Coal questions | A new proposal for the old Maine Yankee site gets a mixed local reaction
For much of the past 65 years, Wiscasset has been a central player in Maine's energy industry. In the early 1940s, Central Maine Power Co. chose the Midcoast town as the site of its coal-fired Mason Station power plant. And in the 1960s, the town was chosen as the site of Maine's one-and-only nuclear power plant, Maine Yankee.
Both of those power plants are now defunct. But a recent proposal by a Connecticut real estate development firm to build what would be the largest power plant in Maine on 400 acres of former Maine Yankee land, which was decommissioned in 1997, would put Wiscasset back on the energy map.
Not far from 64 massive concrete casks that hold Maine Yankee's spent nuclear fuel, Scott Houldin sits in his car one recent afternoon on the edge of the 400-acre lot on the Back River and points to a line of trees that border the towering power lines that once connected Maine Yankee with the regional power grid. "That's where the plant will be," he says. "Set a hundred feet back from those trees."
Houldin unveiled the plan for a 700-megawatt coal gasification power plant before Wiscasset's Board of Selectmen in July. Houldin was a familiar face to the town's elected officials: In addition to being the power plant project manager for National RE/sources (NRE), a Connecticut-based real estate development firm, Houldin also is managing the company's other high-profile Wiscasset project, Point East Maritime Village, a mixed-use development on the riverfront site of the former Mason Station power plant.
The coal gasification power plant, dubbed the Twin River Energy Center, would not only be the largest power plant in Maine, it would also be the first coal gasification plant in New England. And it would be the first facility of its kind because the plan involves producing 9,000 barrels a day of clean-burning diesel fuel along with power. The estimated price tag for the facility: $1.5 billion.
The plant would use coal and a small amount of biomass — think waste lumber — to generate electricity in a process Houldin says is more efficient and cleaner than traditional coal-fired power plants. The plant would not be "burning the coal," Houldin makes clear, but "gasifying" it, a process that breaks down coal or any other carbon-based feedstock into its basic chemical components and produces synthetic gas known as "syngas," which is burned to create electricity.
But Maine already generates more electricity than it can use. So what benefit would Wiscasset — which calls itself "Maine's Prettiest Village" — receive from hosting a big coal gasification plant? And what would the state gain from the plant being built?
Some say the plant would help decrease Maine's reliance on natural gas and help push down electricity rates in Maine. And locally, some who remember the jobs and tax revenue Maine Yankee and Mason Station provided welcome the idea of another power plant in town.
But others aren't so sure: So far, the reaction in Wiscasset and the surrounding communities has been mixed, according to Arthur Faucher, Wiscasset's town manager. Some have adopted a wait-and-see attitude, but already groups are joining to combat the proposal. "It's a combination coal-fired power plant and diesel refinery," says Willy Ritch, a nearby Woolwich resident who in late July created the Back River Alliance to educate people on the drawbacks of the project. "We need economic development here, but that doesn't sound like the kind we should have in this area."
Pros and cons
The site along the Back River is a prime location for a power plant, says Houldin, because of the existing transmission infrastructure left over from Maine Yankee. The site also has deep water access on the Back River and a rail line that runs through the property. The power plant would sit on just 50 of the site's 400 acres. "With the power lines, rail and nuclear fuel across the street it certainly lends itself to energy and energy development," Houldin says.
NRE acquired the former Maine Yankee land from the town in 2004, a year after it purchased the nearby Mason Station property, where Point East Maritime Village is being developed. Houldin says NRE was approached several times by other energy investors and developers interested in the former Maine Yankee land. But a Massachusetts-based engineer, David Grogan, caught the company's ear with an idea for a coal gasification plant for the site. Other pitches ranged from renewing the site as a nuclear reactor to building a garbage incinerator. But NRE picked Grogan's idea because it combined electricity generation with a diesel fuel production facility. "It was very mature," Houldin says of the plan.
Grogan is now lead engineer on the project, and Houldin says NRE has already spent "hundreds of thousands of dollars" over the past year working on the proposal.
The plan is a win-win for the town and the state, according to Houldin. He lays out the economic benefits of the proposal: Besides the $1.5 billion investment in the town, says Houldin, the plant would provide the area with 200 high-paying, full-time jobs, annually pump an estimated $70 million into the regional economy and pay as much as 78% of Wiscasset's tax bill. At the same time, it would ease the state's reliance on natural gas and help lower electricity prices.
Faucher says town officials have the same concerns as residents: What will the visual impacts be? What will residents hear? What will they smell? How would the coal be transported and stored? And what about pollution? Still, Faucher can't ignore the opportunities the project presents. "You have to stop and think and say to yourself: 'This is an economic development opportunity, not only for Wiscasset, but the whole Midcoast,'" he says. "So let's look at it carefully. Let's analyze everything."
Houldin claims the plant would be noiseless, odorless and have significantly lower emissions of CO2 and pollutants like sulfur oxide. Those claims are reasonably accurate, according to Gary Stiegel, gasification technology manager at the U.S. Department of Energy's National Energy Technology Laboratory in Pittsburgh. "Any odors from the plant would be very minimal," Stiegel says. "Coal gasification technology offers by far the cleanest route [when using coal] to producing power as well as professional transportation fuels."
Other concerns voiced at the several public information meetings Twin River Energy has held in Wiscasset have revolved around the plant's visual impact, the impact on the river of having up to five coal barges a week arriving at the site, as well as where the 10 million gallons of water a day needed to run the plant would come from.
Houldin says the water would most likely come from surface water in the area or treated brackish water, but would not be taken from the Back River. Meanwhile, he says the plant's operations wouldn't tie up traffic because all coal shipments and shipping out of byproducts would be done by barge or rail. What's more, says Houldin, the plant would not be visible from the majority of the town.
Still, Houldin knows he has his work cut out for him. "We recognize it's our responsibility to educate the public to the extent possible so they will be able to make a responsible decision whether this is the best direction for the community."
He recently accepted an invitation to give a presentation on the project at a meeting held on Westport Island to roughly 125 concerned residents from surrounding towns. "They were not a happy crowd," says Ritch, a former radio talk show host and now professional blogger. (One of his clients is SmartPower, a nonprofit in Hartford, Conn., that focuses on solar and wind energy.) "There was a lot of resentment and a lot of emotion. A lot of people are angry about this."
The new coal
Dave Nichols has been neighbors with a coal power plant before. In the 1960s, he lived across the street from Central Maine Power's coal-fired Mason Station power plant in Wiscasset. (In the late 1970s, the plant was changed over to run on oil.)
Every time the plant "blew its stacks," Nichols says, he had to go outside to wipe down his deck furniture to remove the carbon residue.
But with emissions standards much higher and coal gasification technology much cleaner, Houldin says no one will be wiping coal ash off their patio furniture. Twin River Energy claims the power plant would emit 300 times less pollution than was emitted by Mason Station. If that's true, Nichols, a Wiscasset selectman, says he's all for the project. "If they can clean it up and use it, why not?" he says. "Everyone wants it, but no one wants it in their backyard."
There aren't many coal gasification plants in the United States, and of the three operating, only two generate electricity. But that could soon change: At least two dozen coal gasification plants have been proposed from Maine to Washington. Developers are hoping to take advantage of the increase in oil prices and the relative cheap cost of coal-generated power. Meanwhile, the federal government is spending hundreds of millions of dollars on research and development regarding coal gasification technology.
Part of that increasing popularity is that coal gasification is more efficient than a traditional coal-fired plant because it has two sources of power generation: Syngas is fired in a gas turbine — much like natural gas — to generate electricity, and exhaust heat from the gas turbine is then recovered and used to power a steam turbine, which also generates electricity.
And while Houldin assures anyone willing to listen that the gasification technology will not have black ash spouting from its smokestacks, people still wonder about the pollution. John Reinhardt, a Wiscasset resident and owner of a local bed-and-breakfast, says he's seen the piles of coal and coal-laden train cars rolling through towns in coal producing parts of the United States. "I'm not sure if I want to wake up with my bed-and-breakfast covered in coal dust," he says. "I'm not sure if it can be transported without polluting."
But Houldin says Twin River Energy is "committed" to having all the coal handling facilities, such as the conveyor belts that would carry the coal from the barge or rail terminal to storage buildings, enclosed with filtration systems.
A few obstacles may stand in the way of the Twin Rivers Energy Center: First is a Wiscasset height ordinance that limits any structure's height in the town to 75 feet. The gasifier plant — the actual building, not smokestacks, Houldin says — would be 230 feet tall. Residents will vote on an ordinance change in November that would exempt the power plant from the height limit. The vote will be the first test of whether Wiscasset residents are warming to the plan.
Houldin and NRE still have to negotiate with potential energy and financial partners to make the plant a reality — as well as pass through a gauntlet of regulatory red tape that includes site location permits and air emissions licenses. But Houldin realizes that without local support, the Twin Rivers plan is dead in the water. "The real question they all ask is how does the local community feel about this? How does the state of Maine feel about this?" Houldin says. "The critical step is getting the town of Wiscasset to vote whether this is a direction they want to move."
In small town politics, it doesn't always take a majority of people to derail a proposal such as this one. Sometimes a vocal minority can do significant damage. Faucher, the town manager, says people will have to decide whether a coal gasification power plant is right for Wiscasset. "If this is good for the people, it's good for Wiscasset," Faucher says. "And what is good for Wiscasset will be good for the state of Maine."
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