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Would a legal challenge trump conditions put on power plant?
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| Bill Brock is a 1973 graduate of Oregon Technical Institute (now Oregon Institute of Technology) and has been working as a communications specialist for a major Northwest power marketer. He lives in Langell Valley. |
Published May 25, 2003
By Bill Brock
Guest columnist
My wife and I farm 240 acres in Langell Valley. We believe the proposed COB power plant does not belong in Langell Valley, or in Oregon. This plant is not needed in the Northwest, will not be able to support its own costs and if built, will become a burden to Klamath County. More about that later.
First, this is a quality-of-life issue and has everything to do with water. Just like the Klamath Reclamation Project farmers still hurting from the water cutoff of 2001, the farmers of Langell and Poe Valley are afraid of a water cutoff or shortages caused by an entirely different foe.
In 1992 the Basin struggled to survive a severe drought. The radical environmentalists saw this as another resource-based culture distracted - and attacked. They recognized the glue that held our community together. Yes, it is the water.
With their success in destroying the Northwest timber industry, the environmentalists discovered what looked like a way to move more humans away from another one of their sacred places. The environmentalists have used the tools of litigation, the courts and political science to deliver their agenda. They find politicians and apologists that will buy into their propaganda. . . and today their attack continues.
The logger, the farmer and the storekeeper have enough to do,and soon are discouraged to a point where even a wildly lopsided compromise is acceptable - wrong, yes, but acceptable, just so they can get on with their lives.
In 2001 this attack on working people was joined by corporate America.
Using twisted logic and unscrupulous tactics, the Enrons and Reliants of this world have created a false power emergency.
Lies hid the truth
As the lights went out in California in 2001, Enron, Reliant, Williams Energy, Duke Power and others were manipulating the power market and the production of electricity to cause a contrived shortage. Prices soared. Lies and propaganda hid the truth. Government agencies and power purchasers scrambled to fix this non-problem.
Government does that a lot - try to fix non- problems. Projections for needed new power sources exploded. Power marketers were sure that the sky was really falling this time.
Everyone wanted to build a power plant to get their hands on some of this projected cash. Reality set in when the truth slipped out. Power prices returned to accepted normal rates. Entire agencies, public utilities and investor-owned utilities were stuck with contracts for very expensive power and unneeded power plants.
What to do?
It was easy, continue the ruse - make excuses and hope that no one finds out. Government waffled, stumbled and stuck its head in the sand. That did not work. The market would not let it. The power-buying public found out. We are still finding out.
Will the Klamath Cogen ever make any money? Only if my power rates go up and only if your power rates go up. We will need a lot more people in the region, and will be required to pay power rates like the East Coast before gas-fired generators are viable - not just a little rate increase, but a significant rate increase. You just can't sell 6-cent power in a 3-cent market. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is trying to change that, but that is another story.
New projections by the Pacific Northwest Utilities Conference Committee, the Northwest Power Planning Council and other Industry analysts show generous surpluses of power for years into the future.
OK, let's get back to the primary reason that the proposed COB facility should not be built in Langell Valley: The water.
Proposed water use by Peoples Energy: 5,390 gallons-per-minute average, up to 7,590 gallons per minute, 365 days per year, almost 4 billion gallons a year. That's 12,145 acre-feet per year, according to the Oregon Water Resources Department. That's enough water for 4,858 acres of land, which is equal to half of the land irrigated by the Horsefly Irrigation District near the proposed COB plant.
With the water problems in the Basin, how could anyone consider turning water into landfill, natural gas into air pollution and our wonderful rural community into a heavy industrial site?
As you know, Peoples Energy has the option of either asking the energy department or the county for a conditional use permit in order to change the zoning from exclusive farm use to heavy industrial. Peoples has chosen the energy department. The department has informed me that it will be asking the county for input. Is the prospect of a few jobs and promise of $1 million a year worth the loss of support and trust of valley residents?
Conditions too tough to meet?
A large number of conditions were placed on the proposed permit by the Oregon Water Resources Department. Those conditions should make any logical businessman wary of accepting them and continue to have an operational facility. The state of Oregon has the authority to require Peoples Energy to curtail water use, and thus energy generation, to use the deep water to recharge the shallow water. Remember now that the department and our water experts still can't say for sure that there is any such separation. All of the conditions required by Water Resources Department and the Oregon Office of Energy should make an honest company think twice about proceeding with the project.
Peoples Energy jumped at the chance to sign on to these conditions. I thought long and hard about why Peoples Energy would accept these conditions. I can come up with only one explanation: It doesn't plan to comply with any condition that will curtail power production.
How could they do that?
I asked David Stewart-Smith, administrator of the Oregon Office of Energy, just that question during the April 22 meeting. He assured me that those conditions had the teeth of Oregon law. Perhaps Peoples Energy does not plan to comply with Oregon law.
How could it get around Oregon law? Easy.
Let's suppose the Peoples Energy signs a power contract with Sacramento Municipal Utilities District. Then Oregon finds a problem in Peoples' water use - the wells in Bonanza are going dry. Peoples Energy is told by the state of Oregon to cut back on water use. It curtails power production. The lights go out in Sacramento. California's governor is sitting in the dark again.
With a little coaching, California's governor goes straight to a federal circuit court for a restraining order against Oregon for restraint of trade and interstate commerce. Oregon law is superseded. Oregon is duped again. The Oregon offices of Energy and Oregon Water Resources have egg on their faces. The wells in Bonanza are still dry, but Sacramento has the lights on.
By Bill Brock
Guest columnist
My wife and I farm 240 acres in Langell Valley. We believe the proposed COB power plant does not belong in Langell Valley, or in Oregon. This plant is not needed in the Northwest, will not be able to support its own costs and if built, will become a burden to Klamath County. More about that later.
First, this is a quality-of-life issue and has everything to do with water. Just like the Klamath Reclamation Project farmers still hurting from the water cutoff of 2001, the farmers of Langell and Poe Valley are afraid of a water cutoff or shortages caused by an entirely different foe.
In 1992 the Basin struggled to survive a severe drought. The radical environmentalists saw this as another resource-based culture distracted - and attacked. They recognized the glue that held our community together. Yes, it is the water.
With their success in destroying the Northwest timber industry, the environmentalists discovered what looked like a way to move more humans away from another one of their sacred places. The environmentalists have used the tools of litigation, the courts and political science to deliver their agenda. They find politicians and apologists that will buy into their propaganda. . . and today their attack continues.
The logger, the farmer and the storekeeper have enough to do,and soon are discouraged to a point where even a wildly lopsided compromise is acceptable - wrong, yes, but acceptable, just so they can get on with their lives.
In 2001 this attack on working people was joined by corporate America.
Using twisted logic and unscrupulous tactics, the Enrons and Reliants of this world have created a false power emergency.
Lies hid the truth
As the lights went out in California in 2001, Enron, Reliant, Williams Energy, Duke Power and others were manipulating the power market and the production of electricity to cause a contrived shortage. Prices soared. Lies and propaganda hid the truth. Government agencies and power purchasers scrambled to fix this non-problem.
Government does that a lot - try to fix non- problems. Projections for needed new power sources exploded. Power marketers were sure that the sky was really falling this time.
Everyone wanted to build a power plant to get their hands on some of this projected cash. Reality set in when the truth slipped out. Power prices returned to accepted normal rates. Entire agencies, public utilities and investor-owned utilities were stuck with contracts for very expensive power and unneeded power plants.
What to do?
It was easy, continue the ruse - make excuses and hope that no one finds out. Government waffled, stumbled and stuck its head in the sand. That did not work. The market would not let it. The power-buying public found out. We are still finding out.
Will the Klamath Cogen ever make any money? Only if my power rates go up and only if your power rates go up. We will need a lot more people in the region, and will be required to pay power rates like the East Coast before gas-fired generators are viable - not just a little rate increase, but a significant rate increase. You just can't sell 6-cent power in a 3-cent market. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is trying to change that, but that is another story.
New projections by the Pacific Northwest Utilities Conference Committee, the Northwest Power Planning Council and other Industry analysts show generous surpluses of power for years into the future.
OK, let's get back to the primary reason that the proposed COB facility should not be built in Langell Valley: The water.
Proposed water use by Peoples Energy: 5,390 gallons-per-minute average, up to 7,590 gallons per minute, 365 days per year, almost 4 billion gallons a year. That's 12,145 acre-feet per year, according to the Oregon Water Resources Department. That's enough water for 4,858 acres of land, which is equal to half of the land irrigated by the Horsefly Irrigation District near the proposed COB plant.
With the water problems in the Basin, how could anyone consider turning water into landfill, natural gas into air pollution and our wonderful rural community into a heavy industrial site?
As you know, Peoples Energy has the option of either asking the energy department or the county for a conditional use permit in order to change the zoning from exclusive farm use to heavy industrial. Peoples has chosen the energy department. The department has informed me that it will be asking the county for input. Is the prospect of a few jobs and promise of $1 million a year worth the loss of support and trust of valley residents?
Conditions too tough to meet?
A large number of conditions were placed on the proposed permit by the Oregon Water Resources Department. Those conditions should make any logical businessman wary of accepting them and continue to have an operational facility. The state of Oregon has the authority to require Peoples Energy to curtail water use, and thus energy generation, to use the deep water to recharge the shallow water. Remember now that the department and our water experts still can't say for sure that there is any such separation. All of the conditions required by Water Resources Department and the Oregon Office of Energy should make an honest company think twice about proceeding with the project.
Peoples Energy jumped at the chance to sign on to these conditions. I thought long and hard about why Peoples Energy would accept these conditions. I can come up with only one explanation: It doesn't plan to comply with any condition that will curtail power production.
How could they do that?
I asked David Stewart-Smith, administrator of the Oregon Office of Energy, just that question during the April 22 meeting. He assured me that those conditions had the teeth of Oregon law. Perhaps Peoples Energy does not plan to comply with Oregon law.
How could it get around Oregon law? Easy.
Let's suppose the Peoples Energy signs a power contract with Sacramento Municipal Utilities District. Then Oregon finds a problem in Peoples' water use - the wells in Bonanza are going dry. Peoples Energy is told by the state of Oregon to cut back on water use. It curtails power production. The lights go out in Sacramento. California's governor is sitting in the dark again.
With a little coaching, California's governor goes straight to a federal circuit court for a restraining order against Oregon for restraint of trade and interstate commerce. Oregon law is superseded. Oregon is duped again. The Oregon offices of Energy and Oregon Water Resources have egg on their faces. The wells in Bonanza are still dry, but Sacramento has the lights on.
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| Basin water plans should aim toward providing mutual gains, coexistence |
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