Gary Advocates For Responsible Development are asking a judge to block an air permit necessary for the construction of a proposed trash-to-jet biofuel plant in Buffington Harbor.

The grassroots environmental group filed a motion for summary judgment Monday as part of its ongoing litigation seeking to stop the project. A motion for summary judgment asks the court to issue a judgment on one or more claims without holding a trial.

To be successful, it must typically show that the relevant facts are not disputed and that the opposing party loses on the claims even if all of its allegations are true.

Responses to GARD’s motion from IDEM and Fulcrum are due by Dec. 13, and GARD will have an opportunity to submit a reply to those filings by Jan. 2.

California-based Fulcrum Bioenergy’s says that its planned Centerpoint Biorefinery will turn household garbage and other organic materials into a more sustainable form of jet fuel. Announced in 2018, the still-unbuilt facility has been a great source of controversy among community activists, elected officials and community members.

In September 2022 GARD filed a petition with the Indiana Office of Environmental Adjudication alleging that the Indiana Department of Environmental Management inappropriately granted a Federally Enforceable State Operating Permit (FESOP) to Fulcrum for the Centerpoint facility in August of that year. The group filed an updated petition in December.

Gard has claimed IDEM failed to substantiate the Fulcrum’s claims that the plant’s emissions of pollutants will be low enough to qualify for the FESOP, which can only be issued to facilities designated “minor” emissions sources under criteria outlined in environmental regulations.

The motion, filed on GARD’s behalf by Michael Zoeller, an attorney with the Midwest-based Environmental Law and Policy Center, claims that IDEM relied solely on information provided by Fulcrum, which in some cases was incomplete, when calculating the proposed facility’s projected emissions levels in multiple key categories, and did not independently verify Fulcrum’s data.

“The unsupported cases for these emissions calculations precludes IDEM from verifying whether Fulcrum’s proposed facility is a ‘major source’ or a ‘minor source,’ thereby failing to satisfy Indiana’s permitting regulations,” Zoeller wrote.

“As such, IDEM does not have substantial evidence to support the issuance of a FESOP for the Fulcrum Centerpoint facility.”

The motion further claims that IDEM cannot accurately predict the Centerpoint facility’s emissions without accurate information on the composition of feedstock used to produce the jet fuel, which Fulcrum did not provide, and that the FESOP granted to Fulcrum is not “protective of public health” as legally required.

Zoeller cited elevated levels of particulate pollution and ozone already present in northern Lake County and argued that the Centerpoint facility, if built, would “impair the health of its already overburdened residents.”

Centerpoint’s future is uncertain, and not just because of GARD’s litigation.

In October Fulcrum announced that plans to sell up to $500 million of tax-exempt environmental improvement revenue bonds through the Indiana Finance Authority to help finance the facility were on hold after the company’s bonds for its similar plant in Nevada went into default.

Fulcrum Vice President Rick Barraza wrote in a statement that “Fulcrum’s decision to not move forward with the Centerpoint bonds has no relation to the Sierra bonds,” and stressed that the company “remains steadfast in its commitment to both the Centerpoint and Sierra projects and their respective bondholders.”

Fulcrum might face another impediment in the form of Gary Mayor-Elect Eddie Melton, who unseated incumbent Mayor Jerome Prince in the city’s Democratic primary in May and handily defeated Republican challenger Andrew Delano in the Nov. 7 general election.

Prince’s support for the Centerpoint project, which he lauded as a significant source of investment and jobs for the city, was one issue where the candidates differed. In an April interview with the Post-Tribune Melton voiced opposition to the plan, both because of doubts about the efficacy of Fulcrum’s technology and a concern that bringing in a trash-to-fuel business would hamper the city’s efforts to shed its reputation as a dumping ground.

“From the beginning we felt this was never going to happen because it was an unproven process,” GARD President Dorreen Carey told reporters.

“You don’t want a plant built, or even halfway built, if it’s going to sit there and take up valuable lakefront property.”

Fulcrum did not return a request for comment.