Amendment includes three-year moratorium on coal gasification plants 

AUGUSTA – A bill sponsored by Rep. Bruce MacDonald, D-Boothbay, that would limit carbon dioxide emissions from coal burning power plants in Maine received unanimous support Thursday from the Legislature’s Natural Resources Committee.  The bill would close what MacDonald says is a loophole in Maine’s laws regarding carbon emissions.

Sen. John Martin, D-Aroostook, Senate chair of the Natural Resources Committee, offered an amendment to the original legislation to put in place a state-wide three-year moratorium on building any new coal gasification plants in Maine, instead of the interim rules originally proposed.  The committee voted unanimously to support the bill as amended.

“Even with Maine’s new Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative law, under current cap levels there are enough surplus allowances to allow for construction of one or more major new coal power plants in our region,” said MacDonald.  “Currently, there are no CO2 limits for gasification facilities or refineries, but there should be. We need to protect Maine’s quality of place.”

If approved by the Legislature and signed by Governor Baldacci, the legislation would require the Maine Board of Environmental Protection to establish strict new CO2 emission standards for gasification facilities and for new power plants that exceed 25 megawatts in capacity. There had been language in the bill that would require that CO2 emissions from gasification facilities and major new power plants be no greater than emissions from existing technologies, such as natural gas power plants and petroleum refineries. The moratorium now replaces that language.  The bill also encourages the industry to develop means to capture and sequester CO2 to reduce emissions of it and other greenhouse gasses.

Representatives of the Maine Medical Association, the Maine Audubon Society, the Natural Resources Council of Maine, the Conservation Law Foundation and the Back River Alliance joined with townspeople from Alna, Damariscotta, Edgecomb, Westport Island and Wiscasset to testify in support of the bill last week at the public hearing.  The Maine State Chamber of Commerce joined with coal industry representatives in opposing the bill.

At an earlier work session on Wednesday, a lobbyist for Verso Paper informed the committee that the company hoped the bill would be amended in such a way that no existing energy producing facilities would be impacted.  MacDonald worked with their representative, clean energy advocates and the Department of Environmental Protection to amend the bill to further protect existing facilities insofar as they did not change over to an unclean coal gasification technology.

Members of the committee expressed concern that if some version of the bill does not become law, a plant like that proposed in Wiscasset last year could be built in any other town in Maine that allowed it.  The idea that one municipality’s decision could have regional, if not global, environmental impacts was unacceptable to a majority of the committee.

“I am glad that the committee understands the need to close this loophole and has suggested guaranteed protection until the rules can be developed by DEP,” said MacDonald.  “This would allow our Department of Environmental Protection to set emission standards for the most dangerous climate changing gas, carbon dioxide.”

Sen. Doug Smith, R-Piscataquis, expressed concern that the bill is another barrier to economic development in Maine, but ended up voting in favor of the bill with the moratorium on building the plants for the next three years.

Last year, MacDonald joined with local fishermen, real-estate professionals, environmental organizations and other citizens of Wiscasset and surrounding towns to express his concerns about the impacts of the proposed coal gasification plant at the former Maine Yankee nuclear power site.