The Governor's choice

Romney on easing air-pollution restrictions on oil-fueled power plants

by Charles W. Kleekamp

An article in the Boston Globe, dated 10/16/05, by Peter Howe (footnote 1) opened with this attention grabbing line: "Governor Mitt Romney is considering easing air-pollution restrictions on oil-fueled power plants to allow them to produce more electricity to stave off potential catastrophic blackouts and natural gas shortages this winter." This blackout scenario was perilously close to reality during the unusual cold snap of January 14-16 of 2004.

But is this a slippery slope to permanently roll back emission regulations to favor power plant owners? It is disturbing that the Governor has allowed us to become victim to shortages in natural gas by not only ignoring the role of utility scale wind power but doing everything he possibly can to kill the Nantucket Sound wind farm simply because, as he has said: “I’ve seen wind farms, and they are not pretty! (footnote 2)

It is disturbing that the Governor has allowed us to become victim to shortages in natural gas by not only ignoring the role of utility scale wind power but doing everything he possibly can to kill the Nantucket Sound wind farm...

He now has us in the untenable situation of no choice but to allow some dual-fuel capability power plants to burn more polluting sulfur laden fuel oil with resulting unhealthful particulate emissions instead of normally consumed clean burning but scarce and expensive natural gas.

Forcing this compromise is the country’s natural gas shortage and resulting soaring cost. The price of gas has mushroomed from $2 per million BTU in January 2002 to about $14 now. An increase of 7 times! And don’t blame Katrina! Katrina is merely the exclamation point bumping the price from $10 before to $12 after. As a nation we are not only running out of cheap oil but also cheap natural gas.

At a stakeholder meeting with the Massachusetts DEP on October 28th a carefully crafted plan was discussed to allow at least four gas fired combustion turbine plants (footnote 3) to run more than the presently permitted days using sulfur containing fuel oil rather than natural gas. The DEP professionals are doing all they can to minimize the use of oil but there are not in a position to set policy for renewable energy. That’s the Governor’s job.

And the Governor has known, or should have known, that during the cold snap crisis of January 14-16, 2004, that if the Nantucket Wind Farm had been operational, it would have made a significant contribution to the power supply and reliability of the regional grid (footnote 4). During those three days the wind project would have delivered an average of 396 MW (footnote 5). That contribution would have exceeded the actual ISO New England grid deficit at the worst peak hour of 108 MW which nearly caused curtailment of customer load (footnote 6). 

It is a fact that the wind power contribution to the grid during that time, had it been operational, is more than the capacity of the largest of any of the gas plants now under consideration. Furthermore, the wind power that would have been generated then is equivalent to almost half the total maximum capacity of all four gas plants under discussion .

The Nantucket wind project alone will not solve New England’s natural gas shortage problem, but it is a very significant first step in utility scale offshore wind. So instead of burning oil and polluting our air in the short term, the Governor needs to promote renewable energy and the Nantucket Sound Wind Farm for the long term. And that’s a better choice.

Charles W. Kleekamp, P.E. Ret., A Director of Clean Power Now

 Footnotes:

1. “Romney may ease curbs on power plants, Move to avert outages could add pollution,� by Peter J. Howe, Boston Globe, October 19, 2005.
2. A statement by the Governor in a public hearing on the wind farm in Nantucket Sound.
3. The four plants are: MASSPOWER, Springfield: 270MW; Altresco, Pittsfield, 173 MW: Dartmouth, FPL, 67 MW; Bellingham, FPL, 327 MW. These plants were identified in a 10/22/05 Globe article by Peter Howe.
4. US Department of Energy, “Diversification Analysis – Natural Gas Supply/Wind Production,� A. Benson, Regional Director, June 6, 2004.
5. Ibid, p.9. Based on the data from the meteorological test tower on Nantucket Sound.
6. “New England Power System Operations Under Extreme Winter Conditions, January 14-16, 2004,� Stephen G. Whitley, Senior Vice President and COO, ISO New England, March 19,2004, pp. 7-10. Substations were staffed to enable manual curtailment of customer load if necessary.