http://www.reformer.com/ci_17543871
Energy legislation could hamper biomass projects
KEITH WHITCOMB JR.
Posted: 03/03/2011 11:53:17 PM EST
Thursday March 3, 2011
POWNAL -- Three proposed biomass projects face legislative and economic hurdles, in addition to standard permitting requirements, according to the Chairman of the House Natural Resources and Energy Committee.
As currently worded, a section of the proposed bill H.56, or "The Vermont Energy Bill of 2011," requires Vermont utilities to purchase up to 30 megawatts of biomass-produced energy, said Tony Klein, D-East Montpelier, head of the House Energy Committee. However, three currently proposed biomass projects, if constructed, would produce nearly 80 megawatts of power.
Beaver Wood Energy, LLC, said it has spent $2 million in Pownal and Fair Haven on permitting applications and studies for 29.5-megawatt biomass and wood pellet manufacturing facilities planned in each town. Klein said another company is eyeing a 20-megawatt biomass plant in Springfield.
Klein said the state's utilities are mandated to purchase the cheapest sources of renewable energy unless required by legislation to do otherwise. Based on conversations he's had with the developers of biomass projects, it's not likely they would finish the permitting phase if they didn't have guaranteed power-purchase agreements, which would provide them with a stable business plan.
He said the bill's language would require those 30 megawatts of power to be purchased "if available," meaning that even if the bill became law, it would not interfere with Section 248, Act 250, or
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any other form of permit process -- as some opposition groups, including the Bennington-Berkshire Citizens Coalition, have feared.
Additionally, the language mandating purchase of 30 megawatts from biomass may not even make it out of his committee, which will discuss the bill again on Tuesday, Klein said. Even if it does, it will have to clear the House Ways and Means Committee, as well as the House Committee on Commerce and Economic Development, where he said the language may have a tough time surviving.
Klein said the biomass section of the bill has met mostly with opposition, both from citizen groups in Pownal and nearby Massachusetts, who believe the plant's negative effects outweigh any benefits, and from industrial consumers of electricity who fear the effects on their power rates.
A number of reports are due in October, Klein said, and some of the opposition to the H.56 biomass section is from those who believe nothing should be done until those reports are in.
He said the Public Service Department was asked to study the effect on standard offer agreements for renewable energy sources, while a separate study on the role of biomass in the state is also due. Gov. Peter Shumlin has also requested a long-term energy plan for the state to be unveiled in October as well.
Calls to Beaver Wood officials were not returned Thursday.
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A bill introduced by Sen. Robert Hartwell, D-Dorset, would give more weight to evidence presented by towns and citizen groups during permit hearings on energy projects, such as the biomass plants proposed for Pownal, Fair Haven and Springfield.
Related article:
http://www.benningtonbanner.com/ci_17543117?IADID
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