PALMER -- The Matanuska Electric Association is trying to repeal a Matanuska-Susitna Borough power plant law that utility leaders say is too restrictive.
MEA attorney Jim Walker on Monday filed a petition with the borough clerk to put a referendum repealing the power plant law on a borough ballot next year.
Walker's move was driven by a report from an MEA consultant that says complying with the new law, which requires utilities to pay for independent studies documenting emissions, noise, traffic and other impacts, would cost the utility $9 to $12 million.
The law, passed in August, was prompted largely by opposition to the utility's plans to build a 100-megawatt coal-fired power plant in the Valley.
MEA administrators have since recommended that plans for the coal plant be shelved.
But they say the law would also apply to other types of power generation, including construction of a 100-megawatt natural gas-fired plant the utility still hopes to build by 2015.
The MEA board of directors approved filing the referendum to overturn the law in a split 4 to 2 vote.
According to the Nov. 20 report for MEA, complying with the law could also delay construction of any new power plant by two-and-a-half to four years, depending on the amount of support or opposition to the plant by local lawmakers.
The report was done by The Shaw Group, a Louisiana-based company that oversees power plant design, construction and operation around the globe.
MEA selected the company because it recently shepherded a 100-megawatt natural gas plant through the regulatory process in California, where the same laws the borough adopted are in place, Babcock said.
APPLES AND ORANGES
A years-long delay and millions of dollars in added costs are too much to tack on to the permitting process for a natural-gas-fired power plant, MEA spokesman Tuckerman Babcock said.
People who asked the borough to adopt the law opposed a coal plant, but raised few objections to a gas-fired plant, he said.
Babcock said MEA wants the borough "to allow the gas plant to go forward without what we would view as a completely unnecessary cost. As far as we can tell during the public process, there was no request for the same scrutiny of a gas plant."
Borough Manager John Duffy said the study shows the utility would have to pay an initial $3 to $5 million to apply for and obtain a power plant permit.
But borough, state and federal governments also have to pay for environmental studies and permitting for transportation projects, he said.
"Power plants have been shown to have a negative effect on human health and air and water quality.
"If we know that for sure, why wouldn't you invest this kind of funding to minimize negative effects?" Duffy asked.
That said, the power plant law was aimed at regulating coal plants, he said.
He would be happy to work with MEA to develop a separate law for gas-fired plants, he said.
The MEA Board of Directors, at a special meeting at 9 a.m. Monday, voted to file for the referendum and try to overturn the law despite recent efforts by both MEA and borough officials to work together.
DISSENTER PREFERRED TALKS
"The ordinance is going to cost us a bunch of money. We want to try to get that amended so that it's better and so we can agree with the borough on a situation that would allow us to meet our requirement to provide power to the people of the Valley and Eagle River," Board president Lee Jordan said by phone Monday.
"But ... we wanted to be sure we had this option (the referendum) available to us," he said.
Jordan along with board members David Dahms, Larry DeVilbiss and David Glines voted in favor of filing the referendum.
MEA Board members Peter Burchell and Katie Hurley opposed it.
Board member Lois Lester was absent.
Burchell said he voted against the measure because he believed the borough and utility leaders could achieve more by negotiating a solution than by spending ratepayer money publicizing a ballot referendum.
Mat-Su Borough Clerk Michelle McGehee said she has two weeks in which to verify that Walker's referendum request meets state and borough guidelines.
McGehee said an unsuccessful 2005 effort to repeal a borough tobacco tax is the only other referendum she has processed.
Find Daily News reporter Rindi White online at www.adn.com/contact/rwhite or call 352-6709. FIND IT ONLINE
• The Shaw Group report outlining the cost and time required for Matanuska Electric Association to comply with the Matanuska-Susitna Borough power generation ordinance is online at mea.coop/images/stories/mea_ordinance_compliance_report_20071120.pdf. Get there through the MEA Web site, www.mea.coop. Click on the press release, "Cost of Borough's New Permit -- $10 Million" and click the "Shaw Group Report" link at the bottom of the page.
