The Lobster Boat vs. The Coal Freighter as Climate Activists Blockade Power Plant
In a David vs. Goliath scenario the Henry David T. puts itself between Energy Enterprise and New England's largest coal plant
Brayton Point Power Station is featured in the film. From Conservation Law Foundation:
“On Monday, Conservation Law Foundation cheered the news that New England’s largest coal plant, Brayton Point Station in Somerset, Massachusetts, will shut down by 2017. Brayton Point has loomed over Somerset and neighboring environmental justice communities on the South Shore for nearly 50 years, belching pollution into the air and destroying wildlife in Mt. Hope Bay.
Many organizations have protested the plant over the years, and many are claiming victory as well as credit for its decision to shut down. We thought you would like to know the leading role CLF has played on the long path to this outcome.
- For over 20 years, CLF has held Brayton Point’s owners accountable for cleaning up the air and water pollution it causes. CLF’s legal pressure forced Brayton Point to install modern pollution controls that significantly reduced toxic emissions into the air and their dire health impacts, and ended the dumping of billions of gallons of superheated water into Mt. Hope Bay every year.
- In February 2013, CLF, along with our community organizing partners Toxics Action Center and Clean Water Action, sued its then owner Dominion for ongoing violations of the Clean Air Act. Despite the upgrades to the plant, it continues to pollute the air. A report issued last August estimated that even in 2012, Brayton Point’s emissions were responsible for a myriad of health problems from asthma attacks to as many as 39 premature deaths. The litigation is ongoing.
- Also in February, 2013, CLF released a report exposing Brayton Point’s financial vulnerability. Entitled Dark Days Ahead, the report showed that a perfect storm of factors – including low natural gas prices – spelled imminent doom for the plant. The report sent a warning signal to prospective buyers of the plant, which was purchased by private equity firm Energy Capital Partners in March.
- CLF, Toxics Action Center and Clean Water Action, have been working closely with members of the Somerset community to plan for a future without Brayton Point. No plant closing can be truly celebrated without a viable plan to ensure a just transition to a healthier future.
The End of Coal in New England
Brayton Point’s decision to shut down by 2017 is a harbinger of things to come in New England’s aging coal fleet. As the region’s biggest and most modern coal plant, with the lowest cost of production, it’s safe to say that if Brayton Point can’t survive, then none of its older, less efficient counterparts can.
One by one, our region’s oldest and biggest polluters are succumbing to the market and the march of technology:
Somerset Station, Somerset, MA, SHUT DOWN
AES Thames, Montville, CT, SHUT DOWN
Salem Harbor Station, Salem, MA, Will SHUT DOWN in 2014
Brayton Point, Somerset, MA, Will SHUT DOWN by 2017
Mt. Tom Station, Holyoke, MA, Expected to SHUT DOWN by 2016
Bridgeport Harbor Station, Bridgeport, CT, Running at 4% capacity
Schiller Station, Portsmouth, NH, Running at 12% capacity
Merrimack Station, Bow, NH, Running at 35% capacity*
AES Thames, Montville, CT, SHUT DOWN
Salem Harbor Station, Salem, MA, Will SHUT DOWN in 2014
Brayton Point, Somerset, MA, Will SHUT DOWN by 2017
Mt. Tom Station, Holyoke, MA, Expected to SHUT DOWN by 2016
Bridgeport Harbor Station, Bridgeport, CT, Running at 4% capacity
Schiller Station, Portsmouth, NH, Running at 12% capacity
Merrimack Station, Bow, NH, Running at 35% capacity*
CLF is on the case on all of New England’s remaining coal plants. Our advocacy calls upon a portfolio of highly effective strategies, from targeted litigation to hold coal plant owners’ feet to the fire to control illegal emissions, to robust participation in the Public Utilities Commissions’ decision-making processes, to a seat at the table in planning for the future of our electric grid. As we have for decades, CLF is applying pressure at the right times and in all the right places to achieve our goal of a Coal Free New England by 2020 – or sooner, with your help.
New England’s remaining coal plants are on the brink. Please consider making a gift today to continue our quest for a Coal Free New England as we pursue a clean energy future. Together, we can end coal’s dirty legacy for good.
Sincerely,
N. Jonathan Peress
VP, Director, Clean Energy and Climate Change”
http://www.thedirtytruthaboutcoal.com/?p=458N. Jonathan Peress
VP, Director, Clean Energy and Climate Change”
What will the Brayton Point of the future look like? New study offers options
By Michael Holtzman
The Herald-News
The Herald-News
Posted Mar. 4, 2016 at 6:18 PM
SOMERSET — Any beliefs that the town could replace the Brayton Point power plant with another large plant to produce similar tax revenues and needed power for the region are “myths,” according to a report by an energy and environmental consulting firm released Thursday.
“We will show that cleaner, healthier alternatives for the waterfront Brayton Point site, such as a Clean Energy Hub scenario … are entirely feasible,” wrote Synapse Energy Economics Inc. in Cambridge.
A coalition of clean energy advocates hired Synapse with $55,000 available from a legal settlement with Brayton Point’s prior owner.
The 1,600-megawatt power plant — the largest and cleanest-burning coal-fired plant in New England — is slated to close by June 1, 2017.
The findings and impacts in the 31-page report were summarized by representatives of the Coalition for Clean Air South Coast, Clean Water Action, Toxics Action Center and the Coalition for Social Justice,.
Facing the power plant and cooling towers on a small beachy area, leaders and members told the gathered media and a few interested residents that the findings are an opportunity to attract clean energy developers aided by support from the public and officials to alter priorities for fossil fuel generation that pollutes the environment.
“Somerset is at a crossroads,” said Toxics Action’s Sylvia Broude. “Brayton Point can become a regional and national model for converting outdated, polluting facilities into a clean energy hub in ways that will benefit the community.”
The Synapse Energy report, titled “Reimaging Brayton Point,” describes a variety of uses for Brayton Point, including as an onshore transmission site for wind power generated far offshore and carried by underwater lines.
Accommodating up to 2,000 megawatts of offshore wind would require an estimated $20 million infrastructure cost. That would compare with potentially $1.3 billion to covert Brayton Point to a natural gas plant, the report says.
Examining and recommending “what’s next for Brayton Point,” the report says a Clean Energy Hub “should be at the top of any list of potential options” for the 234-acre site on Mount Hope Bay.
Such a site could also be used for solar photovoltaic systems, food waste digesters, battery storage and connections to large amounts of offshore wind, the report concludes.
Battery storage is being developed in Massachusetts as reserve power, Sarah Jackson, Synapse Energy lead author, said in a phone interview.
The concept is to store massive batteries in containers the size of tractor-trailers that could be paired as reserve energy with renewable resources like wind and solar power for when winds are gentle and the sun is not shining, Jackson said.
What’s key to its stance is that nationally, “climate change is at the forefront of our decision-making in planning for the future.” Coastal communities like Somerset are particularly affected, the report says.
Tapping a recent six-month effort by the Massachusetts Energy Center to provide town citizens and the region with the most feasible reuses of the privately held power plant and site, Synapse Energy refuted one key recommendation of the prior report.
“There is no immediate need — and certainly no overwhelming benefit — to rush to build a large new gas-fired unit in the place of the retiring coal plant,” it concluded.
It cited the “fraction” of revenues produced by a rebuilding of Salem Harbor’s retired coal plant in that small city for saying “there is no need for a large new power plant to replace the power being generated by Brayton Point.”
It also said that on a per-megawatt basis, renewable resources generating electricity creates more jobs than natural gas, which produces the fewest.
Somerset’s Pauline Rodrigues, representing the Coalition for Clean Air South Coast, addressed the Clean Energy Center feasibility study conducted over several months by Ninigret Partners in Providence.
“We were very disappointed in the results. We wanted something positive that the town and citizens can work with,” she said, and that would present attractive options for developers to work with the Brayton Point owners.
Options for development could be facilitated by legislation and grants, she said.
Rodrigues said she appreciates the CEC and state Rep. Patricia Haddad, D-Somerset, for procuring funding for that prior study done last year.
With pending omnibus bill energy legislation coordinated and filed by Haddad at a key juncture this month, Becky Smith’s Clean Water Action in Massachusetts has gathered some 1,500 signatures on postcards they plan to present to Gov. Charlie Baker this week.
The message calls on Baker to prioritize renewable energy over polluting power plants, not make the state “over-reliant on gas” and support communities and workers where power plants have closed, such as Brayton Point and Somerset Station (which closed six years ago).
While power plant tax revenues continuing to drop dramatically, potential future benefits could include the improved uses along 12 miles of shoreline along Mount Hope Bay and the Taunton River. With Somerset Station’s 40 acres, it totals more than 270 acres, according to Smith.
It’s also “an economic engine” for the town and the region, Smith said.
Ken Figuerado of Swansea, a real estate company owner who bought an investment home on the bay facing Brayton Point, said he thought helping workers about to lose their jobs from the plant closing should be top priority for town leaders.
Jackson, the lead Synapse Energy author among eight listed on the report, said they followed the CEC report “and built off of it to see what’s the potential.”
It’s “mainly an educational piece” to help local residents and others “understand what the options are.” She said her nonprofit, nonpartisan company established 20 years ago worked independently while knowing the coalition’s priorities.
The report also explained that far offshore wind developer Deepwater Wind has proposed a project near Block Island and would commit to a payment in lieu of taxes agreement with impacted communities.
The “best chance” of regaining “significant tax revenues” after Brayton Point closes in 15 months is to negotiate a strong tax agreement with owners of whatever new resources are built on the site, the report also concludes.
Synapse Energy Economics Inc. author Sarah Jackson will deliver a full-scale presentation of the “Reimagining Brayton Point” report on March 15 at 6:30 p.m. at the Amvets Hall, 659 Brayton Ave. The public is invited.
http://www.southcoasttoday.com/article/20160304/NEWS/160309661/101061/NEWSLETTER100
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