
— Jessica Heffner, Middletown Journal
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 Amanda Elementary MIDDLETOWN — Two sites have been selected by Hamilton County Department of Environmental Services for the placement of the fleet of air monitors to check emissions near a proposed $360 million coke oven facility.
The agency said it will position monitors upwind at Amanda Elementary School, 1300 Oxford State Road, as well as downwind at Yankee Properties LLC, 3350 Yankee Road…
Lisa Frye, spokeswoman for plant opposition group SunCoke Watch Inc., said she felt the monitoring was SunCoke doing no more than is necessary to operate.
‘Obviously Amanda elementary is the No. 1 location since the affects these emissions can have on children and the elderly. I expected them to do that given the location and the concerns,’ she said.”
— Jessica Heffner, Middletown Journal
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 Lisa Frye MIDDLETOWN — “Three appeals have been filed against the new air permit issued to SunCoke Energy to build a new $360 million coke plant in Middletown…
Lisa Frye — along with the Natural Resource Defense Council, Chuck Inwood, Barb Stubbs and her organization SunCoke Watch Inc. — also filed an ERAC appeal March 11. Their appeal also alleges best available technology is not being used, that emissions credits are invalid and that SunCoke’s certification of compliance as required by the permit is invalid.
‘…They are coming into a non-attainment area and haven’t shown that they are going to be a good neighbor and not illegally pollute more than it already is,’ Frye said. ‘Our opinion is they can’t be trusted and will put lives in jeopardy.’”
— Jessica Heffner, Oxford Press
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Group against plant in Middletown points to latest notice of violation company has received
 The Haverhill North Coke Facility owned by SunCoke Energy. (Nick Graham/Middletown Journal) MIDDLETOWN – “A string of alleged emissions violations at SunCoke Energy’s Franklin Furnace, Ohio, facility has cast a shadow of doubt for some over the company’s capability to meet requirements… To Chuck Inwood, a Monroe resident and member of SunCoke Watch, the latest NOV means either SunCoke’s design doesn’t work, their staff is incapable of operating the plant properly, or the company is ‘in willful disregard of the limits of the permit. I think it is terrifying if we think that this same thing is going to be here next door to a school, next door to a nursing home,’ he said. ‘I think anybody ought to be scared,’” Jessica Heffner, Middletown Journal.
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 Mark Chaney protests the SunCoke plant during the Monroe City Council meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 23. (Robert Leifheit) MONROE — Some Monroe residents are questioning why the city is continuing its fight against SunCoke Energy… Larry Keith of Trenton said jobs are vital to every community. ‘I understand their environmental concerns, but every city needs commerce… People have got to have jobs. There’s just no way around it. ‘Monroe Mayor Robert Routson disagrees, saying in a statement released Tuesday by the city that, ‘It is not acceptable to risk the health of 12,000 Monroe citizens for the sake of 75 permanent jobs,’” Denise Wilson, Middletown Journal.
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Anti-SunCoke persistence miffs AK, union — Jessica Heffner, Oxford Press.
Meeting tonight about SunCoke energy permit In Monroe —Annette Peagler, WCPO.
 An EPA SunCoke hearing held in September. (Pat Auckerman/Middletown Journal) The company can only use its new permit to construct $360 million coke plant in Middletown, agency says.
MIDDLETOWN — “While SunCoke Energy may be on its second air permit for its $360 million coke plant, only one of them is valid. The company received a second, more stringent New Source Review air permit by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency this month. While SunCoke was granted a valid netting permit from the state in November 2008, it was the subject of numerous appeals and a Clean Air Act lawsuit which threatened to put a hold on the project. While Ohio EPA officials said they believe that first permit to be protective of public health, language in the NSR permit makes it invalid,” Jessica Heffner, Middletown Journal.
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