By Alex Kuffner
Journal Staff Writer
Posted Jan. 3, 2016 at 11:00 PM
WARWICK, R.I. — Among the parties seeking to play a formal role in state regulatory proceedings on a plan to build a massive natural gas-fired power plant in Burrillville are state energy officials, neighbors of the proposed facility, environmental groups, political activists and a nun.
General image, not what is proposed.
Twelve motions to intervene in the approval process for the Clear River Energy Center were submitted by the deadline last month set by the state Energy Facility Siting Board. They range from the obvious — National Grid, the state Office of Energy Resources, the Conservation Law Foundation and the Town of Burrillville — to the less expected — Occupy Providence, the Rhode Island Progressive Democrats of America and Sister of Mercy Mary Pendergast, an environmental activist who opposes hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, of natural gas.
“The Paris agreement is calling for an end to the fossil fuel era NOW!,” Pendergast’s motion reads, making reference to the recent international pact on climate change. “Yet the Burrillville plant will lock RI into fracked gas for the next 30 years.”
Her petition and those of the other parties will be ruled on by the three-member siting board at its first hearing on the controversial proposal on Jan. 12. The preliminary hearing kicks off a process that could take many months to play out as the board considers a plan from Chicago company Invenergy to build a $700-million facility that could be the largest power plant in New England that burns natural gas for fuel.
Intervenor status in the case is important because it will allow a person or group to introduce witnesses during the approval process and present evidence. In past cases before the siting board and in similar proceedings on energy projects before other state regulatory bodies, intervenors have typically been represented by attorneys.
Whether that will be a requirement in the Clear River case is up to the siting board whose members include the chair of the state Public Utilities Commission, the director of the state Department of Environmental Management and the associate director of the state Administration for Planning.
“The board has required in the past for parties to have a lawyer if they are going to participate,” said Todd Bianco, coordinator for the siting board. “Whether someone can represent themselves may be different.”
Invenergy has objected to the motions for intervention filed by Pendergast, Occupy Providence, Fossil Free Rhode Island, the Rhode Island Progressive Democrats of America, Fighting Against Natural Gas and Burrillville Against Spectra Expansion, as well as Burrillville residents Paul and Mary Bolduc and Dennis and Kathryn Sherman.
The company has raised questions about whether they will have attorneys and has also argued that their interests would be adequately represented by others, including the Conservation Law Foundation, a regional environmental group with an office in Providence, and the Town of Burrillville.- Some of the would-be intervenors have been fighting against the proposed plant since it was first put on the table last summer. They include Fossil Free Rhode Island, Fighting Against Natural Gas and Pendergast, who have all protested against other proposals to expand the state’s reliance on fossil fuels, including plans to expand natural gas pipelines that pass through Burrillville.
The Conservation Law Foundation is also opposed to the Clear River plan, arguing that committing to another power plant that relies on fossil fuels will undermine the development of carbon-free sources of energy, such as wind farms and solar arrays.
Although state construction unions have come out in support for the plan, which Invenergy says will support 300 temporary jobs, they have not filed motions to intervene. Governor Raimondo also backs the plan, but her office is not seeking to intervene. The state’s interests in the case will be represented by the Office of Energy Resources.
Even if a party is not granted intervenor status, it does not mean it won’t be able to register opinions on the plan. The siting board is required to solicit public comment on the proposal. Bianco said that as many as three public comment hearings could be scheduled.
At the Jan. 12 hearing, along with ruling on the motions for intervention, the siting board will also lay out the issues that must be addressed in the approval process, determine what other permits the proposal must seek and consider what types of advisory opinions are needed from other state agencies before a decision can be made.
The hearing starts at 9:30 a.m. in the Public Utilities Commission's offices at 89 Jefferson Boulevard, Warwick
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