Join SOBE Concerned Citizens in taking action by signing this petition to tell the Ohio EPA to revoke this air pollution permit.
Únete a los Ciudadanos Preocupados de SOBE para actuar firmando esta petición para pedir a la EPA de Ohio que revoque este permiso de contaminación del aire. Spanish translation available here.
John Logue
Director, Ohio EPA
Ohio EPA - Director's Office
PO Box 1049
Columbus, Ohio 43216-1049
Dear Mr. John Logue,
First of all, SOBE Concerned Citizens (SCC) congratulates you on your appointment as Director of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (Ohio EPA). We look forward to your leadership in upholding the authentic purpose of the Ohio EPA: to protect the environment and ensure that communities in Ohio are safe, equitable and livable now and in the future.
SCC is a Youngstown grassroot non-profit. We organized in 2021 after hearing about plans that SOBE Thermal Energy Systems, LLC (SOBE), located in Youngstown, Ohio, planned to burn tires and plastics. In 2023, SOBE’s CEO changed his business plan to pyrolyze tires to create synthetic gas for sale and to fire his boiler.
SCC has contacted the Ohio EPA requesting that they not issue air pollution permits to SOBE due to cancer-causing dioxins and furans and VOCs that would be emitted from their pyrolysis operation. We urge the Ohio EPA to protect our most precious Ohio environment - air, water, land, and forests on which we depend.
The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio approved SOBE to ONLY provide steam heating and cooling as a public utility, NOT to expand into a pyrolysis plant! However, the CEO of SOBE announced expansion plans to “superheat” shredded tires to make synthetic gas to sell. Pyrolysis is an unproven technology that can increase air pollution and cause explosions.
Unfortunately, SOBE is located in a highly populated area–next to our revitalized downtown, YSU campus living, eateries, housing, and more. Over the nearly unanimous community opposition to SOBE's proposed pyrolysis project, the Ohio EPA granted SOBE a 10-year air pollution permit to operate, leaving the nearby population unprotected.
On June 9, 2025, “a third party contractor” accidentally hit a SOBE pipeline causing asphalt to crack. Consequently, a large plume of steam shot 30 feet into the air for over 15 hours. Many concerned residents have had conversations about this pipeline break as well as other issues at the SOBE site. Last year, a natural gas line explosion at the Realty Building downtown, which was due to human error, resulted in a fatality and the razing of this historic landmark. Weeks later a natural gas leak caused the evacuation of downtown and the YSU campus. Youngstown citizens do not want to see catastrophes like these happen again and realize that this pyrolysis plant would be yet another danger to our residents.
We are writing to you with two important requests.
The first is, please schedule an inspection of SOBE Thermal Energy Systems, LLC, 205 North Avenue Youngstown, Ohio 44502. SOBE operates with one pipe connected to a boiler fired by natural gas in a semi-truck trailer to provide the steam heating and cooling to our downtown businesses. Why is SOBE allowed to vent methane directly into the air when burning natural gas to fire their boiler?
If the Ohio EPA has conducted a recent inspection of the SOBE Thermal Energy Systems, LLC site, could you provide the inspection results to share with our citizens of Youngstown, Ohio?
If there were no inspections, we need and request the Ohio EPA to conduct an inspection for the safety of our residents.
The second is, rescind the 10-year air pollution permit the Ohio EPA issued to SOBE Thermal Energy Systems, LLC on February 14, 2024. We are confident that your inspectors will determine that this company is not competent and would endanger the public health and safety.
The undersigned Youngstown area residents thank you for your attention to these crucial matters:
