EFSB’s final deliberations on plant open Wednesday
BURRILLVILLE – The state Energy Facility Siting Board begins final deliberations Wednesday on Invenergy’s application to build a $1 billion natural gas-burning power plant in Pascoag.
A total of three open meetings to be held Wednesday, Thursday and June 25 will begin the actual decision-making process and will be the first time EFSB members Margaret Curran, Janet Coit and Meredith Brady actually deliberate on the testimony and evidence that was heard during the final public hearings last winter.
The sessions will be held at 10 a.m. Wednesday; 1 p.m on Thursday; and 10 a.m. on June 25.
The meetings will be livestreamed at www.ustream.tv/channel/WqQyXw296dg.
During the open meetings, the EFSB members will discuss the case, but neither the lawyers for the parties nor the public will be able to speak. At the last open meeting, the EFSB will take a vote on whether or not to grant the permit to Invenergy.
Lawyers representing the various parties in the hearings, including Invenergy, the Town of Burrillville and the Conservation Law Foundation, had until May 17 to submit post-hearing memoranda. The documents, which were all submitted by that deadline, summarize the evidence and make legal arguments about why the permit for the power plant should be approved or denied.
After the EFSB vote is taken, the EFSB staff must prepare a written order reflecting the EFSB decision. It is the issuance of the order that constitutes the technical end of the case, which can be appealed to the Rhode Island Supreme Court by the losing side.
In its post-hearing brief, the town of Burrillville focuses primarily on the deciding criteria as identified in the Energy Facility Siting Act – lack of need and harm to the environment.
“Invenergy has the burden to prove, among other things, that the proposed 1,000 MW plant is necessary to meet the needs of the state and or region for energy as demonstrated by long-term state and/or regional energy need forecasts,” the brief states.
Primarily because ISO’s forecast of net peak summer load has been steadily decreasing, while and surplus and inexpensive supply have been steadily increasing, Invenergy has not met its burden of proving need for the plant, the town argues in its brief.
“Invenergy also has the burden to prove that the proposed facility will not cause unacceptable harm to the environment,” the document says. “The evidence shows that the Clear River Energy Center would fragment a vital forest and wildlife corridor at a vital pinch point. This harm could not be mitigated.”
The town argues that the plant would also harm animals and plants, including many species that have threatened and protected status, and would also discharge toxic emissions that can cause cancer and other health problems. In addition, the brief states, CREC would create traffic harm, noise harm, stormwater harm, and public health and safety harm.
“Invenergy has not met its burden of proving that the plant will not cause unacceptable harm to the environment,” the document says. “The Town therefore respectfully submits that this board should not license this facility.”
The town’s brief also references what is says is Invenergy’s “lack of credibility.”
“The town respectfully submits that Invenergy’s representations are not trustworthy,” the document says. “Invenergy has misrepresented crucial matters in its ISO filings, it has misrepresented the status of its permitting in its FERC filings, and it has misrepresented its intentions regarding this project in its filings to this board. In the opinion of the town, these are disqualifying events.”
In its brief, the town says Invenergy is still correcting and adding to its original “substandard and incomplete application,” and asserts that the company’s water supply plan is “seriously deficient.”
The town, along with the Conservation Law Foundation, 32 municipalities, and numerous environmental, conservation and tourism groups, has been fighting to stop the proposed plant for over three years.
“The town and its residents have done all we can to make a legal and rational case against the Invenergy power plant,” said Burrillville Town Manager Michael C. Wood. “Working around a seriously deficient law – the Energy Facilities Siting Act – the town has found a way to finance and then build a solid legal case against the project, despite having to go against up to five Invenergy attorneys and many more paid consultants participating at every session of the final hearing process.”
Conservation Law Foundation senior attorney Jerry Elmer believes EFSB will ultimately vote to deny a permit for the plant, but says Invenergy will not go down without a fight. Invenergy started working on the proposed plant in 2014, and the EFSB docket has been going since 2015.