February 2, 2009 

Dear Senator Boxer and EPA Administrator Jackson: 

We are the leadership team at CalStar Cement, in Newark, CA. The purposes of this letter are (1) 

to share some perspectives that we hope may be helpful as you consider and develop policy 

responses to the recent fly ash spill at TVA’s Kingston plant; and (2) to request a meeting with 

you. 

CalStar is a Silicon Valley company focused on green building materials. With deep background 

and credentials in the environmental movement, we are committed to developing new products 

that are energy efficient in their manufacture and help mitigate climate change when used in the 

place of traditional building materials. We are funded by Foundation Capital (Menlo Park, CA) 

and EnerTech Capital, two of the most successful venture capital firms in the clean technology 

field. 

After more than a year of intensive R&D, we will build our first factory this year to make bricks, 

concrete products and general use cement using fly ash from a We Energies Coal-Fired Power 

Plant in Wisconsin. Compared to conventional clay bricks, CalStar’s bricks require 80% less 

energy and emit 80% less CO2 in their manufacture and incorporate up to 99% post-industrial 

by-products. Similarly, CalStar concrete products use 80% less energy and emit 80% less CO2

compared to conventional Portland cement concrete. These breakthrough products are of great 

interest to architects, engineers and builders who are focused on green building. 

With our company mission centered around environmental stewardship and our initial focus on 

fly ash bricks, we have studied and learned a great deal about fly ash. Based on our scientific 

and technical work, we believe three facts in particular merit your attention: 

1. Fly ash is one of our most powerful tools for reducing the CO2 footprint of cement 

2. Fly ash is safe when incorporated into building materials and in other applications 

3. Fly ash is not a hazardous waste, though it is imperative that it be disposed of 

properly. 

We provide more detail on each of these points below. 

CalStar Cement, Inc.     6851 Mowry Avenue, Newark, Ca 94560.     510.793.9500
1. Fly ash is one of our most powerful tools for reducing the CO2 footprint of cement. 

Cement is one of the biggest single contributors to greenhouse gas emissions in the 

world. Globally, cement manufacturing generates 2.4 billion tons per year of CO2; by 

comparison, all passenger automobiles emit about 2.8 billion tons per year. In the U.S., 

cement manufacture generates over 100 million tons of CO2 each year. 

The simplest and most efficient way to reduce Portland cement’s CO2 footprint is to use 

less cement by substituting fly ash. On average across the U.S. today, fly ash is used to 

replace about 15% of the Portland cement in concrete. Since 1990, over 200 million tons 

of fly ash have been used in this manner. In obviating the use of ordinary cement that 

would have generated almost a ton of CO2 per ton of cement produced, this application of 

fly ash has prevented approximately 200 million tons of CO2 from being released into the 

atmosphere during this period. This is significant, approximately equivalent to 

eliminating the emissions of 40 million passenger cars for a year. 

We estimate that a similar quantity of CO2 emissions can be avoided in the U.S. over the 

coming decade by continuing to expand the acceptance and adoption of fly ash in 

concrete, bricks and other building materials. The economic recovery plans to invest in 

infrastructure and buildings will require large amounts of concrete. Using high-fly ash 

mixes is essential to meeting the twin goals of infrastructure investments and CO2 

mitigation. 

Looking beyond the U.S., a new McKinsey study1 released on 26 January 2009 cites the 

use of fly ash in cement and concrete as a key component of global climate change 

policy, representing almost 490 million tons of annual CO2 reduction potential at a 

negative cost, i.e. requiring no carbon tax or subsidy. 

2. Fly ash is safe when used in building materials and other applications. Fly ash has 

been specified as a partial cement replacement and in other building materials for over 50 

years. Pioneered by Prof. PK Mehta of UC Berkeley among others, the addition of fly 

ash makes concrete more durable and more reliable, and in many parts of the country less 

costly. 

In California, CalTrans requires 25% fly ash blends in most of its mix designs; many 

notable structures in our state including the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and the 

de Young Museum have been built using concrete with 50% fly ash replacement for 

cement. The U.S. Green Building Council encourages the use of fly ash in its LEED 

rating system. 

Numerous academic studies and publications by the U.S. Environmental Protection 

Agency, the U.S. Department of Energy, the Electric Power Research Institute and others 

                                                           

1

  McKinsey & Co., Pathways to a Low Carbon Economy, Version 2 of the Global Greenhouse 

Gas Cost Abatement Curve.

CalStar Cement, Inc.     6851 Mowry Avenue, Newark, Ca 94560.     510.793.9500
document the safety of fly ash when used in concrete and similar applications. Notably, 

leading environmental advocates also endorse the reuse of fly ash in concrete and other 

construction products. The National Resources Defense Council writes, “For some types 

of [coal combustion wastes], there are alternative uses as raw material for construction 

products such as concrete, plaster, and wallboard. When directed toward these 

‘encapsulated uses’, the dangerous chemicals in the waste are not subject to erosion and 

leaching into the environment.”2

 

Lisa Evans of Earthjustice (the legal arm of the Sierra Club) testified in front of a US 

House of Representative Committee last June that, “Reuse of ash as a component of 

asphalt, concrete, and gypsum board are legitimate and safe reuses that should be 

encouraged. In addition, recycling ash in concrete can result in a large reduction of 

greenhouse gases.”3

CalStar’s R&D confirms these views. Our Board of Directors is adopting an 

Environmental Safety & Health policy that is unequivocally committed to ensuring that 

our products and processes meet all appropriate standards for safety. Our raw materials 

and end products are subjected to the strictest internal and external testing, and have been 

found safe in all dimensions at all stages of their life cycle. 

3. Fly ash is not a hazardous waste, though it is imperative that it be disposed of 

properly. Fly ash has been exempted from RCRA regulation since 1982, based on 

EPA’s strong belief at that time that it was not hazardous. Since then, samples from 

hundreds of power plants have been tested by EPA, EPRI and others proving that the 

material rarely exceeds EPA limits on any of the chemicals or metals of concern, and 

generally falls below those limits by a very large margin. If the RCRA exemption were 

rescinded today, the vast majority of fly ash would remain categorized as a nonhazardous waste based on its actual chemical content. 

With that said, practicing proper disposal practices is essential as 55% of the material is 

not recovered for beneficial use. Where beneficial uses cannot be found, we support 

policies that will protect public safety by eliminating surface impoundments and ensuring 

that landfills are lined appropriately. 

* * * * 

                                                           

2 NRDC, “Dangerous Disposals: Keeping Coal Combustion Waste Out of Our Water Supply”, Natural

Resources Defense Council, 2007.

3 Evans, Lisa, Earthjustice, Testimony before the Subcommittee of Energy and Mineral Resources,

Committee on Natural Resources, U.S. House of Representatives, 2008.

CalStar Cement, Inc.     6851 Mowry Avenue, Newark, Ca 94560.     510.793.9500
Increased beneficial use of fly ash represents a rare and valuable opportunity to address three 

important national priorities at once: reducing greenhouse gas emissions to mitigate climate 

change, managing a large category of industrial by-products, and creating new green-collar jobs. 

CalStar’s mission includes all of these priorities. 

To realize this opportunity nationally, public policy should continue to support the safe and 

beneficial use of fly ash when properly used in products, as U.S. EPA’s Coal Combustion 

Products Partnership has sought to do since 2003. At the same time, public safety needs to be 

protected with appropriate laws regarding fly ash management and disposal. We believe both of 

these policy objectives can be achieved. 

We respectfully request a meeting with you to provide additional clarification and information. 

Sincerely, 

Marc Porat, PhD 

Founder, Chairman and CEO 

Thomas M. Pounds 

Chief Operating Officer 

Signatories:

Paul Holland, Foundation Capital 

Member of the CalStar Cement Board of Directors 

Bill Kingsley, EnerTech Capital 

Member of the CalStar Cement Board of Directors 

Amitabha Kumar, PhD 

Director of R&D, CalStar Cement 

Kumar Mehta, PhD, author, “High-Performance, High Volume Fly Ash Concrete” 

Emeritus Professor, U.C. Berkeley, and CalStar advisor 

Luke Pustejovsky 

VP Business Development, CalStar Cement 

Julie Rapoport, PhD, PE, LEED AP 

Director of Product Development, CalStar Cement 

CalStar Cement, Inc.     6851 Mowry Avenue, Newark, Ca 94560.     510.793.9500
CalStar Cement, Inc.     6851 Mowry Avenue, Newark, Ca 94560.     510.793.9500