Guest MINDSETTER™ Eccleston: Why No Environmental Impact Statement From Invenergy?
William Eccleston, Guest MINDSETTER™
Guest MINDSETTER™ Eccleston: Why No Environmental Impact Statement From Invenergy?
This is the mantra of Governor Raimondo to those who smell something off about the plan to build a one billion dollar power plant on the borderline of one our state forests, the George Washington Wildlife Management Area in Burrillville and Glocester.
The process she begs us to trust is that of the Rhode Island Energy Facilities Siting Board, the three-member panel that will decide the fate of the Invenergy corporation's so-called Clear River Energy Center.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTShe is anxious that we believe in the integrity of the Siting Board's procedure, that it meets the standards we have come to expect in this staunchly "Green" state. Rhode Islanders assume naturally that when a power plant is proposed next to a state forest its effects will be assessed by an Environmental Impact Statement---just as the existing power plant in Burrillville was assessed by an Environmental Impact Statement when it was proposed in 1988.
But they would be wrong.
For as diligently as Governor Raimondo has conjured the illusion, there is no Environmental Impact Statement for Invenergy. Neither she nor the Siting Board has called for one---in glaring contrast to how their predecessors behaved when the Ocean State Power company applied to build in Burrillville on a site six miles east of Invenergy's proposed location today.
First, Governor Edward DiPrete "on the strong conditions that the plant be environmentally sound...requested that an EIS be conducted," and the Siting Board followed suit, declaring that, "An EIS is essential to the Board's deliberations. ...we conclude that the Board has both the responsibility and the power to evaluate all individual and cumulative environmental impacts of the proposed facility before arriving at a final decision regarding the OSP application. Preparation of an EIS is the most efficient way of identifying those impacts for Board review."
Why, then, if an EIS were "essential" for one power plant in Burrillville, it is not essential for the other? What has prevented Governor Raimondo from emulating Governor DiPrete and requesting an EIS for Invenergy?
Might it be a finding buried in the Ocean State EIS that seals her lips?
The Ocean State EIS began by examining 82 New England alternatives to the company's preferred building site. One of them was today's Invenergy site next to the George Washington forest. The conclusions reached about it were damning. And if an EIS were done today for Invenergy, those damning conclusions would be discovered and publicized, making it impossible for Governor Raimondo's compliant Siting Board to approve the project without the taint of scandal.
Known in the Ocean State EIS as the "Buck Hill Road site," the US Fish and Wildlife Service testified that, "siting these facilities [power plants] close to wildlife management areas, parks, and similar public facilities should be considered fatal flaws." The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission held that power plants next to state forests are "objectionally obtrusive." And a biologist testifying for RI DEM's Natural Heritage Program---the program once charged with evaluating the state's most sensitive environments---wrote this blunt summary: "I would recommend that site #1 [the Buck Hill Road site] not be considered for this power plant project... On the basis of what I know of the seven sites you have listed, [the Rhode Island alternatives] this seems by far the most inappropriate location for a power plant."
Pretty strong words.
Moreover, since 1988, four major DEM and Nature Conservancy studies have further confirmed the value of our northwest corner forests, declaring the whole region a major focus area for future conservation investment. Last year, for example, the George Washington forest hosted 6,181 campers, and its Pulaski Recreation Area recorded 97,259 day-visits. But with the Governor and the Siting Board stonewalling an Environmental Impact Statement for Invenergy, this evidence, too, is swept under the table---exactly where so many big money deals made-the-shade in Rhode Island.
Or "processed" as the term of art has apparently become under Governor Raimondo.
William Eccleston is a resident of North Providence, formerly of Burrillville, who was co-chairman of Burrillville’s first Comprehensive Plan Committee.
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