Commission forms to study power plant siting
BURRILLVILLE – The Special Commission to Study the Energy Facility Siting Act will hold its first working meeting on Dec. 6 followed by a second meeting on Dec. 16.
The 14-member House panel held an organizational meeting last Tuesday, electing state Rep. Cale Keable (DDist. 47 Burrillville, Glocester) as chairman, and Rep. Art Handy (D-Dist. 18 Cranston) as vice chairman.
The 12 other members include Rep. Justin Price (RDist. 39, Richmond, Exeter, Hopkinton); John Pacheco, president of the Burrillville Town Council; Paul Roselli, president of the Burrillville Land Trust; Michael Sabitoni president of the Rhode Island Building & Construction Trades Council; Amy Moses, vice president and director of the Conservation Law Foundation (Rhode Island); Todd Bianco, principal policy associate of the Rhode Island Public Utilities Commission; Terry Gray, associate director of environmental protection for the Department of Environmental Management; Douglas Gablinske, executive director of The Energy Council of Rhode Island; Nancy Hess, supervising land use planner for the Rhode Island Division of Planning; Brian Daniels, president of the Rhode Island League of Cities and Towns; and Jason Olkowski and David Chenevert, both members of the public.
Mike Hogan from the State House Policy Office is acting as clerk for the commission.
The commission was created after Keable filed legislation earlier this year asking that a state panel be convened to conduct a comprehensive review of the Energy Facility Siting Act and provide recommendations for improving and updating the act.
Specifically, the commission will review similar enactments in Massachusetts and Connecticut for best practices and gather input from relevant stakeholders to ensure the best public policy and outcome for coordinating, planning, and expediting decisions.
The panel is expected to meet five times before it files a report to the House with its findings and recommendations by Jan. 31.
The Energy Facility Siting Act was enacted in 1986. The Energy Facility Siting Board, established by Rhode Island General Laws, is a part of state government and con- sists of three members, the chairman of the Public Utilities Commission, the director of the Department of Environmental Management and the associate director of Administration for Planning.
The board is the licensing and permitting authority for all licenses required for siting, construction or alteration of a major energy facilities in Rhode Island, including the controversial natural gasfired power plant Invenergy is proposing to build in Pascoag.
Keable says after 30 years, the Energy Facility Siting Act needs a global review and revision, especially now that several communities are uniquely affected by the process with regard to the Burrillville power plant application.
“There is currently an application in front of the EFSB to build a power plant in Burrillville and that has generated a lot of questions about whether Rhode Island currently has the best possible siting board configuration so looking at that is really this commission’s primary purpose,” Keable said. “We have quite a few of the stakeholders on this panel and a good cross section of ideas and thoughts on where the state should be on this issue.”