With just over a week left to submit advisory testimony to the R.I. Energy Facility Siting Board, the controversy surrounding a proposed North Smithfield power plant is heating up. Detractors of Indeck Energy Inc.’s hotly contested plan to construct a 350-megawatt, natural gas-fired generating facility on 25-acres on Old Oxford Road near the Slatersville Reservoir in North Smithfield got another jolt last week when a powerful state legislator came out sharply against it.
Senate Majority Leader Paul S. Kelly, (D-Dist. 30) from North Smithfield, Woonsocket and Burrillville sent a scathing letter to John Gregory, president and CEO of the Northern Rhode Island Chamber of Commerce complaining about their board’s decision to endorse the project and asking them to reconsider.
Beyond Cash Donations: How New Forms of Giving Are Transforming Not-for-Profit Accounting
Evolving Funding Landscape for Not-for-Profits Not-for-profit organizations are being asked to do more with less,…
Learn More
The proposed plant is expected to create between 20 and 30 permanent jobs and approximately 200 jobs during construction. Kelly called the chamber’s lack of attention to environmental concerns “cavalier” at best and wrote, “I am disappointed that the chamber has chosen to put money ahead of quality of life.”
Kelly also criticized the proposed location for the plant, above an aquifer that supplies water to the town, and said potential dangers and detriments to the area’s high quality of rural life have not been thoroughly presented. He disapproved the chamber’s endorsement of the project weeks before state and local agencies complete their analysis.
This analysis is expected to be presented next month to the siting board, which ultimately will decide the plant’s fate, along with a feasibility study detailing potential effects on the community. In his letter Kelly said that since public information on the proposed plans has so far largely come from Indeck itself “it can hardly be construed as objective. Thus, the action by your board appears premature and imprudent.”
While residents and others fear declining property values and worse if the plant is built, Gregory has said he believes federal and state governments would not allow something to be built that violates environmental regulation.
The North Smithfield Town Council held the first of two public meetings last week to consider whether it would approve a zoning change needed for the project. (The final meeting is scheduled for tonight at North Smithfield High School at 7 p.m.)
The Burrillville Town Council also met last week on whether to take a formal position on the $250 million plant, located just about a mile from the Burrillville town line. Town Manager Michael C. Wood has publicly opposed the project, despite advocates’ claims the plant would benefit the region. (Details of the meeting weren’t available by press time.)
Indeck Energy Inc. of Buffalo Grove, Ill .first proposed building the power plant in April of 1999. The project is designed to supply electricity to the regional grid through 345-kV high voltage transmission lines owned by Eastern Utilities, bordering the project site. Natural gas will be supplied via a Tennessee Gas pipeline that runs adjacent to the site.
