Activist group makes new claims against power plant
BURRILLVILLE – The Conservation Law Foundation and Town of Burrillville are asking the state Energy Facility Siting Board (EFSB) to take “administrative notice” of a motion power plant developer Invenergy filed Jan. 4 with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which blames plant opponents for delays in the permitting process before the EFSB.
Last month, a third lawsuit was filed against Invenergy at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in Washington, D.C., this time by Calpine Corporation and LS Power Associates L.P., which seeks to have Invenergy’s Capacity Supply Obligation terminated based on the fact that turbine 1 for Invenergy’s proposed power plant will not be operational for 2021.
On Jan. 4, Invenergy filed a motion with FERC to intervene and file comments in that litigation. In that motion, Invenergy attorney Larry F. Eisenstat wrote that the delays in the permitting process are “due in large measure to the unceasing, and in Clear River’s view, entirely uninformed and harmful opposition by a few well-funded ‘just say no’ to any gas-fired generation development in New England’ groups.”
On Monday, the CLF asked the EFSB to take “administrative notice” of Invenergy’s claim. “Administrative notice” is a legal term that means that the EFSB would consider the document to be relevant to the pending case and be able to use the contents of the document as evidence.
“CLF is flattered that Invenergy told the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that CLF is responsible for the permitting delays at the EFSB, but Invenergy is mistaken,” Jerry Elmer, senior attorney for the CLF, said Monday. “The permitting delays are a result of Invenergy’s ham-fisted mistakes, like filing its permit application before it had a water source for its plant, and now trying to shift hundreds of millions of dollars in costs to Rhode Island ratepayers.”
“In its January 4 filing at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Invenergy actually blamed CLF for the permitting delays at the EFSB, but documents from the ISO, the operator of New England’s electricity grid, tell a different story,” Elmer added. “According to a letter that the ISO sent to Invenergy barring Invenergy from even participating in the ISO’s next auction, it is Invenergy’s own repeated mistakes and failures that have caused Invenergy’s delays. Invenergy should not blame CLF for Invenergy’s own mistakes.”
Elmer says the letter that CLF and Burrillville filed with the EFSB on Monday shows there are at least two problems with Invenergy’s current lawsuits at FERC eeking to shift hundreds of millions of dollars in costs to Rhode Island ratepayers.
“First, the effort is illegal; FERC requires Invenergy, not ratepayers, to pay these costs,” he said. “Second, Invenergy lied to both the Rhode Island Public Utilities Commission and the EFSB when Invenergy told both those agencies that its plant would have no costs for ratepayers.”
Last month, both the CLF and the town of Burrillville sent a joint letter to the EFSB requests that the panel take “administrative notice” of the newest lawsuit against Invenergy and use this information at the the EFSB’s scheduled show cause hearing on Jan. 30.
The EFSB agreed to schedule the hearing for Invenergy to show why its power plant application should not be suspended indefinitely pending the outcome of two FERC lawsuits.
In testimony before the EFSB on Nov. 27, the CLF informed the panel that Invenergy had so far been unable to sign an interconnection agreement for its proposed power plant with National Grid and the ISO (the operator of the New England electricity grid). In response to that, John Niland, director of business development for Invenergy, sent a letter to the EFSB on Dec. 1, admitting, for the first time, that there were two recently-filed Invenergy lawsuits pending at FERC pertaining to Invenergy’s interconnection.
Based on that information, the CLF and Town of Burrillville urged the EFSB to schedule the hearing and have Invenergy show cause as to why the power plant docket should not be suspended indefinitely in order to await the results of the lawsuits pending before FERC.
The Jan. 30 hearing is scheduled to be held at 9:30 a.m. at the Public Utilities Commission Offices, 89 Jefferson Boulevard, Warwick.
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