WARWICK – The R.I. Public Utilities Commission could rule next week to continue a hearing on a proposed offshore wind farm or pause the case and consider legal questions brought by an environmental group.
For the second time the PUC is mulling whether to approve a power-purchase agreement between National Grid and wind farm developer Deepwater Wind. In March the commission rejected the contract, citing the price of 24.4 cents a kilowatt-hour in the first year.
In briefs filed with the PUC, the Conservation Law Foundation argued the law directing the PUC to study the contract again is unconstitutional because it favors one company and forces an agency to reconsider a matter already decided. The CLF wants the PUC to stop hearing the case while it addresses the legal questions.
Commission spokesman Tom Kogut said the body has scheduled a meeting for July 15 to hear oral arguments on the matter and could make a decision then or in the next few days.
If the PUC agrees to stay the case, it would essentially stop debate on the proposed agreement and instead consider whether the hearing should move forward at all.
If the commission rejects the foundation’s motion to stay, the PUC would immediately consider another motion filed by the group, which calls for the whole case to be thrown out. R.I. Attorney General Patrick Lynch has also filed a similar motion and leveled the same criticisms as those by the Conservation Law Foundation.
Kogut said the commission could rule on whether to dismiss the case immediately or schedule another meeting.
If the case moves forward, the commission would start public comment hearings on July 22.
Deepwater Wind is looking to build an eight-turbine wind farm three miles off the shore of Block Island. The New Jersey-based company wants the farm to come online by the end of 2012.
