Kirkbrae Country Club

The testimony on Cale Keable’s bill, H8240, which if passed will give voters in Burrillville the ability to approve or reject any tax treaty with potential power plants in their town, pitted town residents and environmental activists against business and labor concerns. In all 56 people testified on the bill during the five hours of testimony, 43 in favor and 13 in opposition.

Below is all the testimony, in order, separated by speaker.

01 Representative Cale Keable, who represents Burrillville, introduced the bill.

02 Jeremy Bailey, Burrillville resident

03 Lenette F. Boisselle, representing the Northern RI Chamber of Commerce, opposes the bill. Earlier in the day, Loiselle was at the Kirkbrae Country Club for the Northern RI Chamber of Commerce breakfest. At that event, all the questions for guest speaker John Niland, director of development for Invenergy, the company that wants to build the power plant in Burrillville, were submitted in writing. It was Boiselle who carefully sorted the questions, allowing Niland to only answer softball questions.

Boiselle took some tough questions regarding her opposition to the bill. The Chamber of Commerce, says Boiselle, “has a history of opposing any type of referendum… as a fundamental principle, the Chamber of Commerce believes that these types of issues are extremely complicated, that’s why we elect people to be in a position to be able to take the time to study the pros and the cons and determine whats in the best interest of whether it be the town or whether it be the state.”

Boiselle said that the Chamber has “no position on the power plant one way or another” and that if this bill is passed, whoever spends the most amount of money to advertise their positions will likely win.

The legislation, said Boiselle, in response to a question from Representative Michael Marcello, “could kill [a project] just by making it wait” until the next general election for the voters to decide.

Representative John Lombardi asked “what would be wrong with the town and the council having the last say in this. Is there a problem with that? You say you oppose that?”

Boiselle said that the time it takes to understand the pros and cons of complex issues is too great for voters. That’s why we elect representatives.

“I think its always good to engage the people,” said Lombardi.”It’s supposed to be a representative government, but sometimes it doesn’t end up that way. They don’t seak on the behalf of the people. I think this is a good process.”

“I’m just curious,” asked Representative Aaron Regunberg, “Money plays a big role in pretty much every election, do you think we shouldn’t have any elections?”

04 Jerry Elmer, senior attorney at the Conservation Law Foundation is strongly in favor of the bill.

05 Mike Ryan of National Grid opposes the bill, at least in part. They have no position on the part of the bill concerning voter approval of negotiated tax treaties.

06 Meg Kerr, of the Audubon Society, is for the bill.

07 Elizabeth Suever representing the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce opposes the bill. She seems to think that granting more democracy to Burrillville might make other municipalities want more democracy as well, which may slow down growth. Of course, Suever never uses the word democracy, because that would make her argument sound anti-American.

08 Paul Bolduc is a Burrillville resident.

09 Greg Mancini – Build RI

10 Paul Beaudette – Environmental Council of RI

11 Michael Sabitoni -Building Trades Council

12 Lynn Clark

13 Scott Duhamel – Building Trades

14 Peter Nightingale – Fossil Free RI

15 Roy Coulombe – Building Trades

16 Adam Lupino – Laborers of NE

17 Catherine

18 Paul McDonald – Providence Central Labor Council

19 Paul Lefebvre

20 George Nee AFL-CIO

21 Jan Luby

22 Richard Sinapi – NE Mechanical Contractors Association

24 Doug Gablinske Tech RI, The Energy Council

John Niland, Invenergy’s director of development, gave a short presentation and answered eight questions at the Northern Rhode Island Chamber of Commerce’s Eggs & Issues Breakfast Thursday morning. The questions were submitted in writing and carefully vetted before being read to Niland. The event was sponsored by the Clear River Energy Center, so there was little expectation of any kind of robust give and take. Held at the exclusive Kirkbrae Country Club, it wasn’t the venue for tough questions.

In attendance at this breakfast was Woonsocket Mayor Lisa Baldelli-Hunt, and state representatives Michael Marcello and Brian Newberry.

Niland has been Invenergy’s front man for a proposed fracked gas and diesel oil burning power plant in Burrillville. His messaging is always very careful and measured. Still, over the course of his short talk, he did reveal some interesting nuggets of information.

The proposed power plant is dual fuel, so it can burn either gas or oil. Though gas is not a clean energy source, it is better than burning oil for the environment directly surrounding the plant. The circumstances under which oil will be burned, then, is of some importance. Niland said, “some people are saying we will be making an economic choice” as to which fuel to burn when. [In fact, I was the first to suggest this, back in January.]

Niland did not dispute this analysis, per se, but said instead that the last time oil and gas were at price parity was in 2014, and indicated that it would therefor not be a problem.

He seems to think that oil’s current price of around three and four times that of gas is a permanent condition, ignoring the possibility of the gas bubble bursting (as I pointed out here) or that oil will collapse in price due to competition from renewables.

Niland also said that entering the ISO Forward Capacity Auction “was a risk for [Invenergy].” As I pointed out here, Invenergy’s proposed plant’s performance in the Forward capacity Market demonstrates that the plant is not needed. The ISO, a market that determines future energy prices here in New England, bought some power from Invenergy, but all the power it bought is surplus.

Niland completely reverses this analysis. Committing to purchasing some of the power from the proposed plant, he says, is the ISO’s “way of saying,’we need this power.’”

Not quite.

As for the water that Invenergy hopes to draw from a MTBE contaminated well and clean before dumping it as wast water in the Clear River, Niland admits that his company can “probably” clean the water and that they are “currently working up a detailed design” for the water treatment. MTBE is responsible for the closing of wells in Burrillville and has been linked to a terrible cancer cluster.

During the question and answer period Niland seemed pleased that Rhode Island has an Energy Facility Siting Board. Many states lack such a board, and he seemed to like having to deal with a state level agency made to smooth the way for power plant projects.

As for noise levels for the standard operation of the plant, Niland called the 43 decibels currently on the books in Burrillville “somewhat restrictive” and said that his company will ask for a variance.

Some curious math was proposed by Niland, who said that the plant, if approved, will begin construction “around this time next year, (May 2017) and be completed in 30-36 months, opening in June 2019. Not to be a stickler, but that’s 25 months for construction. We know that rushing construction leads to problems, is that what we’re heading for here?

Tag: Kirkbrae Country Club

Video: House testimony on Keable’s power plant bill

Invenergy’s Niland pitches power plant at country club