Biomass plant forgoes $40M credit

The developers of the $170 million woodchip-fired power plant proposed for North Springfield have given up on their hope for $40 million in federal investment tax credits.
http://rutlandherald.com/article/20131217/NEWS02/712179932

Published December 17, 2013 in the Rutland Herald Biomass plant forgoes $40M credit By SUSAN SMALLHEER Staff Writer SPRINGFIELD — The developers of the $170 million woodchip-fired power plant proposed for North Springfield have given up on their hope for $40 million in federal investment tax credits — tax credits they insisted they needed to make the project “viable.” The attorneys for the North Springfield Sustainable Energy Project have asked the Public Service Board to postpone a key hearing this week, saying the pressure for a decision by the end of December no longer existed. “The urgency that existed last summer for obtaining a final order no longer exists,” wrote attorney Kimberly Hayden, one of the project’s attorneys. “The urgency at that time related to plans to obtain a federal investment tax credit for 2013. That opportunity clearly no longer exists,” Hayden wrote. Hayden said that whether the 2014 Congress would extend the federal investment tax credits is unknown. Winstanley Enterprises and Weston Solutions, two out-of-state developers, want to build a 36-megawatt, air-cooled power plant, adjacent to Winstanley’s industrial incubator in the North Springfield Industrial Park. In addition to electricity, the project hopes to provide low-cost steam heat to tenants in the industrial park. Oral arguments on a negative recommendation from a Public Service Board hearing officer last month had been expected Thursday. PSB Hearing Officer John Cotter, who oversaw the technical hearings on the project earlier this year, issued his recommendation last month that the project be rejected by the full Public Service Board because of the effect on local traffic from the tractor trailers delivering wood chips to the plant. Opponents to the project said it would add significant air pollution to the region, in addition to traffic and noise. The plant would be the tallest building in Springfield. Hayden said she and fellow Downs Rachlin Martin attorney Peter VanOot both had to be at a company directors’ meeting that Thursday and could not attend. Adam Winstanley, one of the principals of the project, also could not attend the Dec. 19 hearing, according to filings with the Public Service Board. VanOot, who had been spokesman for the project, didn’t return calls for comment Monday. Christopher Recchia, commissioner of the Department of Public Service, said that without the federal investment tax credits, the price of the electricity produced at the wood chip plant will rise. “They are not trying to get the tax. That window has already closed,” he said. In July, the attorneys for the biomass project urged the Public Service Board to make a quick decision, noting the investment tax credit deadlines were looming. “Any further delay will jeopardize petitioner’s ability to construct this year and obtain approximately $40 million in tax benefits needed to keep this project viable,” wrote Hayden. “We’ll now have oral arguments in January,” said Recchia, who added the department believes the hearing officer “erred” in his recommendations. “We believe he erred in his analysis on need and we need to fix that,” said Recchia, who said his department worked with the Agency of Natural Resources to come up with sustainable harvesting standards for the wood chips. “We also think some things have changed, in the project’s favor,” he said, “and we want to bring those to the board’s attention.” He said the project’s developers have a new agreement to build a new access road to the North Springfield Industrial Park, where the biomass plant would be located. “That would solve all those problems,” he said. He said Congress could extend the tax credits, but, he added, “I don’t know any reason to believe that.”