GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- A major supplier of recycled-wood fuel to the Gainesville biomass plant sued the plant operators today for more than $5 million in damages due to breach of a long-term fuel supply contract.

Attorneys for Wood Resource Recovery, LLC, (WRR) filed the lawsuit against Gainesville Renewable Energy Center, LLC (GREC) in Circuit Court in Alachua County after operators of the 100 MW biomass plant took several steps that made it impossible for WRR to do business under the current contract.

"We invested millions of dollars to ramp up, created dozens of new jobs, and believed GREC would honor the contract," said Bill Gaston, President of Wood Resource Recovery. "We're disappointed that it has not worked out."

WRR saw its relationship with GREC sour after the biomass operator secured regulatory and lender approvals for the plant. Those approvals turned on GREC having long-term commitments for a third of its fuel supply with WRR. Under the contract, WRR controlled a 27-county service area and was to provide from 264,000 to 277,000 dry tons of biomass to GREC each year.

"It may be that GREC does not need as much fuel as originally projected," said Gaston. "For whatever reason, they have come up with excuse after excuse to not accept our material."

Wood Resource Recovery, LLC, is based in Gainesville and provides recycled-wood fuel products to power plants in Florida, Georgia and abroad. The company is represented in the litigation by attorneys Patrice Boyes, Esq., of Gainesville, and Kent Safriet, Esq. of Hopping, Green and Sams in Tallahassee.

SOURCE Patrice Boyes, P.A.