A state council halted Energy Northwest's application to build a $1.5 billion petcoke/ coal gasification plant at the Port Kalama Tuesday, saying the public power giant's plan failed to meet new state requirements for sequestering greenhouse gases. ...The proposed plant would use a new, cleaner technology called Integrated Gasfication Combined Cycle to produce power. Energy Northwest's plans call for gasifying petcoke, a waste product from manufacturing gasoline, though coal could also be gasified. Company officials have argued that state environmental rules prevent them from injecting carbon gases into the ground, and they've made a "good faith" to develop a sequestration plan.

A state council halted Energy Northwest's application to build a $1.5 billion petcoke/ coal gasification plant at the Port Kalama Tuesday, saying the public power giant's plan failed to meet new state requirements for sequestering greenhouse gases.

The proposed plan to reduce the expected 4.4 million tons of greenhouse gases per year "misses the mark by a wide margin" to adhere to a state law passed this spring, wrote Jim Luce, chairman of the Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council, in a 12-page decision released Tuesday afternoon.

The Richland-based Energy Northwest has been seeking to build the plant on 100 acres of land north of the Steelscape property on the Port of Kalama. The plant, which is proposed to produce 793 megawatts of electricity, would provide 100 good-paying jobs, according to Energy Northwest.

Officials at Energy Northwest, which represents 20 public-power agencies in Washington, had promised to prepare a specific plan to sequester carbon emissions in the ground at a later date, which could be as late as 2020, according to the council's ruling.

The proposed plant would use a new, cleaner technology called Integrated Gasfication Combined Cycle to produce power. Energy Northwest's plans call for gasifying petcoke, a waste product from manufacturing gasoline, though coal could also be gasified.

Company officials have argued that state environmental rules prevent them from injecting carbon gases into the ground, and they've made a "good faith" to develop a sequestration plan.

The Legislature passed Senate Bill 6001 during the last session, which requires any new power facilities that generate more than 1,100 pounds of greenhouse gases per megawatt-hour to sequester carbon emissions away from entering the air. Instead of offering a sequestration plan, Energy Northwest has offered to pay to offset the carbon emissions.

Gary Miller, an Energy Northwest spokesman, told The Associated Press that the consortium was not prepared to comment Tuesday because officials had not yet had the chance to review the decision.

Marc Krasnowsky, communications director for the Northwest Energy Coalition, the leading opponent of the power plant, applauded the ruling from the facility council.

"This is basically what we've been saying for some time, that this so-called sequestration plan doesn't do what the law requires," Krasnowsky said.

 

Web link: http://www.tdn.com/articles/2007/11/28/area_news/d...