Proposed ‘Trojan horse’ coal plant pulls community wrong way

Dust off the history books and clean your eyeglasses: it’s time to look this coal plant “gift

horse” in the mouth.

If Highwood Generating Station (HGS) is such a boon, why was it wheeled in like a

Trojan horse, with voters losing their right to reject its funding just weeks before City

officials signed on? With no right to reject it, perhaps HGS proponents figured this

costly, risky, unhealthy coal plant could be built without a fight.

Enter Citizens for Clean Energy (CCE), a diverse mix of concerned volunteers from

many political parties and all walks of life. We’re local farmers, doctors, engineers,

business owners, teachers, homemakers and retirees, and we’ve spent hours exposing the

many trap doors to the HGS Trojan Horse and presenting testimony to federal, state and

local officials.

City Commission and Mayoral candidates need to give us honest answers before the

election. Voters should ask:

•What each of the candidates has to say about our energy future.

•Why our current City Manager is determined to seal this coal plant deal before he

retires?

•Why our future City Manager is required as a condition of employment to take up this

ill-fated cause?

•How the promised property tax revenue from the coal plant will actually be spent.

•How “cost-based” power from the coal plant will differ from mandated “cost-based”

power from Northwestern Energy (which will continue to charge for transmission no

matter who generates the electricity).

•How reliable the unregulated power supply from a single coal plant will be.

•Why HGS and Electric City Power ratepayers will not benefit from oversight by the

Public Service Commission?

The coal plant is promoted here because we have millions of gallons of water to

evaporate in the cooling towers EACH DAY, and plenty of Big Sky to contaminate

(Great Falls currently boasts the fourth cleanest air of any metropolitan area in the

country). In violation of our Growth Policy, the proposed coal plant is sited on prime

agricultural land of statewide importance and located where it will destroy the integrity of

the Lewis and Clark National Historic Landmark and obscure our most scenic vista.

The Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) fails to consider that the coal plant would

produce the annual greenhouse gas equivalent of more than 500,000 cars. The EIS clearly

acknowledges adverse impacts on soils, water resources, air quality, biological resources,

noise, recreation, cultural resources, visual impacts, traffic patterns, farmland and land

use, waste management, and health and safety. For the EIS to conclude that these impacts

would “not be significant” defies common sense and scientific reason. When I queried

the contractor Mangi Environmental to provide references so that I could independently

evaluate the data upon which these pronouncements of “insignificance” were based, I

was told that “such references are not specifically cited and are not available” and that

such determinations of significance are derived in a process that is “an art as well as a

science”.

It’s sad to see this Trojan horse is being led by paid contractors in cheerleading outfits

rather than independent governmental agencies.

Because of the limited 400-foot height of the proposed stack, variable local wind

patterns, an upper air inversion cap that often prevents adequate dispersion of

pollutants, and a baffling effect of the Highwood Mountains, a retired local

meteorologist warned that we could expect the air in Great Falls to be degraded

about 25% of the time.

Permitting agencies failed to take into consideration recently published studies that have

demonstrated the serious health effects of exposure to microscopic particulates, laden

with poisonous heavy metals such as mercury, lead, and arsenic. These germ-size

particles not only impair pulmonary function, but also circulate in the blood. I was told

that it is doubtful that the latest information (such as the study of the adverse

cardiovascular effects of fine particulate pollution published in Feb. 2007 New England

Journal of Medicine) would be factored into the decision making process, because

“government doesn’t work that fast”.

CCE feels so strongly about these issues that we have legally challenged both the air

permit issued by the Montana Department of Environmental Quality and sued the

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture and the Rural Utility Service.

It’s not that there aren’t other energy options. Governor Brian Schweitzer has

publicly called the proposed Highwood combustion coal plant “dated technology”,

and has increasingly distanced himself from this project while promoting zero

emissions coal gasification. Montana is on the threshold of further exploiting its vast

coal reserves, and if this happens, we want to be sure it is only with the least

polluting existing technology and with the proven ability to economically capture

and sequester carbon. Montanans have a constitutional right to a “clean and healthful

environment”. If coal must be used, gasification plants should be located at the mine

mouth to avoid costly transport of coal by monopolistic railroads. Before we rend open

old mines and new Superfund sites in nearby Belt and Centerville, remember that we are

still paying the environmental and financial price for last century’s mistakes just a coal

lump’s throw from Great Falls.

Because reason fails them, Southern Montana Electric’s (SME) new scare-tactic

advertisements show the lights going out in southeastern Montana if this plant isn’t built.

Rest assured that the plug will not be pulled for our neighbors: Montana is already a net

exporter of electricity, and with new wind power and gas-fired turbines, we’ll

literally be drowning in megawatts. Other rural electric cooperatives, like the one

serving nine co-ops in central Montana, have chosen not to participate in this costly,

risky coal plant; they’re not worried about their future ability to contract for power

any more than we’re worried about the electricity from Montana’s default supplier.

Many of us went to fifth grade here in Montana, where we learned how the fur trade, the

railroads and the mining industry all profited from The Treasure State at our expense.

Didn’t we learn our lesson again when Goldman Sachs made off with our dams? Now we

learn that BearSterns, another high profile Wall Street company, will try to sell bonds for

a handsome commission to hapless investors at a time when coal is in the dumps and the

likelihood of a carbon tax looms on the horizon.

Our US Senators need constant reminders of our environmental and financial concerns.

Great Falls doesn’t deserve the last old technology coal plant to be built in America. HGS

is clearly a merchant venture, far overbuilt beyond SME’s modest needs. Taxpayers

should not finance such a boondoggle through the USDA Rural Utility Service. Let’s

harness our wind, capture the sun’s energy from our blue skies, upgrade the dams, grow

biofuels, use natural gas to firm wind power, and increase efficiency.

If we hitch our wagon to SME’s Trojan horse, it will surely drag us all in the wrong

direction.

Cheryl Reichert, M.D., Ph.D.

Dr. Reichert, a Great Falls native and graduate of Great Falls High, is one of the

founders of Citizens for Clean Energy, Inc. She can be reached through cce-mt.org.