Pownal Energy Park in Pownal, Vt. The site of an EOS Ventures solar energy project and the site of a proposed Beaver Wood LLC 29.5 megawatt biomass generation site. Photo by Susan Bush.
Editor’s note: The first three paragraphs of this story were replaced on Feb. 4. Because of an editing error, the information as originally posted was inaccurate. Many thanks to several alert readers who pointed out the mistake. We apologize for the confusion.
POWNAL– The Vermont Public Service Board continues to grapple with whether to allow Beaver Wood LLC to move ahead with two proposed biomass/wood pellet production mills in Vermont. Beaver Wood is seeking certificates of public good from the Board in a Section 248 proceeding. An assortment of PSB deadlines involving legal briefs and petitions loom over the next few weeks.
If Beaver Wood obtains permission from the state for the biomass projects in Vermont, additional local and environmental permits will be needed to build the facilities.
Meanwhile passions and politics surrounding the proposals are galvanizing residents living near the project sites.
Beaver Wood plans to build two 29.5-megawatt wood incineration biomass facilities, with wood pellet production in the Vermont towns of Fair Haven and Pownal. Excess heat produced at the facilities would be used to dry pellets.
Developer Thomas Emero and his business partner William Bousquet have said that the mills would generate about 45 jobs each, as well as tax revenue and other benefits. Opponents cite property devaluation, truck traffic, noise and pollution, deforestation and aesthetic concerns as reasons to deny permits for the project. Several interveners, including Williams College, have hired attorneys. Beaver Wood has a legal team as well.
While the Pownal proposal has attracted a base of anti-biomass activists, the proposed 70-acre site in Fair Haven proposal has not engendered strong local opposition, although the Rutland Regional Planning Commission has sought intervener status, according to executive director Mark Blucher.
“My understanding is that [Section 248 of Act 250] intervener status is like party status with Act 250,” Blucher said. “My executive committee said we should have a seat at the table. We do not have a position on the project.”
I’m concerned about opportunities for the people who live here, their children and their grandchildren. I guess there are some people around here who have enough money that they don’t have to worry about that.”
~ Chairman Nelson Brownell,
Pownal Select Board
Opponents of the Pownal project plan to testify during PSB hearings this week. Last month, the Board’s hearing officers granted intervener status to three Massachusetts entities — Williams College, the Town of Williamstown and the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission — with an interest in the facility planned for the 144-acre Green Mountain Energy Park in Pownal. Intervener status was also awarded to the Southern Vermont Citizens for Environmental Conservation and Sustainable Energy Inc., Pamela Lyttle, Richard and Leslie Morganthal, James Winchester and Joseph Tornobene, all of Pownal, the Vermont Agency of Transportation, and the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food, and Markets.
The firm’s public relations spokesman Kevin Ellis of KSE Partners LLP said on Friday that the PSB decision to grant intervener status to proposal opponents will not change Beaver Wood’s plans.
“We don’t have a comment on the intervener stuff,” Ellis said in an e-mail. “It is a process and the PSB will do its job. We are focused on building the cleanest power plants in the country to meet Vermont’s needs.”
In December, the PSB denied a Beaver Wood request to allow preliminary construction prior to formal approval. Emero said the firm wanted to build an access road by Dec. 31 in order to qualify for federal grant funds. Since then, the deadline for eligibility has been extended by federal officials.
Meanwhile, owners of the Pownal energy park are facing increased property costs, higher property taxes and some frustration that their desire to attract job-producing ventures in an arena touted as a growth industry – alternative energy production– has resulted in controversy. Progress Partners LLC owns the former horse and dog racing site, and two partners, Frank Cantatore and Chic Paustian, said that public access to the property may soon be denied. Hobbyists such as model airplane enthusiasts have been flying remote-control planes at the site, youth leagues have been allowed access to grounds for playing fields and practice, and neighbors often walk their dogs or fish from the Hoosic River banks on the property. Those privileges could cease by February’s end, Paustian and Cantatore said.
“This is a business decision,” Cantatore said. “It absolutely has to do with either increasing revenues or decreasing expenses. Until that facility has full-time employment on site, permanent full-time employees, until that becomes a reality, we cannot allow access to the public at large. [Public access] is a liability.”
Cantatore said that those interested in accessing the property may contact the owners and decisions will be made on a case-by-case basis.
The property has been subject to vandalism, Paustian and Cantatore said. More than nine large windows have been broken, and some appear to have been shot out, Paustian said. Trash and garbage are routinely dumped at the site, he added.
Paustian said that when he has reported the vandalism to Vermont State Police, they have suggested that the partners pay the Bennington County Sheriff’s Department to patrol the site. Vermont State Police Lt. Reginald Trayah said that suggestions to retain BCSD services do not mean troopers will not investigate vandalism but are meant to offer property owners such as Progress Partners another resource for protection.
“What I have told Mr. Paustian is that we have limited manpower,” Trayah said. “We cover 12 towns and at night, I have two troops. That means one troop for six towns. I can’t put one troop to just sit at the race track.”
Pownal Select Board Chairman Nelson Brownell said he understands the owners’ frustration. Since acquiring the property in 2005, they’ve faced almost constant negativity, he said. He said too many people are forming opinions about the biomass proposal based on sound bites.
“Another real problem we have is here is a group who is trying to bring business to town, and they are dealing with this vandalism, dealing with other issues, and they’ve proceeded a long way at the site,” Brownell said. “The response they’ve gotten is vandalism and other things rather than a ‘glad to see you are doing something’ attitude. And I’ll tell you this goes all the way back to when they proposed putting in houses and a geriatric care center. It seems no matter what they do, the loudest voices are bashing them. Now I will tell you that I get a lot of phone calls from people who think this [biomass] is a great thing but they are not the loudest voices. And I’ll tell you this, if the people who want this don’t want to speak up or write letters, they better get out and vote.”
Brownell said a recent incident involving human excrement left at the property was clearly meant to upset the property owners. That type of behavior is reprehensible, he said. Brownell said he is growing concerned that Pownal is gaining a reputation as a community that is anti-business, anti-employment and influenced by entities beyond its borders.
“I’m concerned about opportunities for the people who live here, their children and their grandchildren,” he said. “I guess there are some people around here who have enough money that they don’t have to worry about that.”
Brownell, along with Selectmen Harry Percy and Donald Prouty sent a letter to the PSB in early January asking the Board to deny intervener status to the out-of-state entities.
Fair Haven Selectmen’s Chairman Ron Adams said that as long as Emero and Bousquet honor their commitments to build a safe, clean facility, they will be welcome in that town.
“I told Tom and Bill, ‘do what you say you’re gonna do,’” Adams said. “Go through legal channels. And if you are lucky enough to get a permit, build what is permitted. We are taking the stance in town that we want this to get this to the PSB. “
Adams said that past proposals, such as correctional facility construction, have failed and the region must have employment opportunities.
“We are a blue collar town and we need something,” he said.
Adams said he is concerned about what will happen to energy costs if the Vermont Yankee nuclear power facility stops producing power.
“You start eliminating power sources, well, you can’t live on solar panels in one of the darkest states in the country,” he said.
Adams said he was aware of the Massachusetts-based opposition to the biomass proposals. Vermont is more than a “little playground for the people south of us,” he said.
“Our personal agenda, here in town, is to grow a tax base and put some more jobs here in town,” Adams said. “That’s what we are fighting for.”
“If we don’t start standing up to the special interest groups, we won’t be able to afford to live in Fair Haven,” Adams said. “When we get our chance to express our opinion vocally, Fair Haven won’t be bashful.”
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