Schumer, left, and Taylor

MONTGOMERY – Taylor Biomass in Montgomery should be able to move forward with its plans to build its first biomass gasification plant to convert trash to electricity as the US Department of Energy has given initial approval, and is poised to grant a final OK, for $100 million in loan guarantees for the project.

Senator Charles Schumer and Congressman Maurice Hinchey joined a host of local officials and company leaders, including President James Taylor, to make the announcement.

Schumer called Taylor a visionary.

“His work with our help is going to make the world a better place,” he said.

Hinchey said the federal financial support is a milestone in the project.

“This plant will be the first commercial facility in the country to use an innovative technology to separate our region’s municipal solid waste and create renewable generated electricity from the unrecyclable biomass portion of that waste,” he said.

Taylor now hopes to break ground on construction this fall.

“Senator and congressman, I would ask you to extend your invitation to President Obama and Secretary [of Energy] Chu to put on their schedule sometime around October 15, 2010 to put the shovel in the ground in Montgomery,” he told the lawmakers at a news conference at his office.

Todd Diorio, president of the Hudson Valley Building Trades Council, is ready to put his men and women to work.

“There is a project-labor agreement that’s in place for this project so we are pushing for this project to move forward,” he said. The current employees at Taylor Recycling are all members of Laborers Local 17, of which Diorio is business manager.

The project will create 400 construction jobs and 80 full-time positions once the plant is in operation.

Taylor has also been working with a number of foreign countries, which are also interested in him developing his technology on their lands as well.

The Montgomery facility will be the first operational facility for Taylor’s biomass technology.