Whitefield Power Asks For State Financial Help

By David Darman on Wednesday, June 4, 2003.

listen:

One of New Hampshire's five wood burning power plants is asking lawmakers for financial help.

The Senate is scheduled to consider a bill tomorrow that would bail out the Whitefield plant.

But even if the bill passes, it?s not certain that the plant will stay open.

NHPR?s David Darman has more.

Whitefield Power & Light generates electricity by burning wood chips.
Plant manager Douglas York says the plant has tried to sell the power it generates on the open market.

But he says its been tough going, because New Hampshire no longer subsidizes renewable power plants.
10 13 ?its hard for us to compete against large coal, natural gas, and other plants. ?So, basically, we?re out there selling our power at the same rates that gas turbines and coal plants sell theirs. 10 49

Company officials have told the Legislature about their problems.

And the House passed a bill in March that would take a small part of the rates electric customers pay to subsidize Whitefield.
Loggers and timberland owners back the plan.

Jasen Stock of the New Hampshire Timberland Owners Association says its necessary, to keep the plant open.

He says the plant is important because its one of the few buyers of low grade wood.
O5 511? Those plants burn wood that is not suitable for turning into lumber or veneer, and, the wood that they burn, in many instances, its trees that are crooked, they are poor quality, poor genetics, diseased or dying trees, and these plants are a market for that wood. Without them, landowners and foresters would be hard pressed to perform sustainable forestry in the forest of new Hampshire. 05 556

The Senate Finance Committee passed the House Bill with only slight changes.

That bill is now scheduled to go before the full Senate.

But Douglas York of Whitefield Power warns the current bill won?t keep the plant from closing.

He says he?s counting on a last minute effort to save his plant.
11 19 ?There are efforts in the senate to amend that bill and keep it usable for us. If they are successful in amending the bill and it goes to conference and those amendments are passed by both houses then whitefield will stay open. But the bill in its present form will not keep the plant open. 11 43

Whitefield?s threat to shut down the plant worries lawmakers in the northern part of the state.

Senator John Gallus of Berlin says the market for low grade wood has been depressed for a while.

And closing Whitefield would force the price of that wood even lower.

He says the situation had just begun to get better, with the recent re-opening of the Berlin pulp mill.

Gallus is set to sponsor the amendment in the senate that would satisfy Whitefield?s owners.

Gallus says he?s doing it to preserve jobs for the loggers and foresters who depend on the plant.
17 128 ?if we start losing these wood fired plants, we lose part of that low grade wood market, which we need, to keep the logging industry intact. And So, we need something, a bill that?s palatable to the plant operators, to keep the plant in operation. And house bill 787 as its set coming out of the house doesn?t seem to do that. ?17 210

The rising ante to assure Whitefield?s continuing operation has caught the attention of Michael Holmes.

He?s the Consumer Advocate of the Public Utilities Commission.

Holmes says the state owes nothing to the owners of Whitefield Power and Light.
He says Whitefield?s owners profited for years in New Hampshire by selling power for far more than it would have cost on the open market.

And Holmes says Public Service of New Hampshire paid 50 million dollars in 2002 to buy out Whitefield?s very profitable contract.

Most of that money came from bonds that ratepayers are still paying off.
29 50 so after we did that, basically payed them off for the exorbitant rates we owed them in the future, they pocketed that money and they?ve turned around and they?ve said, ?woe is me?. We can?t make it. Give us another couple of bites of the apple. Subsidize us a little further. And I just don?t think that?s fair to ratepayers. It hasn?t been fair, its not fair, and it won?t be fair. 29 114

Whitefield officials say no matter what happens in the Senate, they will probably keep the plant open through the summer.

In the meantime, at least one power company is investigating the idea of producing electricity by burning wood.

Public Service of New Hampshire is studying the idea for its plant in Newmarket.