Opposition to Invenergy‘s proposed $700 million fracked gas and diesel oil burning power plant, planned for Burrillville, dominated the 90th annual Ancients & Horribles Parade in neighboring Glocester on the 4th of July. First and second prize for best in show went to floats opposing the power plant.
The prize for “Most Politically Incorrect” float went to a truck emblazoned with a “Trump” campaign sign that displayed a series of posters of State House leadership that cited a series of political scandals and unpopular decisions. This was followed by two trucks full of Trump supporters, with one man waving a large Confederate Flag in support of the putative Republican presidential nominee. The presence of racist Confederate Flags in the parade was disturbing. I counted at least four.
Governor Gina Raimondo, perhaps sensing that her presence would not be appreciated, did not march in the parade. Her presence was felt, however, in every float that expressed dissatisfaction with her close association with corporations like Invenergy and Goldman-Sachs. Tracey Potvin Keegan rode a bike dressed as the governor, with bags of Goldman-Sachs money hanging like saddlebags and a $700 price tag on her head.
Marching in the parade were Senators Sheldon Whitehouse and Jack Reed and Representative James Langevin. Whitehouse did not escape criticism for his early support of Invenergy’s power plant. A woman marching with the power plant protesters held a sign with a quote from Whitehouse that said, “If I look back 20 years from now and I can’t say I did everything possible, I’ll never be able to live with myself.”
After first supporting the power plant, Whitehouse later back tracked, saying that weighing in on the issue would be inappropriate. Many in Burrillville and the surrounding areas feel betrayed by Whitehouse’s position, feeling that his reputation as the Senate’s strongest environmentalist is mere political posturing.
Almost as unpopular as the governor are the gypsy moths, who have infested the area and strip entire trees bare of foliage. One group of marchers came dressed as a gypsy moth caterpillar, with the words, “It’s raining poop” on it’s tail end.
The parade featured an appearance by Tony Lepore, the Dancing Cop. Lepore sported his new uniform, emblazoned with a special “Dancing Cop” patch, instead of his former Providence Police Officer uniform. Lepore’s career has been in free fall since he interjected himself into the incident late last year when a Dunkin Donuts employee wrote “Black Lives Matter” on a police officer’s cup. As a consequence of his words and actions Lepore lost his annual gig directing traffic downtown and lost out on a replacement gig directing traffic in East Providence.
Governor Raimondo is due to meet with Burrillville residents on July 18.
Before the meeting got started though, the planning board dealt with correspondence from Barry Craig, a retired lawyer recently returned to Burrillville. Craig had filed a motion to have the town’s lawyer, Oleg Nikolyszyn, recuse himself because of allegations that he and the town council had violated the open meetings act when 
As loud as the power plant might be under normal operating conditions, it will be louder during start up and shutdown. When asked about Invenergy’s estimates about how long start ups and shutdowns take, Hessler said that Invenergy’s estimate of 10-30 minutes is “too short. There’s no way,” and said “I would not trust [Invenergy’s] numbers.”
“…on March 31, in front of 700 people, Invenergy presented in two different ways… information that Invenergy knew, at the time, was false. First, the words “$280 million in Savings” appear in big, green letters on Slide 12 of Invenergy’s presentation… Second, the false information was emphasized by Invenergy’s John Niland, who said, “Talking about ratepayer savings, the analysis we’ve done looks at what happens to the cost of power to the region when you put in a plant like this. – – [T]hat’s really what the $280 million number represents.” [EFSB March 31, 2016 Hearing Transcript. page 16, lines 8-11; 15-17.)
After months of protests, phone calls and civil disobedience from anti-power plant activists and Burrillville residents, Governor Raimondo has scheduled a visit to Burrillville for an open community meeting. The open meeting, which will be held at the Burrillville High School on 
The 
WHEREAS, Invenergy’s Clear River Energy has proposed a $700 million project to construct a natural gas-fired electric power plant in the Town of Burrillville, which will consist of two single shaft “H” Class combined cycle units with output up to 1000 Mega watts, air cooled condensers and duel fuel capability (natural gas and oil back up) and is schedule for a June 2019 commercial operation date for Unit 1 and 2020 for Unit 2 and;
The issuance of the press release was likely decided at Tuesday night’s “special meeting” of the Town Council. In trying to access the video of this meeting, I discovered that there was no video. “As the camera was not working, there is no video for the June 7, 2016 Town Council meeting,” according to an email from the town clerk.
Senator Harold Metts motioned to hold the bill for further study and Chairman Michael McCaffrey seconded. No senator voted against holding the bill for further study. It passed the House the day before 64 to 7.
The June 2 open meeting of the Energy Facilities Siting Board (EFSB) was a rare opportunity to hear board members Margaret Curran, Janet Coit and Parag Agrawal talk openly about their thoughts regarding the process of the board in approving or denying Invenergy‘s proposed fracked gas and diesel oil burning power plant in Burrillville. That said, it’s also a bad idea to draw too many inferences about board members thoughts based on their words.
