VIGO COUNTY, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV) — Wabash Valley Resources announced a long-term agreement with Baker Hughes, an energy technology company.
“It’s a big day for Wabash Valley Resources ,” Greg Zoeller, Vice President of External Affairs for Wabash Valley Resources (WVR) said following a Vigo County Commissioners meeting Tuesday.
The long-term agreement or partnership was announced between Wabash Valley Resources, a producer of low-carbon ammonia fertilizer, and Baker Hughes, an energy technology company that is said to supply advanced technology services and solutions to support WVR’s ammonia production.
“They’ll do all the monitoring and safety part of it,” Zoeller said.
“It’s good to know that they’ve teamed up with a huge organization,” Vigo County Commissioner Chris Switzer said. “A huge company that can do those safe well drills and be involved in this process. I think the community will be happy to know they chose them as well.”
WVR’s clean ammonia fertilizer project is said to utilize leading-edge technology to repower and repurpose an existing gasification plant to become Indianas first ammonia fertilizer plant.
In a statement, Judit Prieto, Senior Vice President for Enterprise Costumer Solutions at Baker Hughes said in part, “The agreement underscores Baker Hughes’ strategic commitment to new energy ventures that leverage our technical excellence and safety standards through decades of experience.”
“They’re a large company, Wabash Valley Resources is not,” Zoeller said. “I think it was clear that some of the people in the community looked at us and said ‘Are you going to be in charge of all the safety?’
As for the expertise, officials say that’s what Baker Hughes brings.
“If you talk to people who understand this technology, Baker Hughes is really the best in the world,” Zoeller said. “I think you’ll see that they’re going to be big in this whole area, and it’s moving away from the old smokestack era and now we’re going to have carbon sequestration, so we don’t put carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.”
The project has received backlash from the community. County Commissioners have received comments from residents wanting to require certain things of WVR, many of which Commissioner Chris Switzer said fall on compliance regulators at the state and federal levels.
“From a county commissioner’s standpoint, our hands are kind of tied with the regulation side of it and what we can require at a local level,” Switzer said.
However, Switzer said that concerned resident’s voices have been heard. “We’ll just continue those conversations moving forward in making sure that WVR is educating the community the best way possible.”
In addition to the partnership, a community Benefits package was also discussed on Tuesday.
“We’re going to try to target that in what’s called ‘Justice 40’,” Zoeller explained. “It’s a program that we’re living under with the federal project that we’re doing.”
Through Justice 40, the Federal Government made it a goal that 40 percent of the overall benefits of certain federal climate, clean energy, and other investments flow to disadvantaged communities that are marginalized by underinvestment and overburdened by pollution.
WVR is partnering with the Wabash Valley Community Foundation to manage WVR’s investment and grant distribution and reporting.
As for the timeline of the project, WVR said some work is expected to begin in 2025 and they plan to be fully operational in 2027.
As for the community comments received from county commissioners on WVR, they said they plan to post those online for the community to have the chance to read the feedback received.
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