Chafee has been
pushing hydro power from Canada as an abundant and inexpensive renewable energy
since he toured power plants in Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador in 2011.
According to the Canadian Hydropower Association, 60 percent of Canada’s electricity comes
from hydropower. Industry groups say capacity could more than double. Many
regions north of the border are aggressively building dams and courting states
in the Northeast to buy this power to help meet long-term renewable energy
benchmarks.
Chafee wants to begin procuring the power just as Massachusetts and Connecticut are doing and perhaps achieve additional cost savings through collaborative purchases.
During a May 22 Senate
hearing, Richard Licht, director of the Department of Administration, testified
on behalf of the governor. “We need to be at the table when this discussion is
going on or we’ll be left behind," he said.
But Licht was the lone
supporter.
“We’re all opposed to
this bill,” said Jerry Elmer, staff attorney for the Conservation Law
Foundation. Despite promises from Chafee, Elmer said, hydroelectricity isn't
cheap. Vermont recently signed a contract for Canadian hydropower that was 32
percent above the market rate, he noted.
Importing hydro from
existing power sources to meet Rhode Island’s green energy goals, Elmer said,
also goes against several renewable energy programs, which aim to foster local
construction of solar, wind and other renewable projects.
National Grid, he
said, can buy Canadian hydroelectricity at any time, without Chafee’s mandate.
But the state's biggest power supplier hasn't bought in, Elmer said, because of
the high price for hydro and the need for new transmission lines to deliver it
to Rhode Island.
Sandi Hennequin of
the New England Power Generators Association, the trade association for most fossil-fuel
power generators in New England, said bringing Canadian hydro to Rhode island
will require the construction of the Northern Pass, a controversial power line
project that cuts through the White Mountain National Forest in New Hampshire.
This project has sparked significant public opposition, as well as objections
from the New Hampshire Legislature for the need to use eminent domain. The
power transmission project is expected to take years to resolve, Hennequin
said.
At the recent hearing,
Sen. Stephen Archambault, D-Smithfield, said the action by the New Hampshire
Legislature effectively kills any chance to bring Canadian hydro energy to
Rhode Island. “Without the power of eminent domain ... how are you going to
complete the project? You can’t,” Archambault said.
In early May, Chafee
said Canadian hydroelectric power would not travel on existing transmission
lines and thus not connect through the Northern Pass. His office admitted
Wednesday that Chafee misspoke and that it is unclear if new utility lines would
be necessary to deliver the electricity.
National Grid called
the governor’s proposal a mandate, saying it weakens the energy supplier’s
ability to negotiate for electricity and keep prices lower for customers. “At
the end of the day people aren’t going to complain to anybody but us because we
are sending out the bill,” said Michael Ryan, vice president of government
affairs for National Grid.
Other opponents
speaking at the hearing included People’s Power & Light, the New England
Power Generators Association, Excelon, the Environment Council of Rhode Island,
Real Goods Solar, Northeast Solar & Wind, the Sierra Club, Clean Water
Action, Clean Economy Development, New England Clean Energy Council and Handy
Law.
There also was broad
support for Sen. Susan Sosnowski’s, D-South Kingstown, bill (H938) to extend the pilot program that has helped
launch large wind- and solar-energy projects in the state. National Grid was
one exception. Ryan said the distributed generation (DG) contracts program,
which allows fixed pricing for new renewable projects, should pause for a year
after the program ends Dec. 31, 2014. Expanding the program would cost
ratepayers some $285 million, he said.
Elmer and others noted
that the DG program has been a tremendous success. New projects have been
launched while the cost to ratepayers for wind and solar has dropped.
California, Iowa and Oregon are copying it, he said.
Ryan's cost estimates
don't include the economic benefits of a growing renewable energy sector. Many
local developers said Rhode Island is well behind Massachusetts and Connecticut
in the renewable energy business.
Every megawatt of new
renewable energy creates 400 new jobs, said Julian Dash of Clean Economy
Development. “The day this bill passes is the day new jobs get created,” he
said.
Both bills were held
for further study.