The Energy Facilities Siting Board granted a motion from Charlestown that allows the town limited intervenor status in the application process concerning Invenergy‘s $1 billion fracked gas and diesel oil burning power plant aimed at Burrillville. Having decided, despite the arguments of Invenergy lawyers, that Charlestown is an “affected community” as defined under the Energy Facilities Siting Act, the town was allowed intervenor status as it pertains to the water supply only.
Charlestown asked to intervene after Invenergy announced that they had struck a deal to buy water from the Narragansett Indian Tribe. The aquifer that the tribe will be drawing from is the same as the one that supplies the town’s water. Narragansett Tribe members have been vocal in their opposition to the water sale, which they say was made with tribal leadership without their consent.
Anywhere from 15,000 to 750,000 gallons will be needed to cool the power plant turbines, every day.
Charlestown Attorney Peter Ruggiero said that there is an industrial waste landfill in the area that could be affected if the aquifer is drawn down, risking the contamination of the entire aquifer. Ruggiero also said that the Narragansett Tribal lands are not sovereign territory, and subject to the laws of Rhode Island.
As a result of this ruling, the EFSB must hold a public hearing in Charlestown with 30 days’ advance notice. Only after that hearing can the final hearings begin, meaning that hearings can begin no earlier than the week of December 11. The final hearing was suppose to begin on October 31. As a date and location for the hearing Charlestown has yet to be determined, though the week of December 4 is the target and the Charlestown elementary or middle school is under consideration.
“The decision to postpone the commencement of the Final Hearing by at least 6 weeks will, overall, help opponents of Invenergy,” wrote Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) ayttorney Jerry Elmer. “This is because all of the recent information coming out of the ISO wholesale markets tends to show why Invenergy is not needed.”
Janet Coit
Other motions were also decided Tuesday morning. Invenergy’s motion to exclude Burrillville exhibits 20, 21, and 22 and relegate them to the status of public comment, was approved. The exhibits consisted of the resolutions ratified by the councils of 35 cities and towns in opposition to Invenergy’s power plant.
In arguing against including the exhibits, Invenergy’s lawyer Elizabeth Noonan cited the law that said exhibits can be excluded if they are deemed prejudicial, confusing or a waste of time. She also called into question the authenticity of the resolutions.
The EFSB agreed with Noonan’s characterization of the 35 city and town resolutions. Attorney Jerry Elmer noted that the resolutions are from the “legally constituted legal entities” that are tasked with protecting the “public health, safety, and welfare” of their inhabitants.
The Building Trades won with their motion to have the rebuttal testimony of Dr Marc Vatter admitted. The Building Trades were granted intervenor status as to the jobs created by the building of the power plant. Vatter’s rebuttal testimony speaks to the supposed need of a fracked gas power plant and is a best only tangentially related, but the EFSB ruled in favor of the Building Trades.
Another motion, to un-redact some of the testimony of Burrillville’s witness, Glenn Walker was deferred until the hearings. CLF believes that “strongly supports CLF’s argument that the Invenergy plant is not needed.”
Hasn’t Invenergy reached their tipping point yet? How much more dinero are they willing to shell out. I know they were promised a “done deal” from the getgo but doesn’t it seem likely that just a wee bit of concern/doubt/anxiety might be burrowing around their furrowed brows just about now. It’s all kind of slithery, eh?