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GREEN BAY-- In the winter, the plant's opponents gathered signatures and in the spring, they sang out against it. Eventually, opponents convinced the common council to reverse its decision and revoke the conditional use permit.

"The 7-5 vote, while close is a clear message that when this C.U.P. was originally approved it, was ram-roded through very quickly,” said Greg Kujawa of Incinerator Free Brown County, one of the groups protesting the plant.

Opponents say the developer isn't being honest about the plant's potential for pollution.

That’s a claim Oneida Seven Generations CEO Kevin Cornelius rejects, releasing the following statement:

“We are obviously disappointed and do not agree with last night’s city council decision.

The city has a process for obtaining a Conditional Use Permit (CUP). We have followed it every step of the way and have obtained every permit required and will meet every city regulation required.

We have never mislead anyone nor lied about this project; a fact that was recognized when the City Plan Commission voted unanimously to uphold the Conditional Use Permit following a lengthy public hearing on the matter. A review of minutes and audio tapes from the original Plan Commission and City Council meetings where the CUP was issued clearly support that decision.”

We are now in the process of evaluating our options. It remains our intent to build this waste to energy facility.”

Mayor Jim Schmitt says many options are still on the table, including choosing another site.

"One of our options will be to look at some other sites in the community, but in terms of the concept of waste to energy, I think that's a viable concept and we'll see more and more of that in the future,” the mayor said.

The mayor could veto the decision and send it back to council to be approved by a two thirds majority vote, but he says he'll take a few days to think about all the options before moving forward.