Flanders protests power plant in campaign attack on Whitehouse
BURRILLVILLE – Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Bob Flanders made a campaign stop in Burrillville Wednesday, discussing what he called incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse’s “hypocrisy” regarding Invenergy’s proposed 1,000-megawatt power plant in Pascoag.
“It’s time our elected officials stood with our local communities,” said Flanders, a former Rhode Island Supreme Court Justice who is running for Whitehouse’s Senate seat. “When I am your next U.S. senator, there is no city or town too small to matter, and no voice is too insignificant to be heard.
Whitehouse is being challenged by Democrat Patricia Fontes of Hopkinton in Wednesday’s Democratic primary. The winner will face the winner of the Republican primary – Flan- ders or former presidential candidate Roque “Rocky” De La Fuentes.
Surrounded by a large group of power plant opponents, Flanders Wednesday said he opposes both the power plant and the state siting process.
“I first came to Burrillville in late July to tour the site of the proposed power plant, and then attend a community forum,” he said. “It was important for me to do this because this is an important issue to this community. Until I visited here and listened to the people of Burrillville, my opinion of the power plant was uninformed. If anything, I may have been inclined to support the plant. But what I have learned since has convinced me that the location of this plant in Burrillville is a bad idea.
Flanders said it became apparent to him that the local community lacked “an adequate role” in the approval process.
“First, pursuant to law, the siting board can override local concerns and objections, thereby negating the local community’s voice in the process,” he said. “The law needs to be changed to allow the local community to have more input into these siting decisions.”
“Second, there are going to be negative environmental impacts, due to heavy truck traffic and the hauling of water and diesel fuel through residential areas that will adversely affect traffic and the quality of life in this beautiful part of the state,” he said.
Flanders said he agrees with opponents that the plant would require an enormous amount of water, and questions how that water would be acquired and delivered, along with how the siting of the plant would affect local aquifers.
“I am convinced that, if this plant were to be built, beautiful Burrillville would never be the same,” he said. “It would destroy hundreds of acres of pristine interior forest right next to beautiful recreational and conservation areas like George Washington Park, Pulaski Park, Buck Hill Management Area, and more, thereby forever marring the rural environment that characterizes this part of Rhode Island.”
Flanders questioned Whitehouse’s position on the power plant.
“He claims to be an opponent of fossil fuel energy and an advocate for the environment. And there is nowhere closer to home than right here in Burrillville,” he said. “But after he pocketed over one-hundred thousand dollars from the backers of the Invenergy Power Plant, Sen. Whitehouse’s opposition to fossil fuel facilities like this one has mysteriously melted away. The dark corporate and union money that he rails against has silenced him on this project.
Said Flanders: “Compromised by the money he has received, and refusing to buck his political allegiance to Gov. Raimondo, the two of them are determined to drive this power plant through to construction. To the governor, and to Sen. Whitehouse, financial backers in Chicago matter more than our local communities.”
Flanders said he stands with Burrillville.
“I ask proponents of the plan – lets re-site the plant in your backyard, with your community’s voice silenced in the process,” he said. “We will stop this plant and as your next U.S. senator I will sponsor legislation that gives local communities a voice in matters of inter-state commerce, such as this one, so that their rights are never trampled on again.”