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GLENROCK - Members of the Department of Environmental Quality's Industrial Siting Council on Tuesday grilled a spokesman for the Two Elk power plant near Gillette about the long-delayed project's viability and set a hearing in April to consider a Sierra Club petition to revokeTwo Elk's decade old construction permit.
Representing Two Elk, Brad Enzi, vice-president of governmental affairs for project developer North American Power Group of Denver , argued emphatically that the major problems facing the plant had been solved and that full-scale construction was only months away.
Concerned if the developers were big enough to take on the project, Council member Jim Miller noted that Two Elk would be ten times the size of any of the six power plants North American Power Group owns in California.
Enzi acknowledged that Two Elk would be bigger, but as a friend of his commented, "It is only another zero."
Council member Sandy Shuptine said there was much "reason for concern with the progress" at Two Elk.
She said economic, regulatory and scientific conditions have changed dramatically since the project was first proposed in 1997, and that emission levels from the plant pose serious concerns. And she questioned North American's contention, used to receive the state tax-exempt bonds, that it is a "solid waste disposal and recycling facility" because it would burn unmarketable waste coal rejected for export by the major coal mines surrounding Two Elk.
"It is a real stretch to call this a solid waste facility," Shuptine said.
Legal woes
Looming over the proceedings at the Glenrock Town Hall was a petition filed by the Sierra Club, asking the Industrial Siting Council to revoke a Two Elk construction permit issued back in 1997 and renewed two more times since then.
Industrial Siting Division Administrator Todd Parfitt said that 60 days from February 15, the Council would convene again in Wright, to determine whether or not the Sierra Club petition has merit, and what to do then.
The Sierra Club alleges that Two Elk is in violation of its permit and the Industrial Siting Act and regulations. The Sierra Club also has air pollution complaints pending against Two Elk, before the Environmental Quality Council and District Court in Cheyenne.
If the Industrial Siting Council decides the Sierra Club petition has merit, it can cancel the construction permit or hold further hearings, said Parfitt.
Defense
Enzi told the Council that roadwork and site work has been continuous since May of 2005. As evidence of further progress, Enzi noted that:
· Consulting firm Tetra Tech has been engaged to perform a socio-economic update report, which was submitted to ISC staff last week.
· Financing arrangements are nearly in place with $450 million from tax-exempt bonds allocated to the company by the state held in escrow. Enzi estimated that the plant could be built for $750 million. A letter from Two Elk's bond attorney to Gov. Freudenthal in 2007 set the price at $1.3 billion.
· A large generator interconnection agreement was signed last September.
· Bechtel engineers have updated a construction schedule which will conclude with construction completion by late 2011 and commercial operation in 2012.
· Plans are underway to use 113 mobile home spaces in Wright for the work force, as well as development of 68 two-bedroom apartments in Gillette by late 2008 and development of 50 entry level homes in Gillette.
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