VIDEO: Santa Talks ‘Dirty’ About The Boardman Power Plant
With a combination of holiday gimmick and serious talk, two of Oregon’s leading environmental groups are kicking off a new drive to shut down PGE’s coal-fired power plant near Boardman.
The gimmick? Having one of the members dress up as Santa Claus, and proclaiming that the Boardman power plant had been “very naughty” for being the biggest single emitter of carbon emissions in Oregon.
The serious part? A new national report from Environment Oregon which says the U.S. and Oregon get too much of their electricity from power plants that burn fossil fuels and rely on out-of-date technology.
The timing isn’t just about the holidays. Environment Oregon and the Oregon Sierra Club say the next couple of months will give all of us a great opportunity to do something about Boardman, whether that means shutting it down or keeping it online.
Using 2007 data collected by the Environmental Protection Agency, the report says the coal-fired Boardman plant produced more than 4.8 million tons of carbon emissions that year. Environment Oregon says that’s roughly the same as the amount of carbon pollution emitted by 843,000 cars. That easily makes it the largest single producer of carbon emissions in the state.
How does that compare to other power plants? The report ranks it as the 161st “dirtiest” power plant in the country. And while it may be the “dirtiest” in the state, it’s still not as bad as the TransAlta coal-fired plant in Centralia, Washington. That facility, according to the report, emits more than twice as much carbon as Boardman and is the 59th “dirtiest” power plant in the nation.
Nor is it just carbon emissions. PGE (which owns 65% of Boardman) is under a state ordered plan to reduce emissions of sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides at the power plant. This summer, Oregon DEQ approved rules to reduce those emissions 66% by 2014, and 80% by 2018. Boardman is considered one of the biggest contributors to haze in the region and has also been linked to acid rain in the Columbia River Gorge. The plan is expected to cost PGE rate payers almost $500 million. Another set of rules calls for major reductions in emissions of mercury.
As Robin Everett of the Oregon Sierra Club points out, the new DEQ rules don’t address the carbon problem. “At some point along the way,” she says, “carbon regulations, or people’s demands, or global warming itself is going to cause that plant to have to be shut down.” So rather than pouring millions of dollars into a solution that doesn’t fix all of Boardman’s problems, Everett thinks the best way out is to close Boardman by 2014.
When Is The Opportunity To Make Changes?
In the next couple of months, the state’s Public Utility Commission will hold hearings on PGE’s 2009 Intergrated Resource Plan (IRP). The IRP is the utility’s road map to the future. It foresees keeping Boardman operating until 2040. PGE is dependent on the Boardman plant because it produces 15% of the company’s electricity and relatively speaking, does that cheaply.
Oregon Sierra Club and Environment Oregon see these hearings as a great time and place to make the case that Boardman needs to be shut down and replaced by renewable energy sources. They want to raise awareness now, hoping for a big turn out by the public when the PUC takes a look at Boardman’s future. Everett says the first public hearing has been scheduled for January 19, less than a month away. That’s followed by a second hearing on February 1st. Both meetings are in Salem and Everett hopes for a third meeting in the Portland area.
