Newsprint mill cancels N.L. tire-burning plan

Montreal-based newsprint producer Kruger Inc. has withdrawn a proposal to burn used car tires as an energy source for its western Newfoundland newsprint mill.

In a terse statement Friday, the Newfoundland and Labrador government said Kruger had withdrawn an undertaking that had been filed under provincial environmental review legislation.

The company later issued a statement that said the project was withdrawn "due to the lack of concensus over the project." It went on to say that after collecting feedback from the public and local groups, the company "came to the conclusion that the project did not garner sufficient support."

Kruger had wanted to launch an eight-day pilot project that would have involvedburning 150 tonnes of used tires at Corner Brook Pulp and Paper.

A government decision on the pilot project had been expected in December, but has been delayed twice. Opposition parties have accused the government of stalling on the contentious idea, especially with a byelection looming in the Corner Brook district of Humber West.

That seat was made vacant when former premier Danny Williams resigned in December.

Environmental groups and some residents of Corner Brook have protested against the idea.

The so-called tire-derived-fuel plan had been pitched as a way to address two issues: providing power for the mill as it survives a shakeout in the global newsprint industry, and cutting into a stockpile of at least 1.5 million used tires that have accumulated since Newfoundland and Labrador banned dumping them in landfills in 2002.