Very fragile Burrillvilleans

The town offices of exurban/suburban Burrillville, R.I.

Adapted from Robert Whitcomb’s “Digital Diary,’’ in GoLocal24.com

Gun-toting Burrillville, R.I., has become a sort of mini-Red State, in which science and public health take a back seat to libertarian obsessions. I’m referring to its Town Council’s 5-2 vote on June 24 to  declare Burrillville a “First Amendment Sanctuary Town.”

This was part of the council’s denunciation of    Gov. Gina Raimondo’s executive orders regarding social distancing, crowd size, face masks and other coronavirus-control measures as “unconstitutional’’ and, presumably, ignorable under the First Amendment. The council asserts that the measures have caused “substantial harm to the emotional, spiritual and financial well-being” of residents. Give me a break! Surely Burrillvilleans aren’t that sensitive and fragile!?

It’s nice to see, any event, Burrillville expressing interest in the First Amendment rather than just its version of the Second Amendment (making sure to leave out that inconvenient bit about “a well-regulated militia’’).

Of course living in a community where  you’re more likely to get infected than in some  nearby places because the usual public-health rules in a pandemic aren’t followed can  also do “substantial harm’’ to your “well-being.’’ And being sick ain’t good for your freedom either.

Oh, well ….

In any case, Governor Raimondo and her team have done a good job in managing the pandemic through relentlessly promoting behavioral guidelines and tests,  especially considering the state’s location between the two hot spots of metro New York and metro Boston and that it’s the second most densely populated state (after New Jersey). As of this typing, the Ocean State had reported a little over 900 deaths in a population of a bit over 1 million while Massachusetts has reported over 8,000 deaths in a population of  about 6.9 million.

Leaders like Ms. Raimondo must battle the politically driven, or just crazy, misinformation about the pandemic on Facebook and other social media and the strong anti-science element in America now.

Of course, people generally don’t want to be told what to do…..

Tim Faulkner: Future of region's fossil-fuel plants looks shakier

From ecoRI News (ecori.org)

The latest auction price for the ISO New England electricity contracts dropped to a historic low, signaling an uncertain future for power plants that run on fossil fuels.

The cost of $2 per kilowatt-month marks the steady decline of wholesale electricity since it reached a peak of $17.73 per unit in 2015. The price has been in free fall ever since, dropping to $4.63 in 2018 and $3.80 per unit last year.

Rhode Islanders learned about forward capacity auctions during the contentious permitting hearings for the Clear River Energy Center (CREC) proposed for the woods of Burrillville. In 2016, the developer, Invenergy Thermal Development LLC, was awarded an electricity purchase agreement from ISO New England for $7.03.

The capacity supply obligation, or CSO, became a point of debate as Invenergy argued that earning the contract from ISO New England proved the power plant was vital to the region’s energy needs and therefore the project deserved a license to operate.

However, the CSO was awarded to only one of CREC’s two proposed electricity generation units. Project opponents argued that the limited CSO proved that only a portion of the power plant had a place in the regional electric grid and therefore the project was too large to approve.

Invenergy argued that it could still sell the electricity from the second power unit on the open market and earn a profit.

But the Chicago-based company was no doubt in a bind because reducing the size of the project from two power units to one would require a new application, an expensive and time-consuming process.

Problems over cooling water and other setbacks in the application proceedings forced Invenergy to sell its CSO capacity during the years the energy facility was supposed to be producing power. The delays prompted ISO New England to suspend Invenergy from participating in the CSO auctions for its second power unit. In 2018, Invenergy was dealt another blow, when ISO New England rescinded the first CSO contract.

All the while, the CSO unit prices continued to drop as electricity capacity grew and demand held steady, due in part to the success of energy-efficiency programs and new renewable-energy projects feeding into the regional power grid.

The falling auction unit price gave CREC opponents further conviction that the fossil-fuel project was redundant. This reasoning was part of the argument the state Energy Facility Siting Board used to ultimately reject the CREC application in June 2019.

ISO New England, the operator of the six-state power grid, also forecasts energy needs and trends for the region. The nonprofit sees the drop in CSO price as a win for ratepayers.

“New England’s competitive wholesale electricity markets are producing record low prices, delivering unmistakable economic benefits for consumers in the six-state region,” said Robert Ethier, ISO New England’s vice president for system planning.

The pricing also reflects the growing flow of renewable energy into the grid. Of the some 600 megawatts of new electricity approved in the auction, 317 were from land-based and offshore wind, solar, and solar paired with batteries.

Behind-the-meter solar is also reducing demand for utility-scale power. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, New England added 493 megawatts of rooftop solar last year.

“This is good news for consumers all over New England,” said Bill Eccleston, a former activist against the Invenergy power plant. The lower auction price “also contradicts the propaganda that we need to be building more fossil-fuel power plants.”

“There’s a glut of (electricity) supply on the market,” said Jerry Elmer, senior attorney for the Conservation Law Foundation (CLF).

Elmer and CLF opposed the Burrillville proposal and as intervenors argued before the EFSB. Elmer and CLF staff are steeped in local energy markets because they serve on ISO New England’s working committees.

“The big lesson there is there no need for new fossil fuel plants and I don't think you’ll see any in the near future,” Elmer said.

New Connecticut solar facility to benefit Ocean State

Rhode Island is fulfilling one of its renewable-energy goals by acquiring power from a Connecticut solar facility.

To help reach 1,000 megawatts of renewable power by 2020, the state is making another deal with New York City-based hedge fund D. E. Shaw & Co. In 2008, D. E. Shaw was the financial backer of Deepwater Wind, the Providence-based developer that won the contract to build the Block Island Wind Farm.

D. E. Shaw sold Deepwater Wind to Danish energy company Ørsted in October 2018 for $510 million.

This time, D. E. Shaw Renewable Investments, a division of D. E. Shaw, has won a contract for a 50-megawatt solar facility at a gravel mine in East Windsor, Conn. The state will not release the precise location of the project, called Gravel Pit Solar II LLC.

Without offering specifics, D. E. Shaw has offered to pay $300,000 for renewable-energy workforce development in Rhode Island.

Although it’s promoted by the state as a deal for Rhode Island’s three electric utilities, the agreement awards 99 percent of the energy generated to National Grid. The remaining 1 percent, or 0.5 megawatts, is credited to the Pascoag Utility District and the Block Island Utility District.

The 20-year contract must be reviewed and approved by Rhode Island’s Public Utilities Commission.

National Grid is asking the state to buy renewable-energy credits (RECs) for 5.3 cents per kilowatt-hour. By comparison, the state is paying between 24 and 50 cents per kilowatt-hour for electricity from the 30-megawatt Block Island Wind Farm.

National Grid selected D. E. Shaw from 41 bids. The Rhode Island Office of Energy Resources and the Rhode Island Division of Public Utilities and Carriers served as advisors for the selection process. Of the 19 projects that offered to sell the electricity below market rates, none were based in Rhode Island.

Ratepayers are expected to pay $30.8 million for the electricity over 20 years. Based on energy price forecasting models, ratepayers will save $101 million over the term of the contract.

Gravel Pit Solar II LLC is expected to be commercially operational by March 31, 2023. More details of the project can be found in the PUC docket. The proposed ground-mounted solar facility is estimated to displace 41,000 tons of carbon dioxide annually.

Ferry funds

Rhode Island Fast Ferry Inc. recently received up to $30,000 from the Rhode Island Commerce Corporation to expand its offshore wind shuttle services at the Port of Quonset and along the East Coast.

The grant pays for costs associated with acquiring permits from the Coastal Resources Management Council, the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management, and the Army Corps of Engineers.

Tim Faulkner is an ecoRI News journalist.

A 'well-regulated Militia'?

The Lexington Minuteman monument (1900), representing Massachusetts militia Captain John Parker in the Revolutionary War.

From Robert Whitcomb’s “Digital Diary,’’ in GoLocal24.com

‘In an increasingly divided America there’s been an unfortunate increase in the number of officials in a few localities refusing to enforce federal and state laws that they publicly oppose, in some cases as part of trying to curry favor with certain powerful constituencies. Thus, mayors of “sanctuary cities,’’ such as Providence, with large illegal-immigrant populations have taken it upon themselves not to cooperate, in some cases, with federal immigration officials. The Feds, not the states or cities, have final jurisdiction over immigration matters!

And then we have some officials in such towns as semi-rural Glocester and Burrillville, R.I., seeking to make their communities “Second Amendment Sanctuary Towns’’ in which the local police departments are, it is implied, not to enforce state gun-control laws that they don’t like. Such towns could exercise, in the words of the Burrillville Town Council, “sound discretion when enforcing laws impacting the rights of citizens under the Second Amendment.’’ In other words, they’ll enforce what they want.

Reminder: The towns and cities are legal children of the state, and their officials are required to follow state law.

Burrillville’s Town Council has already acted, promising, among other things, not to fund storage space in the town for firearms seized should the legislature enact a law that “unconstitutionally infringes upon the right of the people of the Town of Burrillville to keep and bear arms.’’ Glocester may soon follow. So the towns will determine what is “constitutional’’?

In other words, such towns would break state laws in order to have as little regulation as possible of guns. For some people these days, the Second Amendment is the only constitutional amendment they’re interested in.

Speaking of regulation, the Second Amendment reads:

“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.’’ (Italics mine.)=

For many years, the “regulated bit’’ was taken by both Republican and Democratic leaders in Washington to imply that careful gun control was both constitutional and necessary. But with the GOP’s rightward ideological march and the southward and westward direction of its votes, and Republican presidents’ selection of hard-right federal judges, amidst the growing lobbying power of the NRA and the gun-making trade, that changed.

Anyway, America’s federal system of laws will be gravely damaged if many more localities decide to only help enforce the state and federal laws they like. It’s not supposed to work that way.

Tim Faulkner: Would more fossil-fuel plants be redundant in New England?

Via ecoRI News

A key argument against the proposed Burrillville, R.I., fossil-fuel power plant has derailed a similar natural-gas project in nearby Killingly, Conn.

Since the Clear River Energy Center (CREC) plan was announced more than two years ago for a forested site in northwest Rhode Island, opponents have argued that the electricity it would generate would be redundant. Power saved through energy efficiency and created by renewable energy, they reason, reduces electric demand and more than offsets the nearly 1,000 megawatts of energy that would be produced by the proposed facility.

This argument of surplus fossil-fuel energy in New England was argued in a 2015 report from Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey and subsequently by research groups such as Synapse Energy Economics of Cambridge, Mass.

Synapse principal associate Robert Fagan has provided testimony on behalf of the Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) in the case against the $1 billion CREC proposal, which is being considered by the Rhode Island Energy Facilities Siting Board (EFSB).

Fagan’s testimony to the EFSB states that new solar and wind projects, and increased energy efficiency reduce near- and long-term demand for electricity in southern New England. Fagan submitted similar findings to the Connecticut Siting Council (CSC) in its review of the 550-megawatt Killingly Energy Center. 

In a May 5 draft opinion, the CSC ruled that the Killingly natural-gas power plant application met safety and environmental benchmarks, including promises of sharply reducing its greenhouse-gas emissions in future years. But the $537 million project didn't satisfy the benchmark for public need. To be specific, the CSC noted that energy demand over the next three to five years would be met through existing power plants in southern New England. Long-term energy needs are unclear, the CSC stated.

The board offered the developer, NTW Collection LLC, to resubmit an application when and if other power plants announce plans to retire, a process that takes several years.

“The Council finds and determines that the proposed (Killingly) facility is not necessary for the reliability of the electric power supply of the state or for a competitive market for electricity at this time. If there is a future need for additional capacity, the market will respond,” according to the CSC draft opinion.

It’s uncertain whether the Rhode Island siting board will follow the same logic and turn down the CREC application. CLF senior attorney Jerry Elmer is encouraged by the Connecticut ruling and hopes that Fagan’s testimony will convince the EFSB to deny the CREC application.

“This does not mean that we will automatically win the case," Elmer wrote in an e-mail. "But CLF continues to believe that it will be very, very important for CLF to present Bob Fagan’s testimony that the Invenergy plant is just not needed by the ISO."

ISO New England is the operator of the regional power grid. Its energy projections are a central issue in the CREC application. Invenergy Thermal Development LLC, the Chicago-based developer of CREC, says ISO New England believes that 6,000 megawatts of electric power are “at risk” of going off-line after 2019. Therefore, a new natural-gas power plant would fill the electricity supply gap.

The Connecticut siting board, however, noted that auctions to supply electricity from existing power plants to the grid have already committed electricity until 2021. It gave little weight to the “at-risk” power plants that may close between 2025 and 2030. Instead, the CSC referred to ISO New England’s own words in describing those retirements as “hypothetical.”

Complicating the matter is the fact that ISO New England only agreed to buy half of the output of electricity from the Burrillville power plant in auctions for 2019 and 2020. CLF believes that the agreement to purchase half of the power proves that the entire project is unneeded. Invenergy, however, maintains that the forward purchase agreements prove that some of the electricity from its proposed power plant is needed in the near term while the rest will be relied on in future years as older power plants are decommissioned.

The ISO New England agreements to buy future output from power plants, however, doesn't differentiate between what is needed to meet demand and excess power that it may buy as standby power. The Killingly power plant withdrew its application to receive energy contracts because the project wasn't far enough along the permitting process to be operating and therefor provide power by the contract date.

Further complicating the matter is the promise by both Massachusetts and Rhode Island to dramatically increase their use of imported and locally produced renewable energy by 2020. Both energy pledges would add 3,000 megawatts of capacity to the power grid and would supplant the electricity from fossil-fuel and nuclear power plants that may retire in ISO New England's “at-risk” group.

An additional factor is the rapid gain in energy efficiency. Both Massachusetts and Rhode Island are at or near the top of rankings for policies and actions that reduce energy use. Patrick Knight of Synapse said ISO New England chronically underestimates the impact of energy efficiency on reducing energy needs and revises it projected energy reductions every year to show the gains it is making in cutting energy use.

In all, it appears that the demand for new power plants will decline as energy efficiency improves and renewable-energy capacity increase. The question for Invenergy is whether it can make the case to fill shrinking demand for natural-gas power.

“We think that is validation for the idea that we don't need new power plants in New England,” saId Max Greene, CLF staff attorney.

Next for the CREC is a May 31 Superior Court court hearing in a case filed by CLF and the town of Burrillville that seeks to nullify the water agreement between Invenergy and the town of Johnston. The hearing will address a motion to dismiss the case by Invenergy.

The EFSB is creating a schedule for hearings to present updated advisory opinions from town departments and state agencies. Those hearings are expected this summer.