A bit of uncertainty colors the future of the coal-fired power plant in Boardman, Oregon, the provider of about 40% of the state’s electricity and the single largest source of air pollution.  The operator, Portland General Electric, is facing increasing pressure to clean it up or shut it down.

(PGE’s power plant near Boardman, OR.  Photo:  Brian Pasko.)

 

The Ishh

Right now, the issue is the renewal of PGE Boardman’s operating permit that is four years expired.

The state Department of Environmental Quality has drafted a new Oregon Title V Operating Permit and Acid Rain Permit to govern Boardman’s emissions for the next five years. 

The draft permit proposes maintaining current limits on various pollutants and then tightening them significantly in the future, after the installation of pollution controls. 

Oregon issues such permits, per its Regional Haze Plan, to comply with the federal Clean Air Act requirements to protect air in parks and wilderness areas.

Each year, Boardman emits 5 million tons of carbon dioxide, 15,000 tons of sulfur and nitrogen oxides, and 200 pounds of mercury.  It flatulates these toxins right into the Mt. Hood National Forest to the south, and into the Portland-Vancouver metropolitan area (of several million people) down river.

(Photo:  OR Sierra Club.)

 

The Status Quo

PGE aims to decommission the Boardman plant by 2020, in a smooth and steady “off-ramp” action, with minimal impacts to their rate payers.  The original plan was for 2040, which met with resistance. 

Portland area environmentalists make it their business to combat Boardman, which, they say, has evaded Clean Air Act requirements for three decades.

They are asking for the earliest possible closure date, 2014, and the strictest available pollution controls in the meantime.

“PGE has gotten off too long without controlling pollution from the Boardman plant,” said Cesia Kearns, of Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign, “and it is high time that DEQ hold them accountable.”

Essentially, with variations on the details, PGE has a few options:  install pollution controls, transition away from coal, or shut down early. 

Hearings

At the hearing, a very mixed gathering of citizens came to bring the ruckus at DEQ headquarters in Portland, Tuesday night.

(Interested citizens packed into the hearing room at DEQ Portland.  Photo:  OR Sierra Club.)

 

Betty Kaplan, from Beyond Coal, presented over 1000 letters and petitions to DEQ asking for better pollution controls.  She said,

The DEQ has been dragging its heels in holding PGE accountable for these high pollution levels.  The agency has been asleep at the wheel while we pay with the health of our lungs and the places we love.

 

PGE representatives worry that having to install pollutant control devices will increase utility rates. 

Marcy Kiger spoke on behalf of plant workers and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), who would obviously be affected by an early closure of Boardman, and ejection into an ebbed economy.

Jenny Addelll-Styles, a native of Portland and an asthmatic, testified about her difficulty living with air pollution.  Though Boardman may not have caused her condition, the impacted air certainly attenuates it.  Indeed, coal burning has been repeatedly linked to asthma and other respiratory ailments. 

Catherine Thomasson, former President of Physicians for Social Responsibility, testified about the effects of coal combustion on the human respiratory and cardiovascular systems.

Portland’s Mayor, Sam Adams, has recently urged PGE to shift away from fossil energy, stressing the importance of meeting production goals of state and city, while transitioning to a clean energy economy.

While the meeting in Portland was packed “to the gills” with people of opposing views, civility was maintained and there were “no crazy outbursts.”

(Testimony from Dan Cobb.  Photo:  OR Sierra Club.)

There was another hearing, Wednesday night in Boardman.

Norm Cimon, from LaGrande, spoke about Boardman impacting air quality even further than the Columbia River Gorge, according to U.S. Forest Service data.

“This is a complex issue for Oregon,” said Kearns, “and this is a pretty big turning point we’re looking at here.”

Next generation activists

A substantial youth movement is brewing in opposition of Boardman, too.

Students from Linfield College, Washington State University, and even one young woman, a freshman at McMinnville High School, gave compelling testimonies.  Youth organizer Nick Engelfried said,

I’m 22 years old, and it’s the members of my generation who are going to have to deal with the effects of Oregon’s addiction to coal for years to come.  We are still waiting for pollution from the plant to be controlled - will I be in my 40’s before we see the DEQ and PGE take air quality and our health seriously?

Beat goes on

The previous operating permit has been expired since 2006.  Since then, PGE has been negotiating with DEQ for a renewal.  This is the third public comment period on it. 

Funny…  I met a guy once back in Virginia who tried to negotiate with the authorities about an expired operating permit on which he was driving.  He got a generous six months in jail.

DEQ will be taking public comment on the draft permit until mid-July. 

(“No, man, it did not look like Boardman was about to crack…”  Photo:  Focus Features.)