by Ted Sickinger, The Oregonian
http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2009/09/pressure_grows_for_pge_to_shut.htmlAfter more than a year of analysis and public feedback, Oregon's largest utility unveiled a draft plan earlier this month. . . .
But what attendees came to discuss was Boardman.
PGE's controversial proposal includes two new gas-fired power plants and the installation of more than a half billion dollars worth of pollution control equipment to keep the company's workhorse coal plant in northeast Oregon compliant with federal haze reduction rules while cranking out cheap electricity for the next three decades.
While required to keep the plant running, the pollution controls do nothing to reduce the plant's output of carbon dioxide, the main man-made culprit in global warming. Boardman, the state's only coal plant, is the largest stationary source of pollution and CO2 in Oregon.
Ratepayer and environmental advocates think the utility is squandering a golden opportunity to shut down the plant, while underestimating the risks of future carbon taxes on the plant's viability. PGE's analysis, they insist, shows that the utility could replace Boardman's output without a meaningful difference in reliability or cost.
Bottom line, the advocates believe it's too risky to invest $560 million in pollution controls and still face a possible early closure of the plant. . .
On Wednesday, a coalition of ratepayer advocates and environmental groups sent PGE a letter urging the utility to evaluate shutting Boardman in 2020 rather than installing the pollution controls. A 2020 shutdown was the least-cost option that PGE presented to the Department of Environmental Quality last year when the agency was evaluating what controls PGE should be required to install. . .
